Squat Assist Row-N-Ride Machine Benefits
Are you looking to improve your squat performance, boost lower body strength, and have a safer workout?
If so, then you might enjoy reading about the Row and Ride Machine benefits!
Row and Ride Machines, like the Sunny Row-N-Ride and the DB Method Machine, have become popular in recent years! Mostly, thanks to their promotion by celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Ayesha Curry, and Tracee Ellis Ross.
You can find people talking about them everywhere! Particularly on social media, with people sharing #bootypics showing off the results of working out with squat assist machines.
The question is, “Are these machines just popular because of celebrities or do they actually work?”
I set out to answer this question and did a deep dive into everything there is to know about the Row and Ride Machine benefits.
I looked at how it worked, the way it affects the mechanics of squats, and just how practical it is for your daily workouts.
Below, you can read some of the results that I found—and I think you’ll agree that machines like the Row-N-Ride may be just what you need to improve the quality of your workout.
Row and Ride Machine Benefits: How It Works
The Row and Ride Machine is a “squat assist” machine. Literally, it is designed to assist you while performing squats.
It’s comprised of three main components—foot ramps, handles, and an adjustable seat—that work in synchronicity when you perform your squats. When you pull on the handles and push down on the foot ramps, you’re literally pulling yourself upright as you squat. The seat provides a bit of added support beneath your butt to help lift you into the squat.
Included in the package is also a smartphone app. The app gives you access to a variety of home-based workouts using the Row-N-Ride machine to strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves, core, and even your upper body.
Row and Ride Machine Benefits: Why It Works
The Row and Ride Machine delivers a workout that is both more efficient and easier on your joints.
Let me explain…
When you do a standard squat (Front Squat or Back Squat), your legs are doing the vast majority of the heavy lifting. Your core has to engage to maintain your balance and help move through the proper form. However, your legs are working to lower your body (and the weight you’re carrying) into the squat, then push you back up to the standing position.
While this is excellent for your legs, the focus is primarily on your lower body. You’ll absolutely crush “Leg Day”, but your upper body won’t get much of a workout.
With the Row-N-Ride Machine, however, your upper body is engaged to pull the handles toward you. Your forearms, biceps, shoulders, chest, and upper-back do a lot of the work by pulling on the handles to both lift the seat and pull your body upward (“assisting” in the squat). As a result, working out with the Row and Ride gives you a more complete workout.
Check out how the machine operates in the video below:
Due to the smoother and more fluid movement, as opposed to standard squats — the workout is a lot gentler on your joints. People with knee, hip, ankle, and lower back problems will be able to push through their training session without risking injury. It’s an excellent solution to a very common problem that so many people face!
5 Primary Row and Ride Machine Benefits
We’ve explained how and why it works, so now it’s time to focus on the main benefits you can obtain from using the Row and Ride machine:
#1: Incredibly user-friendly for at-home workouts.
I’ve used just about every type of home gym equipment out there—from rowing machines to ellipticals to the Bowflex—and I know just how much of a headache these machines can be to assemble.
Once they’re assembled, though, many of them deliver a workout that could be described as “moderately efficient at best”. Using the Row and Ride, though, is a different story. It’s endurance-focused resistance training done right. It’s a machine that focuses on shredding muscles in the most efficient way possible.
#2: Target your lower body muscles effectively.
A lot of home workout equipment works out your legs, but the focus is on cardio, not muscle-building. With the Row and Ride, however, the end goal is shredding muscle and increasing both your strength and endurance.
You can get a very effective workout even without weights. However, using the Row and Ride at home along with your weight set, can vastly improve the quality of your Leg Day sessions.
#3: No joint pain.
Take it from a tall guy who has wrestled with lower back, hip, and knee pain for most of his adult life: this is an absolute game-changer!
The smoother, more natural-feeling movement definitely helps to take the strain off lower body joints. The “assistance” of the seat and handles means I can compensate for existing pains, aches, or stiffness by adjusting the effort in my upper body to take it easier on my legs.
Sunny even wrote an article on using the Row and Ride with existing knee pain.
After using this machine for a few months, I can say with absolute confidence that it’s much gentler on my joints—and thus a machine I’m far more likely to use regularly.
#4: Speedy and safe post-injury rehab.
Resistance training is absolutely crucial for rehabilitation post-injury (or surgery), and the Row and Ride machine definitely shines as a rehab tool.
If you’re trying to recover from lower body pains (such as in your knees or hips), you can push your legs to their max but still have the assistance of the handles and seat to prevent strain. If you’re trying to give your lower back a chance to heal, the machine serves as an excellent weight-free alternative to Squats and Lunges.
It’s an amazing tool to restore full strength and range of motion through daily/regular training, but without risking additional injury or setting back your recovery by straining your muscles or joints.
#5: Shift focus backward.
What’s interesting about the Row and Ride machine is that it doesn’t just place all the strain on your quads like so many other lower body exercises. Instead, it will realign your posture and redistribute your body weight so that the focus is shifted backward, to your glutes and hamstrings.
There is still plenty of engagement in the quads, but you’ll focus more on the backs of your legs and booty. Regular training of the glutes and hamstrings can help you to develop that rounded, powerful lower body shape that you want (and which looks great in pictures).
Final Thoughts
After doing all this research, it’s pretty clear to see why squat assist machines have become popular in the last few years. They can do an amazing job of stepping up your home workouts while also keeping you safe, preventing injuries, and facilitating more efficient movement.
The fact that they’re also fairly cheap compared to other home gym equipment is just one more of the many Row and Ride machine benefits that you’ll love.
You can check out my review of the Sunny Health Squat Assist Row-N-Ride here.
I also have some proof the machine works in my Before and After Results post.
I also highly recommend traditional rowing machines (of course!) and two of my favorite budget rowers are the Stamina 1399 Air Rower and Sunny Health SF-RW5515 Magnetic Rower.
Check out some rowing machine benefits here and some additional health benefits here.
I hope this information proved useful, and it helped you to decide whether or not the Row and Ride Machine is something you can benefit from.
If you have any questions, comments, or stories of how the machine worked for you (or didn’t!), please leave them below.
Rowing Machine King Founder and Author.