maratoolRowing, Stationary
How to do the rowing, stationary
- To begin, seat yourself on the rower. Make sure that your heels are resting comfortably against the base of the foot pedals and that the straps are secured. Select the program that you wish to use, if applicable. Sit up straight and bend forward at the hips.
- There are three phases of movement when using a rower. The first phase is when you come forward on the rower. Your knees are bent and against your chest. Your upper body is leaning slightly forward while still maintaining good posture. Next, push against the foot pedals and extend your legs while bringing your hands to your upper abdominal area, squeezing your shoulders back as you do so. To avoid straining your back, use primarily your leg and hip muscles.
- The recovery phase simply involves straightening your arms, bending the knees, and bringing your body forward again as you transition back into the first phase.
Muscles worked
The repetitive work falls on the quadriceps across the front of the thigh, which straighten the knee and, just as importantly, control it on the way back down.
Holding a sustainable output for minutes at a time is a different demand from a heavy set, which is why fatigue here shows up as a gradual fade rather than a rep you suddenly cannot finish.
Other muscle groups are involved too: the biceps add force at the elbow; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.
The hamstrings, lower back and middle back take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:QuadricepsBicepsCalvesGlutesHamstrings
How this movement works
It is filed under cardio. The work is continuous and paced rather than counted in sets, so progress shows up as duration, distance or a lower heart rate at the same effort.
What you need
The machine fixes the path, removing the balance demand and letting you train close to failure without a spotter. The cost is the stabilising work a free weight would have made you do.
Every exercise using:Machine
These train the quadriceps too, using equipment this one does not:
- Scissors Jumpbody only
- Side Squats with Barbellbarbell
- Smith Machine Squatssmith machine
- Split Squat with Dumbbellsdumbbell
- Squats with Exercise Bandsband
Difficulty
Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.
Of the 173 quadriceps exercises in this database, 62 are listed at intermediate level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.