- You're probably watching this video
because you are considering buying a rowing machine.
Well, guess what?
You're in the right place.
This is the Rowing Machine Buyer's Guide to rowing machines.
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All of them.
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In the past couple of years,
indoor rowing has really exploded in popularity.
We're seeing rowing studios pop up.
Tons of different companies
are coming out with rowing machines now,
and it's understandably confusing
when you're considering buying a rowing machine
because there are so many different machines out there,
covering a wide range of price and size
and way in which they work,
and that's what today is about,
is trying to help you sort through
what's the right decision to make
and what are the things you should consider
when you're gonna make that decision,
and because there are so many things to evaluate,
I went ahead and created a PDF
so that you can have an easier time
making the decision for yourself.
So in the description below,
you're gonna find a link
which will allow you to download the PDF
and print it out and use at your leisure.
Now, price is probably the most important discussion
that you can have when you're making your decision
as to what machine may end up in your home.
I'm gonna cover a couple other points,
and then, we're gonna get to that price discussion
because it is so important.
So what are the other things that we should be considering
when we're looking at these machines?
Maybe the first place we should start
is taking a look at the history of both the company
and the product itself.
Things you wanna consider are the length of time
the company's been around
and the reputation that they have established
as well as the reason that we wanna look at history
is because it lays out whether or not
this product has been tested long enough
for people to really have a good feel of
if it's a quality product or not.
Just something to put into your mixed bag of questions
that you're gonna be asking.
Next, let's look at the dimensions of the product.
That should easily be found on the product page,
perhaps on the company's website
or wherever you're gonna consider buying it.
It will tell you the actual footprint of the machine.
I would encourage you to then take some blue painter's tape
and a tape measure.
Measure out the area where you plan on using the machine.
That's gonna give you an idea
of how well the machine will fit in that space.
Next, I would encourage you to take that tape measure
and use those same dimensions but just measure vertically
because a lot of machines do get stored
in a vertical position,
so wherever you plan on storing the machine,
also run the dimensions there,
both vertically and horizontally,
so you can figure out how it's gonna play with your space.
Next, and this is an easy one, look up the weight
because that will be an important factor.
If you have to carry it up eight flights of stairs
before you're gonna use it,
do you really wanna be carrying
a multi-hundred pound box up the stairs,
or do you need something that's lightweight,
that you can pick up and throw, you know,
anywhere in your room
without worrying about the weight of the product itself?
Again, these are factors that you need
to determine the importance of for yourself,
so look up that product weight.
Again, any product listing page
is gonna be the easiest place to find that.
Noise level.
Why would we even think about that?
Well, most people aren't going to encourage you
to think about that as a process
when you're considering making the purchase,
but what if you live in a small apartment
with a lot of neighbors?
If your machine is really loud,
is that gonna cause a nuisance for the people
on the other side of the wall for you,
or are you out in the middle of the country
where there's nobody to bother
and noise isn't a factor?
My best suggestion for how to research this is
go onto YouTube, type in the actual product name
to find videos of people using that machine.
Inevitably, you should be able to hear,
unless they overlay it with music,
what that machine actually sounds like,
and you can evaluate for yourself
how that noise level plays into the space
that you're gonna have the machine.
The next research data point you wanna check out
is who else is using this machine
as well as what kind of atmosphere of people exist
around the usage of the machine?
Easiest way to do this, go onto Facebook,
type in the machine name in the search bar,
and see what kind of pages and groups pop up.
If there are a ton of them,
that tells you that there are a lot of users out there
who are supporting each other in different ways,
and that's an excellent way of seeing
what kind of environment is out there for the machine.
The other, and I like this one a lot,
is follow the hashtag of that machine name.
So whatever the machine name may be,
type it in as a hashtag and follow it.
So click on it and then see all the posts that pop up.
It's gonna give you a very clear insight
into how people are using it,
what kind of people are using it,
and it gives you or paints a really clear picture
of the user environment of the machine
that you're researching.
Now, I mentioned I'd get to price in a little bit,
so this is the first part of the price discussion,
and it's also a very important one
because it could make the ultimate decision on
if you end up with a particular machine or not.
What is the used environment for your machine
or the machines you're considering?
Easiest way to do this is
search your local used marketplace.
For me, for example, that's Facebook and Craigslist
are two excellent ways to look or OfferUp,
all the different apps that are out there
for reselling your stuff.
If you live elsewhere, Leboncoin in France,
wherever it may be, use your local used marketplace.
Look up what the machine is going for at a used rate.
Most machines are gonna be in relatively decent condition
because most people aren't actually using them.
That's why you can get a good deal on them.
They often just sit unused.
So look up what the used price is,
and then, look up what the new retail price is.
The difference in those is actually a pretty good indicator
of how the machine will hold its value over time,
and that is an excellent point and indicator
of how that machine will perform over its lifetime
because if it drops a ton of value from the new price
to what you're seeing it listed at
in the used marketplace,
that tells you that people don't
really value the machine long-term.
However, if those two values are pretty close together,
it's a good indicator that the thing has held its value
for one reason or another over time,
so use that as part of your consideration as well
as the used price, does that fall in your price range,
as well as the difference
between the current retail and the used.
Next, take a really critical look
at the maintenance on the machine.
Things to consider,
do you have easy access to replacement parts
if something breaks?
Second, who's gonna perform that maintenance?
Does the company provide videos
on how to perform the maintenance yourself?
Do you have to call a trained technician
to come out and do it for you
because that will inevitably add cost later on
if something breaks?
And how easy can you get to that repair?
Does it require special tools,
or are they common tools that you might have lying around
or that are easy to pick up at a hardware store?
All things just for you to consider
in the grand scheme of the purchase.
Also take consideration
of what the app and software environment
or ecosystem is for this machine.
An easy way to search this,
go into the App Store on whatever mobile device you have,
Android or iPhone,
and search for the company name or the product name,
and you'll generally get an idea of if apps even exist
to support the machine you're considering or not,
and that will tell you whether or not
you're gonna be moving into a higher tech product
or a lower tech product,
and that's really ultimately up to you
as to whether it's important to have
a big fancy display or not.
Maybe you don't even want information
when it comes to your workouts.
That's up to you to decide,
but it is something you should put into your consideration
when you value these machines.
Next is the obvious one
and probably one you've already gone through
with a lot of these machines.
Look at the reviews.
The best place to do that,
A, just a Google search of perhaps X machine
versus X machine.
You may see some blog articles pop up,
but you can also just go to Amazon.
Find the particular product, read the reviews.
Don't just look at the five-stars.
Don't just look at the one-stars.
Read the two- to four-star reviews,
and that will give you a reasonable understanding
of how people feel about the machine,
hopefully after they've purchased the product,
because those go a long way to helping you understand
whether or not people enjoy them.
What about transportability?
Perhaps this is something that is important to you
if you need to be moving the machine
from point A to point B.
Will it fit in the back of your car?
Does it break into multiple pieces
for the purposes of transportation?
Is it a, is it just a log of a piece of equipment?
All things that you should consider,
and if transportation is something that may happen
once you own the machine,
it's important to know how that machine actually works
for those purposes,
where it will fit, whether or not it will fit in your car,
or can you move it down your stairwell
after it's been assembled?
And finally, price.
This is where so many people start the discussion.
They think price and that's their limiting factor,
but in all honesty,
price is really the last thing you should consider.
Take all of the other pieces that we've evaluated.
Then you can look at price
and understand the value of the machine
that you are getting
and what price plays into that for you.
Perhaps after you've gone through them,
you realize that making
a slightly more expensive purchase may be worth it
because you're going to get higher tech,
you know, a better user experience
because those are things that are important to you,
or after you evaluate it,
you're like, "Wow, I thought that machine was what I needed,
"but in reality, those things don't matter to me,
"and I could've, I could go in a lower range cheaper product
"because it's gonna suit my needs better."
So price, yes, while a discussion point,
should not be the first and foremost decision maker.
I also wanna add an asterisk to this.
It's always, always, always my suggestion
to go look on used market places
once you've made your decision as to what machine you want,
and search to see if you can find
a used version of the machine
because often buying these machines brand-new
isn't necessarily the best way to go,
and you can find used rowing machines pretty easily
if you're diligent.
Search your local used marketplace,
and maybe you find the exact one you want
but a few hundred dollars cheaper
because you're willing to be patient
and you find it in a used marketplace,
and that, to me, is just as good as buying it brand-new,
if not better because you're getting the same machine
but you don't have to spend as much to get there.
Finally in this discussion is the advent of rowing studios,
something that didn't exist four or five years ago
that now seem to be popping up pretty quickly
and in a lot of different areas.
Do you even want to buy a machine to have in your home,
or would you rather find a studio experience
that perhaps suits you?
So do a quick Google search.
See if there's a rowing studio close by.
Go give it a try.
See what kinda machines they use.
See if you like that machine.
Maybe that's just a way for you
to try out different machines,
or go see if you might enjoy a class experience
versus a more solo experience at home.
Again, it all depends on what kind of an athlete
or what kind of a worker-outer,
whatever you want to call it,
you feel that you are.
If you like having a coach,
you have online program options that abound now,
or you have class experiences,
and that's worth considering as well
because over time, that could save you money
if you don't want to spend all that money up front
buying an actual machine,
and remember, I created a PDF just for you guys
that are making this decision
because I know it can be a hard one,
so use the link in the description below.
Download it, print it out, again, as many times as you need.
You can print out one a day if you want,
two a day, in fact,
depending on how much ink you wanna use,
but the point being download it
so that you can have a handy guide next to you
to make these decisions
and allow you to evaluate all of the machines
that are in the spectrum against one another,
and that's gonna help you reach a faster,
more effective conclusion
finding the right machine for you,
which, at the end of the day, matters most.
So click the link in the description below
to make sure that you can get that.
Buying a rowing machine is a really wise choice.
It is, honestly, my machine of choice.
If I had to pick one thing to do it all,
the rowing machine would be it,
which is why Dark Horse even exists,
why Dark Horse Rowing is here as a YouTube channel.
Obviously, we're a little bit biased,
but with that being said, you're making a good choice
if you're considering picking one up,
but it's also critical that you end up
with the right one for you,
not just buying what everybody tells you to buy.
Make the evaluation for yourself,
and you'll be happy in the long run.
Remember, here at Dark Horse,
our goal is for you to be the hero
of your own journey and story
and that we're the guide that gets you there,
and if that sounds great to you
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you wanna follow along with everything that we've got
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to anything else in this world of fitness,
hit that Subscribe button and the little bell next to it.
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and as always, guys, thank you so much for tuning in.
I love you all from the bottom of my heart.
I mean it, and we'll see you on the other side.
Hey, thanks for watching the video.
If you enjoyed this and you're looking for more
and you want workouts,
continuous coaching from me and my other coaches
in our private Facebook community,
it's our monthly workout program.
It's $39 dollars a month.
Just go over to DarkHorseRowing.com/athlete
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