FitnessRowers are ranked among the most physically fit of all athletes as rowing provides one of the best all-round cardiovascular work-outs. It works your legs, stomach, back, and arms to quickly and efficiently burn calories and build muscle tone. If you’re always pushed for time to work out, the indoor rower is perfect.
It’s also one of the few non-weight bearing sports that exercises all the major muscle groups. As it is low-impact on joints, it’s a good way for participants of other sports to maintain aerobic fitness while rehabilitating from injury – great for runners with dodgy knees!
It also means it’s a good sport for people with physical handicaps to excel in. GB adaptive rower Tom Aggar is testament to that.
The minimum skills needed to start rowing can be learned in an afternoon so you can get involved straight away – it’s mastering it that’s the challenge ... Mental“It's a great art, is rowing. It's the finest art there is. It's a symphony of motion. And when you're rowing well Why it's nearing perfection - And when you reach perfection You're touching the divine. It touches the you of you's Which is your soul”
– George Pocock  The mental side of things is an extremely important aspect of rowing.
For the casual rower it can help you unwind and ease stress, as you focus on getting the stroke and rhythm right. It’s also an opportunity for a refreshing change of atmosphere and allows you to connect with nature in a way many other sports don't.
For the competitive racer, rowing encourages mental toughness, discipline, focus and determination. WeightWeight loss isn’t easy – the only sensible, lasting solution is to change your lifestyle with regular exercise and healthy eating. Rowing is a high calorie burner because it uses so many muscle groups, and great starting point for those carrying a lot of extra weight as it is low-impact on joints.
Nutritionists will be able to tell you this better than a heavyweight rower but I’m pretty sure that when it comes to controlling weight sensibly there’s little point trying to exist on carrot sticks alone. The body’s survival response to low-calorie diets is to lower the metabolic rate in order to burn fewer calories and minimise weight loss. The slowed metabolic rate then doesn’t recover when a person begins to eat more normally, so weight may be put on more quickly than before.
Exercise does much more - it helps to increase the metabolic rate so that calories are burnt faster, and continue to burn at a faster rate for a few hours following exercise.
Social
 If you like being on your own you can scull or focus on indoor rowing; if you the outgoing sort you can row or scull in a crew. Joining a rowing club is a great way to meet new people and most rowing clubs have people from all ages, interests, and backgrounds.
Rowing has given me my closest friends – from people I first rowed with at university to my Boat Race crewmates to my current squad-mates in the GB team. Many will be friends for life and even if we don’t see each other for a while, we know we’ll always be bound together by being part of a particular crew and sharing the same goal of doing whatever it takes to win together – and sharing the inevitable post-race nights out.
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Benefits 