I bought a Concept 2 rowing machine eighteen months ago and it’s been one of the better fitness decisions I’ve made. Rowing is a full-body workout, it’s low-impact on the joints, and the Concept 2 is genuinely the best piece of home gym equipment I’ve owned. There was, however, one significant problem: the seat.
The Concept 2 seat is a hard plastic shell with a thin moulded surface. It’s functional and durable, but after about fifteen minutes of rowing it becomes genuinely uncomfortable. Not mildly uncomfortable — the kind of uncomfortable that makes you stop. I was cutting sessions short not because I was tired or out of breath, but because I couldn’t sit on the seat any longer. That’s a frustrating reason to stop exercising.
The Seat Problem
The Concept 2 seat discomfort is, I’ve since discovered, a very common complaint among rowers. The machine itself is exceptional — the flywheel, the damper, the monitor, the build quality are all best-in-class — but the seat is the one area where comfort was clearly not the priority. For short sessions or for people who are used to it, it’s fine. For longer sessions, or for people who are newer to rowing and haven’t built up the tolerance, it’s a genuine barrier to training.
I’d tried cycling shorts with padding, which helped slightly but not enough. I’d tried adjusting my technique, which made no difference. The problem was simply that the seat was hard and my sessions were long enough that it mattered.
Why I Chose This Cushion
The Rowing Machine Seat Cushion with 3" Memory Foam was designed specifically to fit the Concept 2, which was the first thing that caught my attention. Generic seat cushions don’t account for the shape and dimensions of the Concept 2 seat, which means they shift around during the rowing stroke and create their own problems. A cushion designed for the machine would stay in place.
The 3-inch memory foam depth was also significant. I’d tried a thinner cushion before — about an inch of foam — and it compressed almost immediately under my weight and provided very little benefit after the first few minutes. Three inches of memory foam would compress but retain enough structure to provide sustained cushioning throughout a session.
The washable cover was a practical consideration. A seat cushion on a rowing machine is going to get sweaty, and being able to remove and wash the cover rather than trying to clean the foam directly was important for hygiene and longevity.
First Session With the Cushion
I fitted it to the Concept 2 before my next morning session. The straps secured it firmly to the seat — it didn’t shift at all during the rowing stroke, which had been my concern with a cushion of this thickness. The memory foam compressed under my weight and then held its shape, providing consistent cushioning throughout the session.
I rowed for forty-five minutes. That’s three times longer than my previous sessions had been running. I stopped because I’d completed my planned workout, not because I couldn’t sit on the seat any longer. The difference was immediate and significant.
The Impact on My Training
In the six months since I started using the cushion, my rowing has changed substantially. My average session length has gone from about fifteen minutes to forty to fifty minutes. My weekly rowing volume has roughly tripled. I’ve completed my first 10,000 metre session, which I’d been aiming for since I bought the machine but had never managed because of the seat discomfort.
The fitness benefits of that increased volume are real and measurable. My resting heart rate has dropped. My 2,000 metre time has improved by nearly a minute. I’ve lost weight that I’d been trying to shift for a couple of years. None of that would have happened if I’d kept cutting sessions short at fifteen minutes.
I’m not claiming the cushion is responsible for all of that — the work is still the work. But the cushion removed the barrier that was preventing me from doing the work, which amounts to the same thing in practice.
Durability and Maintenance
Six months of near-daily use and the cushion is holding up well. The memory foam hasn’t lost its structure or compressed permanently. The cover has been washed probably twenty times and is still intact and fitting correctly. The straps are still secure and haven’t stretched or frayed.
The washable cover is genuinely useful — I wash it weekly as part of my general gym kit laundry, and it comes out clean and dries quickly. A seat cushion that couldn’t be washed would become unpleasant fairly quickly given the amount of use it gets.
Where to Find It
The Rowing Machine Seat Cushion with 3" Memory Foam is available in the Rowing Machine Accessories & Parts and Cardio Machine Accessories & Parts collections, within the broader Cardio and Fitness & General Exercise Equipment ranges.
If you have a Concept 2 and you’ve been cutting sessions short because of seat discomfort, this cushion is the solution. It’s a small purchase relative to the cost of the machine, and the impact on training volume is disproportionately large. I wish I’d bought it the week I got the rower rather than eighteen months later.
— Marcus Webb, Concept 2 owner, reformed fifteen-minute rower, and now the person in his household who gets up at 6am to row for forty-five minutes before work
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