The best rowing machines
- A rowing machine allows you to reap the benefits of a high-cardio, low-impact, muscle-strengthening, and calorie-burning sport from the comfort of your home.
- There are typically four variations of rowing machine: Water resistance, air resistance, magnetic resistance, and hydraulic resistance, each of which offers their own benefits and drawbacks.
- We've rounded up the best of each category (along with a budget pick) to help you decide which is best for your fitness goals and lifestyle.
- The Concept2 Model D Indoor Rowing Machine nabbed our top spot thanks to its durable construction, comfortable design, and smooth-running air resistance flywheel.
Rowing machines offer a full-body workout capable of burning hundreds of calories — depending on your weight — in just 30 minutes. If 30 minutes seems too long a session, slowly build up to it by gliding along while listening to a podcast or watching a video.
This low-impact, high-cardio exercise is suitable for people from high school and college competitors to retirees in their 60s, 70s, or 80s.
What to look for in a row machine
With many different kinds of rowing machines out there, it's important to examine each model to choose one that best fits your needs and keeps you motivated and injury-free. You'll want to consider features like:
- Resistance: Different types of resistance include magnetic (electromagnets slow the erg's metal flywheel), air (wind from the spinning flywheel creates drag), hydraulic (resistance is created by hydraulic fluid in a piston or two connected to the erg's handles), and water (the flywheel pushes against water in a tank).
- Size: The machine should be large enough for you to straighten your legs and maintain proper rowing form, yet small enough to fit into your workout space.
- Maximum user weight capacity: Models vary in how much they support but many accommodate 220 to 265 pounds or more.
- Foldability: Some machines (usually magnetic and hydraulic resistance) fold up for easy storage, while others (often air and water resistance) don't.
- Monitor: A monitor or computer tracks information like distance, duration, speed, and/or calories burned while rowing.
- Seat: It should be contoured and large enough to keep your backside comfortable while allowing you to maintain proper form.
How to row with good form
To get the most out of your workouts and avoid injury, remember that proper rowing form consists of an initial drive phase followed by a recovery phase. Here's how to execute it:
- For the drive, start first with your legs and once those are extended and your back is vertical, use your arms to pull the handle into your body. Your finished position should be your legs fully extended, the rower's handle pulled into your body with your wrists in line with your forearms. From here, you'll move onto recovery.
- The first step of recovery is to straighten your arms and pivot your body from your hips, making sure to avoid hunching forward or bending backward. This fluid motion will then have your legs flexing in until your shins are completely vertical.
Finally, don't think of this exercise as a race. Focus on perfecting your form, not on how fast you can row.
Here are the best rowing machines:
- Best rowing machine overall: Concept2 Model D Indoor Rowing Machine
- Best budget rowing machine: Stamina Body Trac Glider 1050 Rowing Machine
- Best high-end rowing machine: Ergatta Connected Rower
- Best water resistance rowing machine: WaterRower Natural Rowing Machine
- Best magnetic resistance rowing machine: Sunny Health & Fitness (SF-RW5515) Magnetic Rowing Machine
- Best dual resistance rowing machine: NordicTrack RW900
Updated on 7/9/2020 by Rick Stella: Added the NordicTrack RW900 as the best dual resistance rowing machine, updated the sections on how to row properly and what to look for in a row machine, checked the availability of each pick, and updated the prices, formatting, and links throughout.
The best rowing machine overall
Amazon
The Concept2 Model D Indoor Rowing Machine brings the gym to your home with its sturdy build, smooth gliding action, comfortable design, and superb quality.
The Concept2 Model D Indoor Rowing Machine features solid aluminum front legs, steel rear legs, a flywheel with air resistance, and a maximum user weight capacity of 500 pounds, making it our top pick.
Essential for executing powerful and uninterrupted strokes, the Model D 's flywheel has a damper for adjusting its air resistance, granting you complete control of the resistance yourself. The harder and faster you row, the more wind the flywheel generates and the more drag you'll feel.
With an air resistance rowing machine, you'd expect a bit of noise, however, the Model D runs fairly quiet. Although not completely silent, it's quiet enough for rowers to listen to music or watch television at a normal volume during workouts.
The easy-to-read performance monitor (PM5) tracks stroke rate, calories expended, distance, pace, and watts. It has several built-in programmable workouts and games to motivate you during a workout. The rower' also quick and easy to assemble and disassemble, and can be taken apart and rolled for storage.
Although the Model D isn't inexpensive, it's a worthwhile investment in your health and comes with limited five- and two-year warranties.
Pros: Smooth gliding operation, ease of assembly, large size to accommodate tall people
Cons: Pricey and requires a bit of space (9 feet by 4 feet) but worth it
The best budget rowing machine
Amazon
At a very reasonable price, the Stamina BodyTrac Glider 1050 Rowing Machine offers a versatile workout with its independently moving arms and smooth hydraulic resistance for continuous rowing action.
The Stamina BodyTrac Glider 1050 Rowing Machine is small but mighty — and an excellent value at $120. Although it's compact and quiet, this hydraulic resistance rowing machine provides a big workout with a smooth-gliding padded seat and separate arms for a full-body workout.
What makes the BodyTrac Glider so special is its versatility in arm movements. Unlike many models where you pull a single handle attached to a chain or cord, this erg has two arms that allow for a full range of motion and mimic real boat-rowing movements.
This means you can row forward or backward, move your arms in circular directions, pull the handles close together for a conventional stroke, or hold the grips apart to exercise different arm, shoulder, and upper back muscles. Because the arms operate independently of each other, you're able to focus a workout on each arm individually.
Sturdy with a steel frame and aluminum center beam, the BodyTrac Glider supports up to 250 pounds. It assembles easily and folds up for storage, as well. The single hydraulic piston/cylinder is located under the unit for convenient adjustment with a manual control dial.
The machine is able to maintain a variety of consistent levels of resistance for roughly 30 minutes of hard rowing. As with most hydraulic rowers, fluid in the hydraulic piston heats up, which decreases resistance. When this happens, you'll need to pause and increase the resistance setting. Always make sure you turn the control dial itself and not the heated piston/cylinder. Another downside to hydraulic resistance models is the chance of the piston leaking oil.
The BodyTrac Glider also has a simple and easy-to-use monitor, which features more functions than you'd expect on a machine this affordable.
Pros: Low price, independent arms for a full range of movement, and ease of assembly and folding
Cons: Resistance declines as piston heats up during long rowing sessions; short warranty (90 days for parts/one year for frame)
The best high-end rowing machine
The Ergatta Connected Rower combines the rush of video game racing with the fitness benefits of a full-body exercise to deliver one of the most interactive rowing machines available.
Like similar smart fitness equipment from brands such as Peloton or NordicTrack, the Ergatta Connected Rower utilizes a giant on-board screen to display its on-demand workouts and exercises. But unlike its aforementioned peers, the workouts aren't led by an instructor belting out the next movement or exercise but are instead comprised of a series of video game-inspired routines that prove just as motivating as those high-energy classes.
What this means is that the Connected Rower pits you against the machine for its goal-based plans and interval workouts, while also allowing you to compete against other Ergatta users in simulated races. Regardless of the event, the software delivers an addictive experience that drives you to want to continuously do better. Fitness trackers found a way to gamify daily fitness and the Connected Rower follows the same path.
The physical rower is an aesthetic wonder, too. Made of Cherry wood and featuring traditional water rowing mechanism, Ergatta clearly intended for the rower to be more than just a means for getting fit — it wanted the rower to also pleasing both in terms of look and feel. The water rowers soothing swoosh of water adds to an already enjoyable experience, as well.
Perhaps its one downside is the fact the rower's not cheap. But since few interactive workout machines like are, this isn't entirely surprising. After an initial $2,000 price tag for the machine, there's a recurring $27 fee for access to the library of on-demand classes (which is also par for the smart workout machine course).
In all, the Ergatta Connected Rower delivers a full-body workout disguised as an interactive gaming experience — and it's one of the most enjoyable we've tested.
Pros: Motivating video game-inspired workout platform, beautiful design, features a folding design for easy stowing
Cons: Expensive
Check out our review of the Ergatta Connected Rower here
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