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Comment by cycomanic | Hacker News Reader

I'm a former rower as well, I disagree that sitting on a rower is dangerous for getting back injury. Considering that pretty much every gym I know just puts them in some corner without anyone around who knows how to row, I believe this is not an issue.

I know of no one who has injured themselves rowing (on a machine or outside).

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This is going to come down to experience but I'd say the majority of those I trained with had dealt with an injury at one point or another. Most women, particularly the lightweight class experienced broken ribs from strain across the core and most of the guys had lower back issues at one point or another.

I'm not saying these things are death machines or anything, but the concept of adding essentially seated row to a rowing machine is fairly dangerous. Throwing an air damper up to 10 and ripping on it for a couple minutes will leave you quite sore the next morning but adding high weight can start pulling muscles or slipping discs.

Most high-level rowers develop back problems, but these aren't primarily from the rowing machine, and your chances of developing the same kinds of problems while casually working out to meet your daily fitness goals are basically zero.

E.g. almost all high-level swimmers have shoulder problems, but no one who just goes for a swim a few times a week is going to injure their shoulders. Almost all baseball players have ankle problems, but no one who plays baseball with friends after work is at risk of this.

The reason rowers get back problems is basically a combination of overuse, the asymmetric load-bearing motion of sweep, and underdeveloped antagonistic muscles. Given the device and the target market, none of these issues are really at play here.

Interesting I rowed more than 13 years on national level up to u21 and never had any back problems until I hit a car cycling and fracturing my t6. I also don't know of any of my former friends who developed back pain. I actually always put this done to having very good core strength from rowing.

In contrast or my cycling friends (which I took up after) have back problems, in particular the ones who started when young.

Mind you this was more than 20 years ago so maybe the training regime has changed.

That makes sense, the issues I saw were mostly at the post collegiate/open level. There were some issues in U23s but that was somewhat rare, at least compared to alcohol inflicted injuries :)

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