I looked at the rowing machine before me. I looked at the 14 other people sitting down to their rowers. I looked up front at the instructor who promised to take us on a strenuous 50-minute rowing workout that he said would "change the way we think about fitness."
And I suddenly became very afraid.
I wasn't afraid I couldn't hack it. I was afraid my back couldn't hack it.
Ten years earlier, having heard about the great all-body workout and monster calorie burn of rowing, I sat down and attacked a rowing machine at my gym for about 20 minutes. About two weeks later, I was finally able to walk without wrenching pain screaming up and down my spine.
No wonder there's only one or two rowing machines at the gym, I thought -- and why no one is ever using them. It seemed obvious why participation in indoor fitness rowing plunged from 14 million to 6 million from 1987 to 2001, according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Assn. -- and why sales of rowing machines fell from 17% of fitness machines in 1987 to the point where the association no longer kept track.
Who would want to risk rowing when more popular -- and more back-friendly -- alternatives such as steppers, ellipticals and Spinning classes are now on the scene?
But some say that rowing's relentless decline is set for a U-turn. "It's only down because people don't know how to use the machine," says my instructor, Josh Crosby. "Rowing is a technical skill, like golf. Teach people proper form, crank up the music, get enthusiastic, knowledgeable instructors, and they'll love it. Rowing could be the next Spinning."
Now, comparing a back-busting relic like rowing to a worldwide phenomenon like Spinning might seem a little daffy, but the former Brown University rower, 32, is turning naysayers into believers.
Two years ago, Crosby brought 12 ergometers (rowing machines' official name) and the idea for a group rowing program to the Revolution Fitness studio in Santa Monica and soon was selling out seven classes a week. Building on that success, in March he launched the concept at industry bellwether Sports Club L.A., which purchased 25 ergs for its West L.A. club and watched its newborn "Indo-Row" classes max out almost overnight.
In May, Crosby successfully rolled out Indo-Row at Sports Club's Beverly Hills branch and has begun gearing up for September launches in the Irvine and New York clubs, with Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C., down the road.
