Gym's New Rower Doesn't Change Resistance; Gym Says "That's the way it is, live with it." (program, workout)
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Our gym recently swapped out two older Concept rowing machines, which we used daily, for new Life Fitness rowers with a water tank and a resistance dial that goes from 1 to 16. I've attached a link to an ad for the machine.
The problem is, the resistance dial does not seem to engage on either machine. Neither of us is big-time athletes, but we could not find a challenging resistance level. Level 1 felt exactly the same as Level 16! When we brought this to gym staff's attention, they fiddled with it for a minute and then told us "That's the way it's supposed to be." They changed out several other machines recently and seem to think every complaint is the result of customers resisting change. Actually, we were excited about getting new rowers, and think these aren't hooked up right. But what do we know? We are customers, not exercise machine mechanics.
I got tired of waiting for our gym to get Concept 2's and bought my own. Have had it about a week. So here's the thing about water and air resistance rowers: they are built to emulate a rowing shell. Rowing shells do not provide variable resistance. Concept 2 basically says: if you're a guy, use setting 4 or 5 and leave it there; and if you are a woman, use setting 2 or 3. If you regularly use a Concept 2 you already know that the purpose is aerobic fitness and the intensity is changed not by the level on the air damper but by how hard you pull or your stroke rate. They could easily have built them to have no way to change resistance levels at all but they wouldn't sell because Americans need to have choices whether its necessary or not. I am not sure if you really mean there is no resistance change AT ALL between 1 and 16 on the Life Rower. That seems hard to imagine. Of course nothing surprises me with commercial gyms. You may have to buy your own Concept 2 like I did.
The Life Fitness Rower requires a resistance adjustment on both the water tank and on the electronic console, before the workout begins. Read the manual, if you don't know how to do this. But as someone who has been very pleased by how well the Concept II Ergometer works, I doubt that these machines will provide as good a workout. The Concept II emulates the way that the resistance increases and changes with speed and is very close to the way it would be in a rowing shell on the water.
The fact that the staff at your club does not know how to operate them and that they took away the old Concept II machines, indicates that they may not be up to speed, themselves. It should also be checked that they are filled to the proper level with water.
And actually, changing the position of the housing of the air-vane on the Concept II does affect the resistance. When openings in the housing are exposed, it draws in air and causes more turbulence, increasing resistance.
Last edited by Steve McDonald; 07-28-2016 at 02:03 AM..
Our gym recently swapped out two older Concept rowing machines, which we used daily, for new Life Fitness rowers with a water tank and a resistance dial that goes from 1 to 16. I've attached a link to an ad for the machine.
The problem is, the resistance dial does not seem to engage on either machine. Neither of us is big-time athletes, but we could not find a challenging resistance level. Level 1 felt exactly the same as Level 16! When we brought this to gym staff's attention, they fiddled with it for a minute and then told us "That's the way it's supposed to be." They changed out several other machines recently and seem to think every complaint is the result of customers resisting change. Actually, we were excited about getting new rowers, and think these aren't hooked up right. But what do we know? We are customers, not exercise machine mechanics.
The Concept II emulates the way that the resistance increases and changes with speed and is very close to the way it would be in a rowing shell on the water.
So does this Life Rower, and also its close cousin, the WaterRower. In fact, because these machines actually use water to provide the resistance to the flywheel, the intensity scales up to increased effort more like a real boat on water, not less. I learned this when I was researching my Concept 2 purchase. The WaterRower was on my short list for awhile. Price difference between a Concept 2 and a WaterRower is negligible. In the end I pulled the trigger for the Concept 2 because it just has so much acceptance in the rowing community. The Concept 2 also has hands down the best performance monitoring and recording computer of any kind of fitness equipment made.
Concept 2 is the standard training tool of almost every Rowing Program (beginners to elite-level) in the World.
Like Real Rowing, the resistance increases as you pull harder.
The most important thing is learn how to row properly, and almost every large metro area has a rowing club where you can get some instruction - most health clubs and personal trainers are clueless when it comes to proper rowing technique and methods
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