If you’re serious about fitness, I’m sure you’ve thought about putting together a home gym. It could be a Zen sort of place where you can suffer and improve yourself in peace and quiet away from the chaos of the outside world, or a raucous corner of the world where you can workout with just your friends and no one else.

When looking to fill your gym with machines, you probably take the time to look at fitness sites and ads about fitness machines. If you’ve taken the time you will have discovered that many of these are useless, and some of them are even dangerous to use. It can be hard to determine which will be good for you and which will just hurt you.

A rowing machine is one machine that can be very useful when compared to its cost, and which a person will not be tired of. This machine is not a versatile equipment like an exercise ball or a barbell and can be expensive, but it is not costly like a good treadmill.

The cost of the superior model of rowing machines and that of treadmills are very different, and I will tell you why. Treadmills have all sorts of electronics and mechanical parts, as well as the need to withstand the impact of people running, no matter what their size. The rowing machine, however, is less complex, so those parts don’t have as high a price.

You may think a rowing machine offers only a single set of exercises, and the only thing you can vary is repetitions. However, it is possible to perform the same types of sprints and distance training you do on a treadmill or stationary bicycle. The significant difference with a rower is the workout you give your arms and chest.

It does have its limitations, though. A rowing machine isn’t all that useful for developing most beach muscles. Your abs, triceps, chest, and shoulders will need added work to balance what the back, biceps, legs, and butt get with the rower. And, at least for your legs, it does lock you into one pattern of movement, so you probably don’t want to use a rowing machine as your only exercise lest you risk repetitive strain injuries.

One item of equipment that will give you the most value over the course of time is a rowing machine. Whilst it may not give the versatility of something like an exercise ball and costs a bit more, it’s is nowhere near as costly as a good treadmill. The rower concentrates mostly on the back area, butt and lower body with a little bit of biceps so the rest of your arms, the chest and the core will need extra work to balance the body.