Rowing is a physically demanding sport, if not a torturous one, but it can also be one of the most meditative and rewarding. While rowing on the water is physically tough, rowing ups the mentally tough-factor since the only scenery changing around you as you endlessly slide and pull is the screen in front of you. To help make rowing more stimulating and general home fitness a little more interactive, Tom Aulet designed Ergatta, a gaming-inspired rowing machine crafted by WaterRower that delivers a full-body workout and places you center stage in your own sport-focused video game.
Aulet designed Ergatta through the lens of a virtual gaming experience because he believes physical fitness should feel less like taking a class and more like playing a sport. Once users get their shoes fitted and fastened into the machine’s classic foot strap, then let the experience begin. Each rower is outfitted with a tablet that provides an interactive gaming experience for each workout. There are a couple of different options for picking the exact gaming experience they’d like to play. Also, if you’re bored of the traditional workout techniques, this is a great way to stay fit!
The tablet’s main display screen provides four different gaming options: race workouts, push programs, interval workouts, and open rows. Race workouts incorporate the larger Ergatta community, giving Ergatta-users the chance to race against one another in real-time to encourage some friendly competition. The race workout feature is perhaps Ergatta’s most significant appeal as every two weeks, a new software is cycled into Ergatta’s programming so that users won’t ever feel the lull that comes with rowing back and forth with only an unchanging screen in front of you. Since Ergatta was designed by WaterRower, users can row assured that their workouts will allow for self-paced, smooth resistance, the pleasing sound of flowing water, while remaining relatively quiet.
Similar to the coaches we had when we’d play sports in school, each Ergatta rowing machine comes equipped with Active Intelligence that guides each user through workouts and offers in-real-time feedback to reinforce the importance of pacing, form, and breathing for each rower. Despite the widespread assumption that it’s a primarily upper-body sport, rowing also requires a lot of power from your core and legs. In fact, rowing hits 86% of muscle groups and helps strengthen and repair bodily trouble spots like bad knees or poor posture.
Designer: WaterRower x Ergatta
Push Programs track your progress over time to help you reach and set personal records by increments, leading up to a final challenge to put your progress to the test.
Interval Workouts include spicy HIIT training like Tabata workouts and tempo rows for short, but effective targeted rowing.
Race Workouts bring Ergatta users from every corner of the cyber boathouse to compete against one another and fight to the finish line.
For a more relaxed row, Ergatta users can opt for an Open Row which allows users to pace and design their own workouts.
