Hammer Cobra XT Rowing Machine Review
The Hammer Cobra XT Rowing Machine is another of the high quality rowing machines available from one of the most experienced companies available when it comes to sports and fitness equipment.
With several improvements over the Cobra XTR, such as being battery powered compared to using mains electricity, there are also a few important differences.
This product article aims to look at all the main features of the Cobra XT as well as comparisons between itself and the higher priced XTR model.
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Design features
Similar in design to the Cobra XTR, the Hammer Cobra XT rowing machine is packaged in relatively few parts to help make construction quicker and simpler.
The user manual features a page for each of the steps, which clearly shows an exploded drawing of how the different parts fit together.
The only slightly tricky part is attaching the rowing track to the main flywheel housing. Total time taken from unpacking all the parts to having a fully working rowing machine should still be comfortably less than an hour.
One of the only major differences in the design is the XT uses a manual hand wheel design for adjusting the rowing resistance, which is positioned within easy reach between the foot plates.
This still has 10 different resistance levels but saves any fiddling with small buttons on the display console, making adjusting the resistance much quicker.
A solid aluminium rail and heavy gauge steel frame make sure that despite the lower price compared to the XTR, the Hammer Cobra XT still maintains the 120kg user weight limit.
The 5kg magnetic resistance flywheel has also been designed on roller bearings to ensure a smooth and quiet rowing movement when in use.
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Hammer Cobra XT – Features Summary
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- From established German brand HAMMER AG
- 10 range resistance adjustment for multiple intensity workouts
- Folding Design for easier storage
- A very solidly built machine, CE Approved and TUV Certified to German standards
- Sturdy construction with 120Kg (19 Stone) max user weight
- 2 Year warranty on all parts
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Resistance levels and workout programmes
While the button layout and overall design of the display console is similar to the Cobra XTR, the Hammer Cobra XT does have one major difference. This is in the lack of workout programmes.
While not having any preset workout programmes won’t directly affect the effectiveness of your training, some people do prefer being offered a more structured range of workouts to bring more variety to their training.
There is still a method of measuring your overall fitness which isn’t available on many other rowing machines. When you reach the end of your workout you can press the ‘Pulse Recovery’ button on the display to enter a type of fitness test (must be wearing some form of compatible heart rate transmitter).
For the next 60 seconds this will measure how quickly your heart rate returns to normal levels once you have stopped rowing. At the end of 60 seconds a figure will be displayed to act as an indication of your overall fitness.
This will be a grade of between F1 and F6, with F1 being the best. Having an indication of your general fitness like this will give you a clear target to aim for over many training sessions as well as a clear way of measuring your improvement.
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Display console design
Aside from the lack of preset workout programmes there is still the clearly laid out LCD screen design.
This is used to keep you constantly informed about your number of strokes for that workout, average time for a 500m row, time, estimated calories burned and distance.
Although there are no specific heart rate training programmes, the Hammer Cobra XT does feature a pulse receiver and has a section on the display screen for showing your heart rate.
Your current heart rate will be shown only if you are wearing a compatible heart rate training belt.
Whereas most rowing machines feature a display console that is fixed in place, the display on this rowing machine has a tilting mechanism to allow you to tilt the display up and down to find the level where you can see the screen most easily.
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