{"id":466592,"date":"2026-05-03T15:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/466592\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T15:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:55:14","slug":"why-a-rowing-machine-session-benefits-you-more-than-other-common-forms-of-cardio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/466592\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a Rowing Machine Session Benefits You More Than Other Common Forms of Cardio"},"content":{"rendered":"

The humble row machine<\/a> can often be overlooked, gathering dust in the corner of the gym. But, with its inclusion in fitness races like HYROX<\/a>, it\u2019s making a bit of a comeback.<\/p>\n

That’s because the rower can supercharge your cardio routine<\/a>. Below, we break down rowing machine benefits:<\/p>\n

What Are a Rowing Machine\u2019s Benefits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most intense cardio workouts, the rower<\/a> is an absolute beast when it comes to boosting your VO\u2082 max<\/a> , the efficiency with which your heart is able to pump oxygen to your muscles during exercise.<\/p>\n

Rowing makes multiple big muscles (legs<\/a>, hips<\/a>, core<\/a>, back,<\/a> and arms<\/a>) work all at once, so your heart and lungs need to pump a lot of oxygen-rich blood every stroke,\u201d explains fitness warrior and Tactical Athlete<\/a> Farren Morgan.<\/p>\n

In one eight-week study<\/a> from 2021, beginners rowed three times a week (two steady 30-minute rows and one high-intensity interval session) with their VO\u2082 max rising about 10 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the rower can load the entire body very quickly, it pushes fitness to the limit,\u201d says Morgan. In another study<\/a> from 1995, elite athletes reached the same peak VO\u2082 on both a rowing machine and a bike, proving the rower can take the heart-and-lung system right to its ceiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rower allows you to work at very high intensities, one of the main reasons being that you aren\u2019t restricted by your physical body weight like with running,\u201d says Cameron Harris, managing director at Truth Fitness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris gives the example of a person 22 pounds overweight going for a run. It’s likely that the pounding through the knees will cause the runner to tap out before their lungs go. Not so with the rower.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this example, the runner\u2019s heart, lungs and VO\u2082 max haven\u2019t been positively impacted as they haven’t been taken to their maximum capacity, but rowing allows us to get our heart rate up to 92 percent plus of max, and hold it there for much longer. This is when VO\u2082 max increases.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Muscles Does Rowing Help Build?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rowing is an all-rounder. An electromyography study<\/a> from 2023 recorded the activity of athletes’s individual muscles while they were rowing, finding that the activity engages 80\u201385 percent of the body\u2019s main muscles\u2014far more than treadmill running<\/a>, or using the cross trainer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The humble row machine can often be overlooked, gathering dust in the corner of the gym. But, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[13364,18,19,17,82,1715,2555,8076],"class_list":{"0":"post-466592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-digital_syndication","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-technology","13":"tag-textbelowcenterfullbleed","14":"tag-wellness","15":"tag-working-out"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116511462395130807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}