The rowing machine is a very effective workout companion that offers a complete package of workout sets. It impacts full-body workouts, muscle building and fat burning. It also has fewer workout impacts on joints compared to running and therefore you can burn a significant number of calories using the machine.
There is a big question going around on the number of calories burnt by working on a rowing machine. Well, there are some factors that regulate the workout intensity as well as calories burnt. These factors are weight, duration and intensity.
What are the impact factors of rowing machines on calorie burn?
1. Weight
There is a simple relation between calories burnt and weight. The more your weight, the harder your body needs to perform for rowing and so harder you row the more your calories will torch.
Research showed that a person having a weight of 120 pounds can burn 168 calories in 30 minutes but a heavy person of 200 pounds can burn up to 336 calories in the same amount of time. The result shows a concept of how weight can influence your calories burning chain.
2. Duration and Intensity
There is a proportional relation between duration and intensity to aim at calories burn. It’s normal to get the best benefit from any workout when you put more time into it but there is a consequence.
IF your working intensity is higher, you will definitely get better results than of normal speed. A trial found that a man of weight 150 pounds can burn 239 calories with a moderate rowing intensity but rowing at a rampant intensity would let him burn 50 more calories.
As we know that rowing at a rampant intensity is easier said than done but the harder you push yourself into the act the more positive the results will follow.
So, what are the general intensity ranges of rowing?
3. HIIT Rowing
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) gives you a lot of benefits including the afterburn effect. The afterburn effect means the continuation of burning calories a long time after the workout session even during sleep or shower.
There is a cycle that you need to follow to perform HIIT. You need to push yourself for a sprint for about 30 secs to 1 minute and then after, row slow for a minute or so to reduce your heart rate at 60 percent of your maximum. You need to continue this cycle during the whole workout period to perform HIIT.
“Steady-State” Rowing
Steady-state rowing refers to rowing at a moderate intensity that can help to grow endurance within you if the session can go longer. The steady-state will allow you to grow at a medium pace that indicates 65 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate for the entire workout session.
Actually, this phase of burning is technically termed as a fat-burning zone as fat burns more as an energy source while rowing within this rate. The rate of calorie burning is higher on HIIT but the user needs to get used to the afterburn effect which is harder than thought, which influences the users to get involved more in steady-state rowing.