What Is the Resistance on a Rowing Machine?

Engaging nearly 90% of your muscle groups while working out, rowing machines are becoming a popular option for many home fitness enthusiasts. While for those new to rowing, one question arose: what is the resistance on a rowing machine and how can you choose the one that suits your fitness goals?

In this article, we’ll introduce what rowing machine resistance is and how it works. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned rower, understanding the resistance will help you optimize your workout and more importantly, avoid common mistakes.

What Is Resistance on a Rowing Machine?

Resistance on a rowing machine refers to the force that you need to overcome to complete a stroke. It affects the difficulty you have to work to complete each rowing session. Higher resistance makes it challenging to finish each stroke, which simulates the feeling of rowing through water. While lower resistance is easier, allowing you to row more quickly or for longer periods.

It is essential to understand the resistance on a rowing machine. This allows you to tailor your workout to specific fitness goals, whether it is to burn calories, build muscle, or improve cardiovascular health.

Types of Resistance on Rowing Machines

Different types of rowing machines use different kinds of resistance mechanisms to vary your workout intensity. Let’s take a closer look at the 4 common ones:

Air Resistance

It is created through a flywheel (the large fan-like component you’ll often see on rowing machines). The harder you row, the faster the flywheel spins, which increases the resistance. It’s like rowing against the wind: the faster you row, the more resistance you encounter.

Benefits: Air resistance provides a natural, progressive resistance curve, which indicates that the harder you row, the more resistance you face. And the resistance level will adjust automatically as your rowing intensity changes.

Drawbacks: The flywheel can be noisy, especially when you increase resistance. And it is larger and requires more space.

Water Resistance

Water resistance systems use a tank filled with water and paddles inside. As you row, the paddles push against the water, which generates resistance. The resistance level depends on your speed and intensity.

Benefits: It offers a smooth and natural rowing experience. Besides, it’s often quieter than air resistance and provides a more realistic feeling of rowing on water.

Drawbacks: It is more expensive and requires you to check the water clearance and water levels every once in a while.

Magnetic Resistance

This kind of resistance is created by changing the distance between a magnetic brake and the flywheel. As you adjust the resistance knob, the magnetic force increases or decreases, making it harder or easier to row.

Benefits: Magnetic resistance is very smooth, quiet, and easy to adjust, which is ideal for those living in a shared environment. The resistance level is constant and will not change as your workout intensity changes.

Drawback: It can’t provide such a natural rowing motion or maximum resistance levels as water or air resistance does. 

Hydraulic Resistance

It uses pistons filled with fluid or air to create resistance as you row. As you pull the handle, the fluid or air is compressed through the piston, creating resistance.

Benefits: Hydraulic rowing machines are typically compact, making them excellent for smaller spaces. They’re also affordable compared to other types of rowing machines.

Drawback: You can’t enjoy such a natural rowing workout as other rowing machines. And it tends to have a smaller range of resistance than air or water models.

How Resistance Affects Your Workout

The resistance on a rowing machine impacts your workout intensity and the muscles worked. Understanding how resistance affects your performance  helps you better take advantage of it:

• Higher Resistance = Harder Strokes: Requiring more strength to row, it is excellent for building muscle, particularly in the legs, core, back, and arms.
• Lower Resistance = Faster, Longer Rows: Row at a lower resistance allows you to increase your stroke rate (how fast you row) and row for a longer duration. This is perfect for improving cardiovascular health, burning calories, and building endurance.

The level of resistance you should choose depends on your fitness goals. If your goal is weight loss, lower resistance with higher stroke rate may be ideal, as it burns more calories. While if you want to build muscles and improve strength, a higher resistance with low stroke rate will be more effective.

Common Mistakes When Using Resistance

Ready to give it a shot right now? Wait, there are some mistakes you should pay attention to while using a rowing machine:

Neglecting Form: While increasing the resistance, it is essential to maintain a proper rowing form to ensure that you have muscle worked correctly and avoid injuries.

Overloading Resistance: One of the most common problems is adjusting the resistance levels too high at the beginning for newbies. This can make your workout much more difficult than it should be. It could also lead to potential poor form and injury. Instead, you should start with a lower resistance level and gradually increase the intensity and duration.

Not Adjusting Resistance for Different Workouts: It’s important to adjust the resistance levels based on your specific fitness goals. Select a moderate resistance for steady-state cardio sessions and alternate between high and low resistance levels for intervals or high-intensity workouts (HIIT).

Conclusion

Understanding the resistance on a rowing machine is key to optimize your workout results. Rowing with the right resistance level, you can better achieve your fitness goals. Different kinds of resistance provide distinct benefits. Just choose the one that best meets your needs.

Look for the best rowing machine for home? Tousains might be your ultimate destination! Different from the above-mentioned resistance types, the resistance of Tousains foldable rowing machine is created by the position of the drawstring. Wondering how it works? View Tousains website and have a look!

FAQ

Is Rowing a Resistance Exercise?

While a rowing machine can strengthen your legs, core, back and arms, it can’t help you build significant muscle mass like weight training. Tousains 3 in 1 rowing machine, however, allows you to do strength training that targets your abdominal muscles and arms due to its unique design.