There are better ways if all you need is the total record count of a table. Instead of returning all the data you could return just the number of rows (SELECT count(1) FROM table). This will prevent a lot of data being read and displayed on the screen.

Another way is to use the DMV's about the indexes. Read the rowcount from the HEAP (index_id = 0) or from the clustered index (index_id = 1). As far as I know this is the fastest way.

SELECT

object_name(object_id) as table_name

, row_count

FROM

sys.dm_db_partition_stats st

WHERE

index_id < 2

AND object_id = object_id('tablename')