It started as a voice memo about rowing
Last winter, one of the trainers at Active Life Fitness Garwood NJ left me a voice memo. In the background I could hear an old rowing machine rattling. “Okay, serious question. Is a rowing machine a good workout?” Then the rattling got louder. “Also, this rower isn’t going to survive the next class.”
That’s how most equipment conversations start for me. I’m not the training director. I’m the person who manages purchasing for a 14-person recreation group with two properties: a gym and an indoor trampoline park in Wichita KS. For six years, I’ve tracked every purchase order and repair invoice. I’ve compared vendors, calculated total cost of ownership, and learned some lessons the expensive way.
That voice memo eventually led to a Life Fitness Insignia Lateral Raise, a discussion about teaching the barbell clean, and a second rowing machine for a completely different location. Along the way, I confirmed something I already suspected: cheap equipment is expensive.
People assume a rowing machine is a rowing machine
From the outside, a rower basically looks simple. You sit, strap your feet, pull a handle, and slide along a rail. People assume the main difference between rowing machines is the color or the console.
The hidden reality is more important: duty cycle. A rowing machine made for occasional home use feels fine in a store. Under a class schedule, the frame, strap, bearings, and monitor face constant abuse. A commercial rower is built with heavier components and a longer expected life. A budget rower is not built for the same job, even if it looks almost the same.
The phrase “rowing machine is a good workout” makes the equipment sound simple. The workout is simple. The machine maintenance is not.
The $2,100 mistake that still shows up in my spreadsheets
In 2022, I bought three budget rowers for a six-week rowing challenge. They cost about $2,100 less than the commercial equivalents, so I convinced myself we were testing demand. If the classes worked, I said, we would upgrade later.
The classes worked too well. By the second month, a strap was losing tension. By the fifth month, I was processing invoices for a replacement strap, a console repair, and a seat carriage. By the end of the first year, I had spent roughly $3,400 on repairs—for machines that still couldn’t handle the gym’s weekly schedule.
That mistake taught me the difference between unit price and total cost. The rowers weren’t terrible products. They were terrible for the setting. I assumed two machines that looked similar would perform similarly through thirty classes a week. They didn’t.
So: Is a rowing machine a good workout?
Yes, rowing is a genuinely good workout. It is low-impact cardio that also uses the legs, core, and upper body. For many people, it is easier on the knees than running and more interesting than sitting on a stationary bike. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (Source: health.gov, 2018), adults benefit from regular aerobic activity plus muscle-strengthening activity. Rowing can be a solid piece of the aerobic side of that equation.
But from a business perspective, the question is incomplete. A rowing machine is only a good workout if it is available when members arrive. A broken rower doesn’t help anyone. If you choose equipment based only on the initial price, you are not planning a workout—you are deferring a repair.
Lateral raises, barbell cleans, and the same lesson
The lesson became practical when the coaching team made two new requests. First, they wanted a Life Fitness Insignia Lateral Raise for the strength area. Second, they wanted to teach the barbell clean to a group of newer lifters.
The Life Fitness Insignia Lateral Raise was easy to approve. It has a guided range of motion that suits most gym members, and the plate-loaded design is easier to maintain than a machine with hidden cables. We checked the footprint, confirmed parts availability, and ordered it. That verification took maybe thirty minutes.
The barbell clean request was harder. The visible cost was a barbell, bumper plates, and a platform. The hidden cost was the environment around it: enough floor clearance, a stable surface, coach training, and a progression plan for lifters who had never cleaned before. If I had approved a barbell clean program without those details, I would have repeated my rower mistake in a different form.
That is the prevention-over-cure pattern. A small amount of verification up front prevents a much larger problem later. It rarely feels urgent, and it is almost always the cheapest move.
What we actually bought
Today, the gym at Active Life Fitness Garwood NJ has a Life Fitness rowing machine in its interval room. The trampoline park in Wichita KS also has one, because parents wanted to row while their kids jumped. Both products came from the same commercial spec, and both have stayed in service far longer than the budget rowers.
The Life Fitness Insignia Lateral Raise is in the strength section at Active Life Fitness Garwood NJ. The barbell clean program got the green light once we had the flooring, coaching standards, and class schedule locked down. Waiting did not reduce member interest. It reduced our risk.
I have mixed feelings about all of this. Part of me still loves a bargain, and part of me has reconciled too many repair invoices to trust one. The answer is not complicated: total cost per useful workout matters more than the sticker price. Five minutes of verification before the purchase beats five days of correction after the machine fails.
Trust me on this one (note to self: I still need to update that checklist again). If you’re asking whether a rowing machine is a good workout, the answer is yes. Just buy the one designed to still be working next year.
