I just took a quick break from Prime Day to do a 15-minute workout on the Hydrow Arc rowing machine. Hydrow is the Peloton of rowing machines. (This is fair to say, even though there is literally a Peloton rowing machine, which costs nearly twice as much.)

The Arc is the top-of-the-line offering from Hydrow, which makes touchscreen-enabled machines that provide real-time stats and gentle coaching via video, and it is sadly not for sale on Amazon or during Amazon’s annual event. However, two other machines from Hydrow are included, among them the successor to the original, which we gave an 8/10 review during the late pandemic home-workout boom. The Wave is 11% off, while the Origin is discounted by almost 25%. Each has slight differences in the build and the size of the touchscreen, but each works the same way, using electromagnetic resistance to simulate the experience of rowing across a lake. The Arc is silky-smooth and well-made, and both its display and the content of the videos are top-notch.

You'll actually feel like you're on the water as you flick on the touchscreen to glide across very pretty lakes and rivers, following along with a coach who chats you up and tells you when to relax and when to push. I was just logged in to Lake Lure in North Carolina, a place I have never heard of or considered going but which seems quite nice, actually. (It turns out Lake Lure is where they filmed Dirty Dancing, which is pretty cool.)

The heart of the experience, for me, is the competition. You get a live feed of how other rowers are doing on the same course. You can see how many meters ahead or behind you they are, and can jump position by pulling extra hard. It's a little like Mario Kart, if you were powering the kart (and could not hinder your opponents with banana peels or thunderclouds). When I see a woman in her sixties in front of me but close enough to reel in, you know I'm pushing hard to get past her (even though there are probably dozens of other ladies in their sixties so far ahead I'll never feel their wake).

You also get coaching on your form, both on the screen and via an email sent to you following your session. In the session I just did, I returned to my desk to find an email informing me that my precision was very good, whereas my power and endurance were not. I'll work on that. I am still very new to rowing, but the Hydrow machine has succeeded in getting me excited about it, which is the best you can ask from a piece of workout gear.