About myself: 74kg, 179cm, 60 years old (more precisely, in 3 weeks). Was a competition swimmer in my youth and as young adult, later focused on long distance running. Finally switched to rowing ergometers. I did probably 28000 kilometers on the Concept2 of which only 12000 are documented because in the beginning I missed to document entire years. Since February 29th 2024 I switched to the Biorower Pro, which I consider to be one of the best investments of my life! To explain that, I have to mention I hurt my back in my twenties. Since then I had a constant presence in my lower back. Not always hurting, but always there. Basically I can do everything, sometimes I make a bad move and then have problems to stand upright for a couple of days. Rowing does strengthen your back. So I did a lot of rowing on the Concept2, but I had to be very conscious about my movements, because one bad move and it felt like a shot in the back. Usually I had that under control, but rowing on the Concept2 always felt like balancing on a razor blade. One bad move and you hurt yourself.

Then my wife happened to see the Biorower web page and the wild claims how good that thing is for your back. We all know how marketing works, don’t we? Fortunately I got the opportunity to test the machine. A different world. Let me explain. The usual rowing ergometers are based on the same principle. You grab a bar, hands in shoulder wide distance from each other, and pull. The hands always at the same distance through all the movement. The Biorower simulates real ores, the hands move on partial circles and, like in a real boat (I never sat in a real rowing boat), at mid-pull the left hand is over the right hand. That also means, going forward the hands move outside to the left and right. This lets you stretch your spine which makes all the difference. After a couple of weeks of training with the Biorower I noticed I was missing something: The persistent presence of where I had hurt my back was gone! For the first time in 30 years I am standing there, feeling nothing! Also, the movement on the Biorower is more complex than on the have-a-shoulder-wide-grip rowing ergometers, which I like. After 1920 documented kilometers on the Biorower I feel I can claim to have some experience. In normal years I row between 2200 and 3000 kilometers. Ergometer rowing is the only sport I do. I enter the machine, row, get off, that’s it. No warming up, no stretching, no weight lifting. Weight lifting being the only thing that I admit could be benefitial for my rowing, but I hate it.

So far my best results on the Biorower: 15346m in 1h 10-OCT-2024 (pace of 1:57.2), 29368m in 1:55:48.9 on 10-DEC-2024 (pace of 1:58.7).