Ergatta Rower review: Style meets home fitness function

I recently had the opportunity to try out an Ergatta Rower for some time. As a connected fitness rower, the Ergatta provides everything you need to get a substantial workout using unique gaming styles, but it’s the overall design of the rower itself that truly sets this fitness product apart.

The Ergatta Rower

The Ergatta is a connected home fitness rower from one of the newer fitness brands to hit the market by the same name. The Ergatta’s unique, sustainably sourced Appalachian cherrywood frame offers a home decor-focused design, in addition to delivering owners their daily rowing workouts.

Apart from being aesthetically beautiful compared to competitors, the Ergatta is the only rowing machine on the market focused around gaming rather than instructional classes.

In fact, the company currently does not offer any live classes with instructors. It’s you versus yourself, or the other rowers on your screen. Workouts are specifically focused around goals within a predetermined program, as well as races and intervals against others.

Design

As the Ergatta rower exists as a connected home fitness product, the company designed it in such a way that it delivers both form and function to the home.

Ergatta describes its rower as “living room ready,” and for good reason. The previously mentioned lightweight cherrywood frame is designed to deliver the strength and durability you need during intense workouts (it can support up to 6’8” in height, and 500 pounds), while also offering a sleek warm aesthetic to fit into the decor of the room it’s stored in when not in use.

The rower’s storage footprint is 23” x 22.5” x 86″, and 86” x 23” x 40” when laid flat for workouts. As you’ll see in my video review below, the Ergatta rower I reviewed sat perfectly against my wall next to a bookshelf when not in use, and nicely matched the decor of my family room.

Interface

On top of the beautiful cherrywood frame sits a 17.3” high-definition touchscreen – plenty of screen to easily track your strokes as you row, no matter the workout program you’re in.

The main menu is streamlined and easy to follow, with four main categories offering different rowing workouts – anything from detailed monthly programs to races, or even a scenic row.

I found the touchscreen itself to be quick and responsive, and the size of it is perfect.

Music selection

As I mention in the review below, I thought the Ergatta’s music selection was more than sufficient, especially in terms of categorical variety. I’ve tried nearly every genre on the Ergatta and was pleased most of the time.

Truthfully, I had wished at certain points I could skip a song that I wasn’t vibing with, then discovered the skip feature on my Bluetooth headphones worked with the rower, so I could! The only issue is removing your hand from the rowing handle if you’re trying to skip a song mid-stroke. Definitely not an easy task.

While I enjoyed the music and its variety, the sound quality on the Ergatta itself is no bueno. The sound is emitted from the back of the touchscreen, so it’s very hard to hear when rowing despite the quiet and smooth movement of the machine itself.

The speaker quality in the touchscreen is also not ideal, so the music itself comes out rather grainy and staticky.

I would recommend using Bluetooth headphones or a speaker to get the most out of the music during a given workout. My devices connected just fine, and delivered much better sound to stay immersed.

Fitness programs

The Ergatta rower is unique in that it delivers full body workouts focused on sport and gameplay rather than live instructors. This creates a sort of secure competitiveness against anything on screen, whether it’s a spinning ball, a meteor, other rower usernames, or your own PR.

As you’ll hear in my full review, I personally gravitated toward the Ergatta Push Programs – curated workouts scheduled to be completed over a set timeline.

I found this scheduled approach easier for me to consistently row each week, and loved the variety of workouts the rower provided for me.

As someone fairly new to fitness rowing, I often wasn’t sure what the best workout for me might be each day. The Push Programs allowed me to try a little of everything, and track my progress along the way.

Active intelligence in fitness rowing

Speaking of progress, the Ergatta rower is constantly evolving – both in terms of advancing an owner’s specific fitness routine as well as the workout content itself.

First, the rower will initially ask you to do a quick row to calibrate itself for your level of fitness. Every 10 workouts, it then has you calibrate again, and will adapt the targets and goals of future workouts to fit your current strength level.

In this sense, the Ergatta excels alongside you to ensure it’s delivering the most effective rowing workouts each time you turn it on. This technology-driven approach to not only improve the accuracy of the machine, but to adapt to your own personal fitness journey, was quite impressive.

In addition to adapting to your own progress, the Ergatta software is constantly updated via over-the-air updates every couple weeks. We have already seen an entire revamp of the rower’s Race category, which is quite an upgrade.

I personally hope the company applies similar updates to all of its games, as I feel they could use more visual stimulation and goals happening on screen. I enjoyed the gameplay, but the spinning ball or dipping meteor tended to lose their excitement on screen after a while.

In a society where we’re unfortunately staring at our phones all day, it would be nice to see some more dopamine-inducing visuals to keep rowers engaged throughout each workout, just my thought.

Ergatta video review

As promised, I go into greater detail below in my Ergatta video review, including the unfortunate run-in I had with my ceiling fan (hint: the Ergatta won). Check it out:

Try out Ergatta and review it yourself

Intrigued? You should be! After reviewing the Ergatta rower, I think it’s a beautifully designed connected fitness product that stands out since it doubles as a piece of furniture when not in use.

It is smooth, quiet, and delivers all the content you need to get a serious workout in. Not to mention, it’s perfect for the whole family.

Check out the Ergatta rower yourself and tell us about it, we’d love to hear your review.

If you order before October 15 through this link, you can receive a complimentary Hypervolt Go as well.