Twenty years ago, the fitness industry was divided on the concept of there being ‘good’ and ‘bad’ forms of cardiovascular exercise. The dogma amongst exercise scientists was that all exercise was good for the body, be it running, cycling, swimming, or any other one of hundreds of activities. What mattered wasn’t the platform which we exercised on or even the type of exercise that happened, but the action involved with increasing blood flow and working our hearts.

Now, modern exercise scientists are often overheard claiming the exact opposite. High impact exercises are touted as activities to avoid, causing undue stress to the ankles, knees, and hips and lining athletes up for potentially serious injuries and long-term problems. It’s become increasingly common to hear of athletes in sports such as rugby or football ending up with lifelong injuries, all because of the nature of their sport.

Rowing, however, tends to avoid most of the injuries associated with high-impact sports and exercises. One of the least full-body-intensive activities available to cardiovascular exercisers, rowing is as much a low-impact exercise as cycling and swimming – two forms of fitness often touted as the best out there for people concerned about the potential side effects of their personal fitness regimes.

Unlike running and climbing, two activities with high injury frequencies and the potential to seriously damage the knees and ankles, rowing is almost completely free of long-term lower body injury spots. With knee, ankle, and shin damage often appearing as the most physically prohibitive and potentially expensive injuries, a rowing machine (often called an ergometer) can prove a worthwhile investment for athletes looking to minimize the risk of long-term injury while still remaining active and fit.

Why rowing machines help minimize injuries to the thighs and knees:

Rowing machines use a fixed point of resistance to ensure that every motion, no matter how sudden or smooth, carries the same level of resistance and weight. The flywheel of a modern rowing machine is often customizable, giving rowers varied degrees of resistance and power depending on their own strength and endurance levels. Unlike running or swimming – two activities devoid of variable resistance – there’s little to rowing that isn’t customizable.

This means that injuries to the knees and ankles – two of the most frequent injury spots for runners – are almost completely non-existent when using a rowing machine. The ankles are relatively fixed during proper rowing technique, giving users the ability to exert maximum force without having to worry about intense pressure on potentially weak joints, broken or rolled ankles, or even slight injuries to the lower leg such as shin splits.

Alongside the lack of impact on the ankles, rowing results in almost no impact to the knees – another frequent injury site. Long-term injuries to the knees are common in distance runners and high-impact athletes, often severe to the point where surgery is the only true solution. While running puts the knees in a position of near constant impact, rowing does the exact opposite, using the knees as little more than a pivot point for upper body action.
Continue Reading »