The Stamina Power Tower 1700 is great for doing resistance exercises to supplement any routine. It is essential for building strong lats, biceps, abs, and more. Any one who wants to have a home gym, should give this one some room in their home. The first thing to do is free up some space to assemble the tower. It can take half an hour to fifty minutes, less with help. It comes with the tools and parts you need. If you are missing anything, you can ask Stamina for replacements. Once assembled, it looks great and is ready for your routine. Probably the main reason for owning any power tower is for developing the back with chin ups. This will definitely do the job. Many towers have two separate grips for doing chin ups. This tower comes with one wide bar for doing wide grip chin ups and for close grip chin ups. Which is the advantage of having a single bar. It allows for variations in grips to target the different areas of the back. Get the V shape with the wide grips and close the back with close grips. The bar has a 250 pound capacity which is good enough for the vast majority of users and allows for use of weight attachments to further challenge your muscles. There is also a dip station to develop more muscles and gain strength. One muscle group to work out is the lower chest. By lowering your shoulders to your hands in the dip, your lower chest will become more defined and sculpted. The triceps also develop more strength with every rep. The shoulders burn and develop more endurance. The arms become more able to perform other exercises as a result of dips. The bars have the same 250 pound limit as the chin up bar. So as your arms get stronger, you can wear weight attachments to increase the intensity. Dips are neglected even though it is a serious strength developer. A must for any routine. There is also a set of bars for doing push ups. This exercise helps build endurance in the arms and rips the chest with high reps. They are raised about half a foot above ground level to go deep in the push up. They are not adjustable so changing speed or using a chair/bench is the only way to change up the exercise. Elevated feet during a push up work the upper chest. So with the dip station, the push up bars, and a bench/chair, you can develop all areas of the chest with this tower. Together with the chin up bar, a chest and back superset workout can be performed to develop the upper body. The extension arms allow for ab exercises to be included in your routine. You can do leg raises to target the lower abdominals. Raise your legs as high as possible without using swinging momentum to perform a proper rep. You can also do the knee raise variation. Do both knees together or alternate to burn the lower abs. Obliques can also be targeted by turning to the side when raising your knees. For more intensity, use the chin up bar for these exercises. You can do crunches and sit ups by placing your heels on the base of the bottom bar and toes behind the bar above. Keeping your legs stiff, back straight, raise your upper body slowly up and slowly down. Cross your arms over your chest or place your fingers behind your neck. Look up when doing these exercises. With good form and enough reps, you will sculpt your abs. As far as any shortcomings, there are few. If you blast a chin up, the whole tower might sway. Not a huge concern, but still. It will not buckle as long as you assembled it right and are under the weight limit. It could be heavier to withstand sudden shocks. You could also bolt it down with the proper parts. But this does not come with any necessary for that, and does not have holes in the base bars to allow for bolting down. The back support is made of flimsy wood, and if you don't lean up high enough, it will crack from the force of your legs coming down during leg raises. All said, this is a great tower for dips, chin ups, abs, and even some push ups. A good addition to any home gym.

GRec20

Pompano Beach, FL