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Pre-COVID, I would use the gym at work at the end of my day, and they had two water rowers. I must have been using them wrong, because I was pretty out of shap

Pre-COVID, I would use the gym at work at the end of my day, and they had two water rowers. I must have been using them wrong, because I was pretty out of shape (5'8", 240 lbs), and I found that even with the rower set to the highest resistance, I could easily go 20+ minutes and my heart rate never got very high. Meanwhile, I'd struggle to jog a 13-minute mile. With each stroke, I began with my knees bent, arms straight in front of me, with the row handle almost fully retracted, and ended with knees straight, leaning back, handle pulled completely to my chest. My resting heart rate is about 90 bpm, and on the rower, it was only getting to ~130 bpm. I felt like I wasn't accomplishing much and used the stair machine for my cardio instead. There, my heartrate would be 160-180 bpm, and I'd usually climb for ~10 minutes, doing 20-30 floors, though I did hit 100 floors twice. Sadly, since COVID made me go remote, I haven't been to a gym. I miss that feeling of pride and accomplishment I'd get from setting the 100-floor goal on the stairs and hitting it. I plan on going back once Oregon lifts the mask mandates. Exercising with a mask is absolutely awful.

marvin 5y ago
That's weird. What happened when you went flat-out on these machines? Did you just end up doing 200 strokes per minute with each of them having the resistance of a greased water slide? Doesn't sound like they did their job. I have a Concept2 rowing machine at home, and even at the middle resistance setting, blacking out from going too hard is just a matter of willpower, so to speak. The resistance increases with speed.
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  Yeah, if I went flat-out, I'd end up moving fast with no resistance, and I would spend more effort pulling myself back towards the machine to begin my next row than actually rowing. Based on a sibling comment, there probably wasn't enough water in it, but I seem to remember a fill line being on it, and it was up to that line, but it's also been two years, so shrug.
drewg123 5y ago
How much water was in it? That's the only way to change resistance on the one that I have. How did you change the resistance for the one in the gym? FWIW, my resting heart rate is now in the 50s, and I get my heart rate up to between 150bpm and 170bpm, depending on how hard I push. EDIT: My ex wife had a hard time getting her heart rate up on a rower. She'd be miserable and out of breath, but her HR never got up above 120 or so.. I never figured out what the problem was. I always thought it was too much resistance, but changing the resistance is a pain, so she just moved on to other exercises..
- Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
  The one at my gym had a dial to adjust resistance. It did something to change how the water inside moved around, I think. I tried googling "water rower" to find the model, and I couldn't find it. I can say that it was different from most water rowers I'm finding though. Most of them have the water tank horizontal, while the one I used had it vertical. It looked very similar to this: https://sunnyhealthfitness.com/products/water-rowing-machine-sf-rw5809 https://sunnyhealthfitness.com/products/water-rowing-machine... EDIT: Actually, it more closely resembled this one: https://firstdegreefitness.com/shop/fluidrower/vx-2/ https://firstdegreefitness.com/shop/fluidrower/vx-2/
DwnVoteHoneyPot 5y ago
I had same issue. It was difficult to get the heart rate up on a rower. The key is to put the resistance down! (You mentioned putting the resistance to highest setting). At a higher resistance setting, my back muscles would fatigue before my heart rate went up. By reducing resistance, stroke rate will go up, less muscles fatigue and more cardio.

marvin 5y ago

That's weird. What happened when you went flat-out on these machines? Did you just end up doing 200 strokes per minute with each of them having the resistance of a greased water slide? Doesn't sound like they did their job. I have a Concept2 rowing machine at home, and even at the middle resistance setting, blacking out from going too hard is just a matter of willpower, so to speak. The resistance increases with speed.

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
Yeah, if I went flat-out, I'd end up moving fast with no resistance, and I would spend more effort pulling myself back towards the machine to begin my next row than actually rowing. Based on a sibling comment, there probably wasn't enough water in it, but I seem to remember a fill line being on it, and it was up to that line, but it's also been two years, so shrug.

drewg123 5y ago

How much water was in it? That's the only way to change resistance on the one that I have. How did you change the resistance for the one in the gym? FWIW, my resting heart rate is now in the 50s, and I get my heart rate up to between 150bpm and 170bpm, depending on how hard I push. EDIT: My ex wife had a hard time getting her heart rate up on a rower. She'd be miserable and out of breath, but her HR never got up above 120 or so.. I never figured out what the problem was. I always thought it was too much resistance, but changing the resistance is a pain, so she just moved on to other exercises..

Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
The one at my gym had a dial to adjust resistance. It did something to change how the water inside moved around, I think. I tried googling "water rower" to find the model, and I couldn't find it. I can say that it was different from most water rowers I'm finding though. Most of them have the water tank horizontal, while the one I used had it vertical. It looked very similar to this: https://sunnyhealthfitness.com/products/water-rowing-machine-sf-rw5809 https://sunnyhealthfitness.com/products/water-rowing-machine... EDIT: Actually, it more closely resembled this one: https://firstdegreefitness.com/shop/fluidrower/vx-2/ https://firstdegreefitness.com/shop/fluidrower/vx-2/

DwnVoteHoneyPot 5y ago

I had same issue. It was difficult to get the heart rate up on a rower. The key is to put the resistance down! (You mentioned putting the resistance to highest setting). At a higher resistance setting, my back muscles would fatigue before my heart rate went up. By reducing resistance, stroke rate will go up, less muscles fatigue and more cardio.