How Fast Can Rowing Tone Your Body?

by Nicole Vulcan

If you're about to embark on a new fitness journey with the end goal of toning up your body, it's tempting to put a time peg on when you'll achieve that goal. But whether you're setting out to get toned doing rowing, swimming, running or any other type of exercise, the real goal should always be improved health and longevity, not a certain date by which you'll have ripped abs or amazing arms. Choosing something you enjoy will encourage you to work at it as long and as hard as you need to. If rowing is that activity, then go for it.

Toning and More

Rowing is great for toning as it works all your major muscles, plus it provides a good cardio workout. Rowing works your leg muscles including the hamstrings and quadriceps, the gluteal muscles of your butt, the core muscles of your back and torso, and other upper-body muscles, including your biceps, triceps and shoulders. Toning requires you to constantly challenge your muscles with different exercises and resistance, so in addition to rowing, you'll need to engage in a standard strength training program. However, the resistance of those oars in the water -- or the simulation of that resistance on a machine -- is a good place to start.

Burning Calories

Toning your muscles is a great goal to have, but if you have a lot of fat covering up those muscles, it's going to take a lot longer for you to get that "toned" appearance. To lose fat, you have to burn calories -- 3,500 of them in order to lose 1 pound. For a 200-pound person, using a rowing machine for 60 minutes will burn about 546 calories. That's about the same number of calories you'd burn doing low-impact aerobics or swimming laps. As with any exercise, proper form is key to rowing efficiently, burning more calories and generally enjoying the sport. If you're not sure you're doing it right, talk to a trainer or a rowing coach for some tips.

Proper Form

Warm up before you hit the rowing machine by walking or jogging for five to 10 minutes. before you get on the machine, often called an "erg." Then get on the machine and grab the handles with both hands. Throughout the motion, keep your body relaxed but your back straight. First, push away from the front of the machine with your legs, keeping your arms relaxed but straight as you hold onto the handles. When your legs are nearly straight, tip your torso backward and then pull your arms in last. When you pull back with your arms, drive back with your elbows and aim to move the handles to your mid-chest, then circle your hands downward toward your thighs. The sequence should always be legs, torso, then arms, and then body and legs on the way back toward the front of the machine.

Exercise Duration

The amount of time you spend during each session is also important; more time on the machine means more calories burned. If you're just starting out, however, you have to balance your desire to get a ripped body fast with the need to start out slow and avoid pushing your body beyond its limits. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests, even 10 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at a time is fine when you're just starting out. If you've been sedentary previously, doing even that amount of exercise will help you start to gain strength and endurance. You may not get ripped shoulders from that amount, but you may find it's easier to get up the stairs or carry a bag of groceries. If you're starting from zero, work up from 10 minutes a day, five days a week to 15 minutes the next week. The following week, move up to 20 until you're at a full 30 minutes. Also make sure you're getting adequate protein for muscle building. The CDC recommends about 46 grams of protein for women each day and about 56 grams for men.

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