The Rowing Machine You'll Actually Want to Use
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As we hurry to our next SoulCycle class or download our latest app-based HIIT workout, let us pause and acknowledge the humble rowing machine. We all know rowing is one of the best total-body workouts a person can do. It utilizes 85 percent of your muscles, and roughly 100 percent of the muscles you care about utilizing: The simple movement activates your biceps and forearms, your glutes and calves, your whole back and shoulders. It’s efficient, its no-impact nature is easier on your knees than running, and not having to find a pool or wear a Speedo makes it more accessible than swimming.
Yet nobody in history has had to wait for a rowing machine to open up at the gym. A few minutes on a rower might turn up as a side dish in a Crossfit or an Orangetheory workout, but we rarely make it the whole meal. Rowing is unpretentious, but it’s also repetitive, unflashy, a little bit dull. For too long, it’s been the vegetables of the fitness world.
Consider Aviron the chef who can finally make you like Brussels sprouts. Late last year, the fitness company released its Strong Series Rower, a wifi-connected rowing machine that will get your ass in the saddle, keep you focused on the task, and make your body leaner and stronger fast. Trust me: You’ll clean your plate.
Strong Series Rower
$1899.00
avironactive.com
The first thing you notice on the Strong Series is the 22-inch HD touchscreen, through which you can select from any number of games, live challenges, and pre-loaded workouts. I decided to begin my rowing journey with a coached program called “Row 20”: One twenty-minute session a day for twenty days. It’s a great place for to start, even if you think you’re experienced; rowing is an easy thing to do, but a fairly difficult thing to do correctly. The high-energy coach gave clear, detailed instruction on every aspect of the move—a strong leg drive, a tight hinge of the torso, a powerful pull—kept me from wasting my energy and injuring myself. It’s basic, but I needed basic, and you probably do too. Plus it’s a good daily workout: Over twenty days, I felt my stroke get more efficient, and I watched my time get faster. (One small complaint is that unlike SoulCycle, Peloton or Liteboxer, Aviron hasn’t done a licensing deal with any record labels, scoring these coaching sessions instead with generic catalog music, creating the overall effect of doing a challenging workout in the middle of an episode of HouseHunters International.)
It’s possible that the music budget went to the development the Aviron’s games, in which you vary your stroke rate or effort level to zap robots or break bricks or throw snowballs. You can navigate through a couple dozen of them on the touchscreen, but, truthfully, I found them a little clunky and confusing, and after a quick sampling, I never went back. Instead, I kept returning to a category called Power Play: More straightforward and visually-coherent guided workouts in which you keep a Tron-style car within a lane by controlling your speed, stroke rate, or energy output level. These Power Play sessions can be done solo or with other Aviron users in real time, or you can challenge other users to a simple race around a CGI racetrack. So far, there are no Peloton-style live classes, which is an area I’d like to see them move into. The capability does exist since the rower connects to the internet, software updates add new content regularly. Recently-added features include videos of scenic rows from around the world, and some seriously challenging HIIT-style guided workouts. My recent favorite is Climbing Mont Blanc, a 25-minute row that automatically increases the resistance level for a tough climb with a few very necessary breaks.
But in perhaps its most revolutionary act, the Aviron Strong Series addresses the essentially unexciting nature of rowing by simply surrendering to it. The touchscreen supports Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube, so you can get into a nice little groove, set your resistance level manually, and focus your attention on a show you’ve been meaning to watch. This is a genius move; I can’t run or bike without a good motivational playlist, but rowing is a more meditative exercise, one in which I can challenge myself and catch up on my stories at the same time. What a perfect way to make the Golden Age of Television more manageable; thanks to Aviron, I’m finally working my way through season one of The Bear; I can hack through a good 6000 meters in one 22-minute episode, and my heart rate matches the kitchen staff’s just about perfectly. We are simpatico, me and Carmy.
The whole thing weighs just over 50 pounds, and while it will take up a good amount of floor space, two front wheels allow the Aviron to stand upright and hide in a corner when it’s not in use. It’s quiet, and its dual resistance system uses air and magnets to keep the row feeling smooth. And if you’re really going for it, gills in the front direct the air flow you’re generating right back at your face.
Rowing is not flashy, but it is one hell of a good workout. So far this year, I’ve been hitting it for around 25 minutes a day, 5 to 6 days a week—sometimes as an add-on to a run or a lifting session, sometimes as my whole workout—and I feel stronger. I have that full-body tingle at the end of the day, the way I do after I’ve gone for a long swim. I’m standing straighter and taller, and my favorite Buck Mason t-shirt fits me better in the chest and back. Rowing is still vegetables, but thanks to the Aviron Strong Series rower, I’m in the Clean Plate Club.
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