WaterRower Review: The Home-Gym Rowing Machine You Need ... - The Wall Street Journal

By .css-1m43ll3font-size:1rem;line-height:1.625rem;letter-spacing:normal;font-weight:normal;font-family:"Escrow Text",serif;font-style:italic;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;-webkit-transition:all 0.2 ease-in-out;transition:all 0.2 ease-in-out;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing:antialiased;white-space:normal;margin:10px 0px;.css-1m43ll3:hover-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#366;Logan Hill When the pandemic hit, and my tiny Manhattan apartment became my home office and gym and therapist’s office and everything else, I watched as my friends started buying giant, high-tech, internet-enabled Pelotons. .css-x3124afont-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;letter-spacing:0.03em;font-weight:700;font-family:"Retina Wide",sans-serif;text-transform:none;font-style:normal;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing:antialiased;white-space:normal;color:#000;@media (max-width: 640px).css-x3124afont-size:0.8125rem;Pelotons. And I won’t lie: I was tempted. I love cycling around the city. I was feeling like I’d better figure out a way to do cardio workouts at home. But I couldn’t imagine parking some sci-fi “Tron” cycle in the middle of my retro living room, amid my old books and vintage furniture. I needed a cardio machine that took up less floor space, and looked less like it had been teleported from the year 2050, to remind me that if I want to live to see that year, I’d better start working out more. So I read every home-exercise guide I could find, then settled on cheap resistance bands, which made me feel clumsy, and mostly stretched my patience. Eventually, I spotted a WaterRower online and immediately fell in love with the low-tech, wooden rowing machine—partly because, in a world of futuristic exercise equipment promising to disrupt exercise as we know it, it is reassuringly old school. I love that it’s basically the exact same device that was invented by a Yale engineer in 1988, and manufactured in Rhode Island from locally sourced wood. More importantly, when I last checked, it’s the only piece of stationary exercise equipment that looks so good in a living room you can buy it from the MoMA store.  $1,160 at Amazon It stores upright, so you need only 22 inches by 20 inches for that. And when upright, the WaterRower cuts a lean, sculptural figure at nearly 7 feet tall: long, simple planks of blonde ash wood, extending up from the bulbous, clear water tank at its base. It looks less like exercise equipment and more like an eccentric prop for a vintage Paul Thomas Anderson movie (though its most famous on-screen appearance was in “House of Cards,” as the Wall Street Journal newsroom reported). When I strap in for a workout, it looks like it belongs on my hardwood floors. Not like I’ve been invaded by Equinox. Another benefit: It’s quiet. As someone who spends his days writing screenplays and watching movies, I often find my biggest problem with actually going to a gym—and with most in-person human activity, honestly—is that I have to stop watching my beautiful, big TV. But unlike so many workouts that demand your full attention, or exercise bikes and air-resistance rowing machines that make tons of noise, the WaterRower is so unobtrusive that I can hear the TV clearly over the whooshing water as I work up a sweat. I never rowed before—I’ve vaguely regarded rowing as the hobby of bad guys in teen movies—but it’s now been a part of my nearly daily routine for two years. And my wife, who doesn’t have to adjust a thing even though she’s a few inches shorter, has joined my crew. (My editor says this is where I have to remind you that you should consult your doctor before starting a new fitness routine so you don’t pull a muscle or even, as The Wall Street Journal newsroom reported, pull a Mr. Big.) I purchased the basic Natural model in ash for $1,199, which felt pricey upfront but, over the two years, has been a bargain compared to a big-city gym membership. People have asked me if the water gets murky; mine has stayed crystal clear, though the company does offer a free “purification tablet” in case. If you love internet-connected classes, WaterRower’s in-house and third-party apps might be for you. But the standard model’s simple, included performance monitor is enough for me. I  bought the optional Bluetooth adapter ($59.95), but I rarely use it—and I don’t like the idea of paying a subscription fee to watch some trainer yell at me on an LED screen. Instead, I track my workouts and monitor my heart rate on my Apple watch. And, mostly, I just use this wooden machine to enjoy a straightforward full-body workout that taxes 80-plus percent of my muscles, like I’m still in 1988: I fold it down, I row until I’m drenched in sweat, and then I stand it back up. And I feel better. Updated Jan 3, 2023 By .css-lr59tdfont-size:1rem;line-height:1.625rem;letter-spacing:normal;font-weight:normal;font-family:"Escrow Text",serif;font-style:italic;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;-webkit-transition:all 0.2 ease-in-out;transition:all 0.2 ease-in-out;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;-moz-osx-font-smoothing:antialiased;white-space:normal;margin:0;.css-lr59td:hover-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;color:#747474;Nick Guy We tested all the top options to bring you the 4 worth buying Updated Aug 14, 2022 By Lisa Lombardi Set up an inspiring workout space with this expert-approved gear, from cardio machines to kettlebells Updated Dec 13, 2022 By David Murphy We asked barbers and barber educators to tell us everything they know about electric shavers—and then tested them to uncover the best shavers for most faces source https://4awesome.streamstorecloud.com/waterrower-review-the-home-gym-rowing-machine-you-need-the-wall-street-journal/?feed_id=38192&_unique_id=64d0012d7bf0b