Peloton has taken aggressive efforts to hold its position as one of the top fitness companies in the world. Besides expanding its rental program and officially selling both apparel and gear on Amazon, Peloton announced its first rowing machine, the Peloton Row. While it won’t be released until December, the Peloton Row is already available for preorder.
For most people, walking is their primary method of getting around. It’s natural and easy to do. Riding a bike is also something many people have done since childhood. Rowing, however, is an activity that most would need to learn how to do in order for it to be beneficial. You can do more harm than good trying to row with poor form. Since it isn’t a natural, intuitive activity like walking, running or biking, rowing tends to get overlooked as an exercise.
When executed with proper form, rowing is one of the best exercises you can do. It’s a full-body workout that engages all the major muscle groups with every stroke. It’s also a low-impact exercise that’s great for your heart. In fact, one of the best ways to gauge your overall fitness is to do a 2,000-meter row for time. If you’re serious about fitness, rowing should be at least part of your workout regimen.
Peloton Row will have all the interactive features you’ve come to expect from the company, such as great music, motivational workouts, exercising at your own level and smooth, quiet operation. However, it will also teach form, so you can get the most out of each and every workout while diminishing your chance of injury, and it has a swivel screen so you can hop off the machine to perform other exercises without missing a beat. And, possibly best of all, it folds up flat against a wall for storage, making it a good fit for nearly any home or apartment.
The Peloton Row starts at $3,195 and requires an additional $44/month subscription for a Peloton All-Access Membership.
If the high-end Peloton is out of your budget or you don’t want to wait until 2023 to start getting fit, here are some more affordable rowing machines you can get right now:
Hydrow Rower
Arguably one of the best rowing machines available, the Hydrow uses a patented electromagnetic drag technology to mimic the feel of rowing out on the water. With a paid membership, you have access to a library of over 4,000 workouts.
Sold by Hydrow.com
The ergonomic design of this resistance machine helps with proper hip and spine alignment. The 22-inch screen features scenic waterway workouts from around the world. The unit folds for storage.
Sold by Dick's Sporting Goods
NordicTrack offers real-time coach controls that allow trainers to auto-adjust your machine's digital resistance to get the most out of each session. Users can also control manual air resistance to increase workout intensity as desired.
Sold by NordicTrack
Sunny Health & Fitness Row-N-Ride Trainer
For something a little different, this Row-N-Ride machine turns your exercise vertical, so you can add a little gravity to the mix. It creates a hybrid workout that’s part rowing, part squats so you can get in an intense session while reducing the pressure on your knees.
Sold by Amazon
LifeSpan RW1000 Indoor Rowing Machine
The LifeSpan RW1000 is a smooth-operating, ultra-quiet rower with five levels of resistance. The streamlined console shows distance, time, calories, stroke count and strokes per minute, and the unit folds up for convenient storage.
Sold by Amazon
This magnetic rower has an aluminum beam with ball-bearing rollers for smooth and quiet operation. It offers eight levels of magnetic resistance and has pivoting footplates for a wider range of motion.
Sold by Dick's Sporting Goods
Sunny Health & Fitness Rowing Machine
If budget is your primary concern, this entry-level rower is a solid choice. The elastic cord provides dual-directional resistance and has four levels of tension. The console displays all the essential stats to gauge the effectiveness of each workout.
Sold by Amazon
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
