Finding a decent indoor rowing machine if you’re on a tight budget can be a bit hard, but it’s doable, it will just take a while longer.
A good rowing machine should seem as realistic as possible when it comes to the rowing motion, you need to feel like you’re actually rowing on water.
The #1 rowing machine and probably the best indoor rower that accomplishes this is the Concept 2 indoor rower, but since this article is about getting inexpensive rowing machines I’m not going to get into it.
There’ also a French version here:
The first rower that comes to mind is the Stamina Body Trac Glider 1050. It’s a piston resistance rowing machine which is built very differently than normal air, water and magnetic resistance rowers. Instead of the normale handle you have 2 bars which would be the oars.
The good thing is if you want to use it at home, it’s extremely compact, taking very little space.
It has an adjustable gas shock resistance which can be easily set to fit anyone, no matter what their current fitness level is.
For what it offers the user, the Trac Glider 1050 is very cheap, the list price on this one is $125, so way below the $300 mark.
I remember when I bought my first rowing machine, I paid about $500 for it, brand new, it was an air rower in if I remember correctly I believe it was the Lifecore R100 rower which if you have the money for it it’s a very cool piece of equipment. Not as expensive as the Concept 2 but still offering a very challenging workout.
Because it’s an air rower it does tend to get a little noisy once your workout starts to get more intense and your rowing speed increases.
Going back to our low budget rowing machine we have the Stamina Air Rower rowing machine, which is from the same manufacturer as the Glider but this is an air rower so it’s much more realistic.
It’s list price is 400 bucks but I mentioned here because usually you can get it for $300 from Amazon. It’s foldable so it won’t take a lot of space when you’re not using it.
Because of the air resistance the rowing stroke is very smooth, and it feels almost like you’re actually rowing on water, the key word here is almost. The frame is very solidly built, it’s a steel frame that can hold up 250 pounds max user weight.
So which one should you get, the Trac Glider or the Air Rower. They’re both from Stamina, but if you were to ask me the Air Rower wins every time. Just by looking at the reviews from other users you can see which one is better. If you ask me reviews are very important when it comes to choosing a rowing machine that you’ll be using almost on a daily basis.
There are other rowers under the 300 dollar price point but these 2 are the best you can choose from. Although like I said I’m not really a fan of the piston resistance rowers, the Trac Glider 1050 from Stamina is well worth the $100 and something you pay for it.