Running and rowing are high intensity workouts and both of them burn lots of calories while improving the efficiency of the cardiovascular system of the body. If you are thinking of taking up one of them, but you are not able to decide which is the best for you then you should have a look at the benefits of these exercises and also some of the disadvantages.
Muscle involvement and yield
Although, muscles of whole body engage during running, exercise, but the muscles of the lower body like legs and hips plays the major active role as compared to rest of the body. Rowing involves an equal involvement of all the muscles of the body. For example, swinging of arms in running is a balancing act and do not work against any resistance, thus there is less muscle building while in case of rowing, muscles of shoulders, arms, chest, back, core, hip and legs work against resistance and thus build up more muscles than running.
Impact of the workout
During running legs bears the body weight as well as balances it while hitting the ground repeatedly, which causes stress on joints in lower body like hips, back, knees and ankles. Therefore, it has a high impact on the body and if it is not done correctly then it can cause serious injuries. On the other hand, rowing does not leave any impact on the joints or any other part of the body, but the repetitions and efforts in rowing can stress your back, hip and knees. You cannot take a break in rowing until you completely stop the exercise while you can walk in the break period during running which can reduce the stress on the body.
Calories burnt
The calorie burnt during rowing is slightly lower than the running. For example a man weighing 125 pounds will burn 210 calories during rowing for 30 minutes at moderate speed and 255 calories at maximum speed. While during running, the same man will burn 250 calories while at the speed of 12 minute miles, 300 calories at the speed of 10 minutes miles and 330 calories at the speed of 9 calories in thirty minutes run.
Setting intervals
Setting the short intervals is quite easy in running exercise, for example, in case of sprints, and it helps in increasing heart rate, stamina, calorie burning process and recovery during sports. The change in resistance is not required for setting the short interval periods in running while you need to set the resistance every time while setting the intervals during rowing.
Rectify posture
This is the highlighted feature of rowing as it helps in the development of a strong and flexible midline while strengthening the small and weak muscles like hip flexors. In case of running, if you don’t do it properly then it can worsen your posture and causes back related problems.
You can now decide easily after going through all the comparisons that which exercise suits you best and if you have opted for rowing then you should consider some important points which are:
- Keep a proper grip on the handles by curling your fingers around it and slightly cocking your wrist.
- Place your feet on the rowing machine firmly by inserting your feet into the foot rest and adjusting the toe straps.
- Take the start position by keeping the shins perpendicular to the ground and suck in the stomach to form a straight posture. Move your torso forward by keeping a straight back and then begin the first drive phase by engaging your leg muscles into a powerful push off.
- During the drive phase, use your back and ABS as a lever while pushing through your legs which will transfer all the workload to your core area. Avoid using your arms until you have spent all the power of your abdominal and back muscles and only use them while finishing the stroke.
- Keep the midline stability muscles or the core muscles activated and tight during the drive.
- Move into the recovery phase by completing the drive and bringing the handle just in front of your ABS while keeping a tight core. Return to your original position at half the speed of your initial speed.
- Keep an eye on the display monitor which gives you an instant feedback. You don’t need to understand all the data, but focus on two important numbers that is the stroke rate displaying at the upper right screen and watts which is a measure of workout intensity.
Here are some HIIT rowing workouts which will help you in losing fat in less time span.
Workout 1
You have to complete the rowing within a minute and then take one minute rest. Repeat this one minute rowing-rest combination for ten rounds for 20 minutes and row for 20 meters. This is known as all out rowing sprint and it increases your heart rate and burns more fat deposits.
Workout 2
Row for thousand meters in a six minutes time and perform an all out sprint of burpees after doing this workout.
Workout 3
Perform rowing followed by Kettlebell swings and situps. Take a rest for one minute and repeat the workout for four rounds. Rowing should be done for 30 calories, 30 Russian Kettlebell swings and 30 AbMat situps. Increase your pace with each round.
Workout 4
Combine pushups with rowing session and rest as needed. The rounds should be followed us:
- 1000 meters rowing followed by twenty hand release pushups and rest.
- 750 meters rowing followed by thirty hand release pushups and rest.
- 500 meters rowing followed by forty hand release pushups and rest.
- 250 meters rowing followed by fifty hand release pushups and rest.
Workout 5
Include various exercises with rowing session for more effective results in the following manner:
- 50 air squats followed by 25 calorie row.
- 40 Russian Kettlebell swings followed by 20 calorie row.
- 30 situps followed by 15 calorie row.
- 20 pushups followed by 10 calorie row and 10 burpees.