All Bod, No Boat: Row Your Heart Out Without Getting Wet

Credit: www.concept2.com

The landscape -- or shall we call it the dreamscape? -- of American fitness is littered with exercise machines gathering dust in garages and closets and on apartment balconies. There are lots of reasons for this vast national neglect (human inertia, insufficient results, and mechanical failure among them), but two common problems -- the narrow range of muscles strengthened by a given machine and the unsatisfying function of the device itself -- are brilliantly solved by the Concept2 Indoor Rower [1], now in its fourth stage of a truly successful evolution.

For those who row on water, the machine -- which uses a steel flywheel with fins to create air resistance -- feels as close to the real thing as any mechanical rower. Just as water resistance increases the harder an oar is pulled, air resistance increases the stronger the pull on the Concept's chain handle. As a result, the quiet, impact-free machine lets the user control the energy expended. And, just as in a rowing shell, the exerciser works just about every major muscle group from the ankles up, so that any kind of dedication will show results quickly.

Indoor Rower: $850, from Concept2 (www.concept2.com [2])

Credit: www.concept2.com

Not surprisingly, given the close resemblance of its use to a real rowing experience, two brothers, Dick and Pete Dreissigacker, fresh from Olympic training in 1976, created the original Concept. Using a bicycle wheel and chain with rudimentary air fins, they began what has been a continuous process of increasing the machine's authentic rowing feel. The current device, Model D, manufactured in Morrisville, Vermont, is to the original iteration as the modern Mustang is to the Ford Model T.

The downsides: the Concept2, almost 8 feet long and 2 feet wide at the widest point, takes up a fair amount of space, though it folds in half for upright storage. And it's fairly expensive: $850. But these factors are balanced by simplicity, durability, and aesthetic appeal (the machine could double as kinetic sculpture). Also, as an encouragement to keep the machine (and the user) in action, Concept stages time-trial competitions all over the country and provides online sites so users can keep track of how they're doing and earn online rankings. And -- just in case looking and feeling good aren't reward enough -- during Concept's annual March Madness event, everyone who logs 5,000 or 10,000 meters (about 3 or 6 miles) a day is entered for prize drawings and can be inducted into the March Madness Hall of Fame for hitting the shorter distance for twenty-five days that month.