When using a rowing machine, it’s important to practice good form if you want to get the most out of your workout. It’s best to have a rowing coach or instructor who is familiar with the machine to teach you the correct rowing technique.

Hold, Run, Restore: It is important to learn the four basic techniques of paddling. These are catch, drive, finish and recover. Peloton rowing instructor Alex Karwoski says your starting position should look like this: “Start in a fully compressed position – arms extended, body turned slightly forward, and knees close to your chest.” From here you want to push with your legs to drive the chair and hold it away from the canvas. Karwoski explains that, “for the first third to half of the car, our legs are doing the main work while our arms and our bodies are tied and holding the pressure.” Then, when the doors reach about 45 degrees to the ground, the vibration of the body begins. He says the key to body swing is to think about “adding power” to the handle. The legs begin to move the internal flywheel, and this is where the legs and body work together to increase the speed of the flywheel. “Finally, our arms are involved at the end of the stroke and we pull the handle up to our chest,” he says. When everything is finished, you start the recovery phase of the stroke, which is different from the hands and the hands move away from the body, then the body moves forward, and the legs press back to the fish.

Don’t abuse the pull factor: The pull element is often shown as a drop handle on a regular rower. On modern paddlers, like some of those mentioned in this list, they are included in the program. “A lot of people think that moving this from, say, three to ten makes the machine harder, but what it does is just increase the amount of speed that the flywheel goes down and make the stroke heavier because now it’s started. It’s like you’re rowing instead of water,” he explains. Karwoski. In other words, avoid mistaking “pull” for “rate of speed” or “power.”

Find out what the main measure is: The main component measured when rowing is output. Karwoski explains that when you row, each stroke takes a long time so the work being measured is the force used to move the flywheel. He says, “from the output, we can find a distribution, which is given according to the time it will take a line of 500 meters for the given data and distance.” Another thing to look at is the number of strokes, which is the number of beats you can take, if you keep your current song, in a minute. “I encourage people to focus on output because that’s the big number that’s usually in the middle of the screen,” Karwoski said. Keep in mind that different flywheels have different metrics that are evaluated, but in the end it’s all about how much power you can use in the drive to move the flywheel.

Ways to avoid rowing: As with any exercise, it is important to get permission from your doctor if you are worried or pregnant. “If you’re coming back from an injury — and that injury doesn’t stop you from being on a rowing machine — cycling can be a great way to get your cardiovascular health back on track,” says Peloton rowing instructor Katie Wang. This is a great way to get the benefits of cardio exercise while taking care of your bones and knees.