I know temperature is all relative, but I just can't handle the cold. I live in California where 50 degrees in the middle of December is considered cold so when the weather predicts frost, I turn to indoor sports or conditioning classes. The most recent I tried was an indoor rowing class. Also known as ergometer or ergo, this indoor rowing machine is the closest thing to rowing out of the water. I had never done any type of rowing before, but I always heard about how complete a workout it was (and observed the toned bodies on crew team members!). I figured that at least my arms were going to get a pretty good workout, and had little expectation of anything thing else. By the end of the class however, almost every part of my body was burning. Rowing is a total body endurance workout. This exercise is great cross training for dancers, bikers, swimmers, and runners as it also recruits arm, leg, chest, shoulders, and back strength and promote core stabilization. It's also low impact, so it's appropriate for those recovering from certain injuries.

Our instructor, Kelly, was very motivational. She took time at the beginning of class to show me the proper technique, and all I can say it's a lot more complicated than it looks. There's much more to the exercise than just pulling the handle, and sliding back and forth. The better the form, the more of a workout you'll get. We started off slowly, doing a 3-minute warm-up and quickly moved into a 1500m drill. Then, with hardly a break, we moved onto the floor to do a circuit of leg lifts, push-ups and planks. By this time, I was out of breath. And the class was far from over! We jumped back on the “ergs" for a high resistance 1250m drill. Following that was another circuit, and a 1750m drill. Finally, we did one last circuit, and an all out 1250m. It was one of the most challenging classes I have taken, and I can't wait to try it again next week. If you're looking for a calorie burning, low impact workout, you should definitely check out your local club gym for an indoor rowing class.

-Ashley Ceaser