It's true you've purchased fitness equipment before. The all-in-one home gym is in multiple pieces in the garage, because you can't get the spare part to fix it. You promised your spouse you were going to use that mountain bike, but that's gathering dust in the garage too. And jogging just makes your knees hurt. Despite earlier bad fitness equipment purchases, you still want some fitness training.

I know it may sound like a waste of good money after previous bad purchases, but have you considered investing in a rowing machine? Not like the one you purchased from a mail-order catalog, a pneumatic piston contraption that felt nothing like real rowing. The one that broke within a week, just like the home gym sitting in your garage. I mean high quality equipment. It's like your mountain bike, but you can use it for just a few minutes while watching TV, instead of getting sunburned outside.

Exercising on a quality rowing machine feels like you're actually rowing a boat on water. It is also so quiet that exercising while watching TV is no problem, though you may need to increase the volume a bit, as they are not completely quiet. No need to worry about disturbing your spouse in the next room, either. Another benefit is the low impact to joints.

The best thing about rowing is the full-body workout that it gives you. It works your legs, arms, and even your back. For a complete workout, just add in few pushups for your chest and triceps, and you've got a fully balanced workout.

Rowing works the entire body and a rower trains multiple areas of the body. Are you trying to increase your strength? To do this, you need to increase the resistance on the rowing machine and do short sprints. Do you want to increase your endurance? Decrease the resistance and go for a longer period of time and a greater distance. Do you like to compete? There are rowing machine competitions. You can sign up for one of these to maintain your motivation and have something to work towards.

Though money for the top of the line is often money well spent, beware diminishing returns. A $1000 rower from a new company may or may not be a great deal, but a reliable and established company is more likely to keep replacement parts in stock. But when in doubt, buy used. People who love rowing rarely give up their rowing machines, but sometimes they do break and the owner doesn't know it can be an easy fix and let them go for pennies on the dollar.