Rowing machines - Muscle building?

onemorechance

Are rowing machines good for building muscle, shoulders in particular?

Any opinions on this one in Argos?

I have been doing weights but I am really struggling to target my shoulders, I can see growth in chest, biceps etc, but not so much on the shoulders!

Routine is:

Chest Press, Incline Chest Fly, Shoulder Press, Lateral Raise, Upright Row.

I do each one three times, increasing weight while reducing reps, 12 to 10 to 8.

I realise that I am probably not doing them perfect, pace and movement, and this may be why I am not targetting shoulders so well.

ray jay

why not just use your weights to do rows? Having tried one of those cheap argos rowing machines, I found it beyond worthless

Colm_OReilly

Unless you're a complete novice to any physical activity, rowing probably won't develop too much muscle, and I'd steer clear of an Argos rower as well.

What sort of weights are you throwing around? What did you start at?

Have you been squatting/deadlifting?

onemorechance

I checked out dumbbells rows and they seem to be more for your back, probably do shoulders too. I have tried similar ones, like a lateral raise while crouched like that. It is difficult to crouch and do the lateral raises, maybe the rows will be easier.

I have only dumbbells, started at 10kg, 11kg, 12kg on each, now up to 18kg, 19kg, 20kg on each.

No squatting or deadlifting; do ya need the longer bar for that? Is that not going to mostly work legs?

jeff lebowski

I'd say Kettlebells would be a useful addition for you, have you ever considered them? I bought ones recently from a site I found on here and they were good quality.

Colm_OReilly

onemorechance wrote: »

I checked out dumbbells rows and they seem to be more for your back, probably do shoulders too. I have tried similar ones, like a lateral raise while crouched like that. It is difficult to crouch and do the lateral raises, maybe the rows will be easier.

I have only dumbbells, started at 10kg, 11kg, 12kg on each, now up to 18kg, 19kg, 20kg on each.

No squatting or deadlifting; do ya need the longer bar for that? Is that not going to mostly work legs?

Yeah you need more weight really.

Squats and Deadlifts, while the legs do most of the "driving", the whole body is "working". Plus with these movements you tax your system enough that it builds muscle --> roughly leads to muscle/strength gains everywhere, at least as a novice.

onemorechance

Thanks for reply. I guess that increasing the weights is the best option. I have kinda kept to the current weight for too long now. I had been increasing 1kg per month, but due to injury or time-off, I have not progressed much from the current set up.

rubadub

I'd get off the machines and stick to free weights. Is your shoulder press on a machine? I do dumbbell presses, one at a time, I feel it works better than a barbell press since the barbell stabilises the weight more.

onemorechance

Not on machine, I only use dumbbells, but I do both shoulder / dumbbell presses at the same time. I run twice a week and do these other excercises 3 times a week. I think that I need to progress up the weights more, I have stalled a bit at the current weight as I have hurt my back a few times. I don't lean against anything when doing the presses, just sit upright on bench, so I think that is a bad idea.