The Ultimate Guide to Power Tower Workouts

You ever go into the gym and see some random new piece in the gym that looks like it was built by aliens (or at least a very bored engineer) for the purpose of pure pain?

Intimidated–or simply confused–you steer clear of this odd-looking training equipment and stick with the devil you know: barbells, dumbbells, cables, etc.

I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to be afraid of these crazy pieces of equipment.

One of these pieces, in particular, is in fact very useful for improving your power, strength, and overall body composition. It’s called the Power Tower or workout tower.

In this article, we’re going to dive deep into what a Power Tower workout consists of, the benefits of using power tower workouts as part of your normal routine, all of the exercises you can do with this equipment, and a few sample workouts you can use in your own gym with the Power Tower.

Let’s get to it!

What’s a Power Tower Workout?

So what’s the difference between a Power Tower workout and other workouts?

While traditional resistance training may have you using free weights or loading up a barbell, Power Towers are made for aiding— and even improving— bodyweight exercises (or calisthenics).

Sometimes, when you’re working out only using your body’s weight as the resistance, you need something extra to either hold onto or use as leverage.

The Power Tower workout station helps in this regard. It combines various bars at differing heights and angles to make your calisthenics training better and simpler in terms of dynamics.

Instead of having to use something uneven or wobbly to maintain proper form, you can use the Power Tower to have a solid, consistent workout.

Power Tower workouts are versatile. You can focus on push and pull days, upper body and lower body days, or do full-body workouts. You can also use this station to aid with mobility training, getting more than you would from just your foam roller.

You can use the upper portion of the Tower to do pull-ups, the middle for anything core and dips, then finish off at the lower portion with some hamstring work.

If you are not quite strong enough to put together a set of pull ups, you should use pull up assist bands. These bands help you reduce your bodyweight as it works against gravity, essentially “reducing” your weight that you have to pull up.

You can do damn near anything with this equipment, which makes it a versatile, all-in-one piece that you could even use as a complete home gym. (Or, if you have a gym membership, just hog the Power Tower for 30-45 minutes.)

Usually, you don’t use weight unless you’re adding weight to a dip belt for pull-ups/dips or you’re holding a small plate for tougher abdominal muscles.

In short, it’s purely bodyweight. This makes it different from every other workout except for bodyweight HIIT and regular calisthenics.

However, a Power Tower workout is more beneficial than random calisthenics because it gives you support, stability, and consistency.

Essentially, you could roll with only HIIT and Power Tower workouts as your entire routine.

Read Also: Best outdoor Pull Up bar

Power Tower Workout Benefits

There are more reasons why you should consider adding the Power Tower to your normal fitness regimen. The benefits of a Power Tower includes:

Working out the entire body (Versatile)

As we mentioned before, you can do any and all exercises that involve your bodyweight. You can work out everything from your calves to your biceps to your chest muscles to your abdominal muscles with a Power Tower. You can also do a number of compound exercises that hit different muscle groups at the same time. This allows for an all-in-one training session by simply using the Power Tower.

Here are the additional recommended supplemental equipment, or accessories you should add to your home gym with a Power Tower, to take full advantage of the versatility of this piece of equipment.

Pull up assist bands

Dip Belts to add weight

Weighted Vest

Gymnastic Rings

Ergonomic design

The Power Tower is built with the athlete in mind. The positioning and width of the bars makes your grip ergonomically correct. That way, when you’re repping out your exercises, your body isn’t compromised due to uncomfortable hand grip placement.

Avoiding injury

In comparison to a heavy-duty or super-fast-paced workout, Power Tower workouts help you stay safe and avoid injury. This is because a workout tower allows you to focus on certain areas of the body. When you can do this, you can perform difficult variations or reps to failure without sacrificing safety. While impossible to do with bars and dumbbells, Power Tower workouts help you fatigue your muscles fully, effectively, and safely.

Easy storage with a compact design

Most workout tower models are mobile and can often break down for easy storage. This makes the Power Tower a versatile asset. You can bring it out whenever you need to work out, or you can fit it somewhere in your abode that’s aesthetically appropriate. By blending into your home decor, the Power Tower will always be there, ready to help you get some gains!

The Power Tower is also ideal for a home gym as it has various training components rolled into one. You can use a workout tower as your dip station, knee raise station, and pull-up bar. If you have limited space, this is the exercise equipment for you.

Affordable for home gyms

A standard Power Tower range is between $100 and $300. That is not bad when considering that this equipment will help you workout your bull body in your home, when compared to a gym membership. While this could be a decent amount for some people, let’s do some math: A normal gym membership could range from $50 to $100 per month.

Power Towers are much cheaper, they still give you a great workout, and you can use your savings to find a sauna elsewhere (not to mention shower in the comfort of your own home, not a locker room). Finally, you don’t have to buy any other equipment–Power Tower is the one and only.

Read Also: Top 5 Best Mass Gainers – A buyer’s guide

Usable for all levels

Whether you’re a newbie or an advanced gym rat, the Power Tower has something for everybody. It has the support for those early on in their development to inspire confidence with the movements— just grab a resistance band or stool as needed. On the other hand, those who want to progress beyond their own bodyweight can add external weight–plates or dumbbells–to their calisthenics routine (we’re looking at you, pull-ups and dips).

Creating unique experiences for the body

Allowing your body to experience variability, you get a very specific experience that no other piece of equipment can offer. The Power Tower gives each body part multiple exercises to experiment with, all while not having to use anything else in the gym.

Ability to perform compound exercises

Doubling down on specific exercises you can do with the Power Tower, compound exercises have been scientifically found to improve your overall body composition. Strength, power, cardiovascular ability…these are all enhanced with compound exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and more. Power Towers are the best tool for expanding your compound exercise arsenal.

As you can see, there are many advantages to implementing a Power Tower into your workout (or, even better, into your home).

Power Tower Workout Station: RELIFE Multi Function Power Tower

Power Tower Exercises

Here is the whole list of exercises you can perform with a traditional Power Tower. With each exercise, we will mention which section of the Power Tower is designed for that specific movement.

Note that if you are not familiar with any of these exercises, we have provided a short video for each of the exercises. Simply use click on the exercise to watch the youtube video and learn.

Top Section: Top bar, various hand grip bars

• Pull-ups/Weighted pull-ups
• Chin-ups/Weighted chin-ups
• Hanging knee/leg raises
• Oblique hanging vertical knee raises
• Side-to-side pull-ups (typewriter pull up)
• One-arm chin-ups
• Front lever pulls
• Back levers
• Muscle-ups (make sure the base is secured and stable)
• Single-bar dips (make sure the base is secured and stable)

Middle Section: Padded backrest, padded armrests, bars at horizontal/vertical positions

• L-sits
• “Seated” leg raise or knee raise
• Windshield wipers
• Bodyweight dips/Weighted dips– stay upright for a tricep dip, lean forward for a chest dip
• Inverted rows
• Inverted bicep curls
• One-arm inverted rows
• Assisted handstands/handstand push-ups (using the backrest)

Lower Section: Leg pads, additional hand grip bars at horizontal/vertical positions

• Assisted calf raises (both or single)
• Glute-hamstring raises/Russian leg curls
• Bulgarian split squats (if the lower section has elevated bars for support)
• Assisted pistol squats
• Assisted sit-ups/crunches and their variations (there are a lot of ways to do these)
• Feet-elevated planks
• Dragon flags (using the bars as leverage)
• Incline push-ups
• Lower triceps extensions
• Side-to-side push-ups
• Assisted one-arm push-ups
• Planche holds

If you have access to a Power Tower with slightly elevated, parallel-to-the-floor hand grip option, use these to have a neutral grip when performing any and all push-up variations.

If you notice, we left out a few calisthenics exercises; that’s because the other ones don’t require any equipment whatsoever. So, the Power Tower, combined with open space, should cover 100% of your bodyweight exercises.

Below, you’ll find three separate workouts where all you need is the Power Tower and nothing else. (Some of the exercises you will do without even the Power Tower.)

Each is created for full body workouts and the sets and reps and rest times can be altered based on your own goals or limitations.

Sample Power Tower Workouts

Sample Workout #1

1. Pull-ups: 4×8-12 (90 seconds rest between each set)
2. Assisted handstands: 3×30 seconds (90 seconds rest)
3. Assisted one-arm incline push-ups: 3×8-12 (90 seconds rest)
4. Glute-hamstring raises: 4×10-15 (90 seconds rest)
5. Assisted pistol squats: 3×6-10 each leg (90 seconds rest)
6. Inverted bicep curls: 2×10-15 (60 seconds rest)
7. Triceps dips: 2×10-15 (60 seconds rest)
8. L-sits: 2x failure (60 seconds rest)

Notes on the workout: This is a basic template, where every single body part is targeted thoroughly, all with the Power Tower.

The muscles of the back, shoulders, chest, legs, arms, and core are all pushed. Of course, if you are at a different level, alter the difficulty of the exercise (i.e., change assisted pistol squats to simply pistol squats or assisted one-arm incline push-ups to side-to-side push-ups).

This workout should take you approximately one hour to complete.

Sample Workout #2

1. Planche holds: 3x failure (120 seconds rest between each set)
2. Weighted chin-ups: 3×6-10 (120 seconds rest); or One-arm chin-ups: 3×3 each arm
3. Assisted handstand push-ups: 3×8-12 (120 seconds rest)
4. Pistol jump squats: 3×6-8 each leg (120 seconds rest)
5. Muscle-ups: 2x failure (120 seconds rest)
6. V-sits (harder variation of L-sits): 2x failure (120 seconds rest)

Notes on the workout: This one is a tough mother. It incorporates many of the advanced calisthenics movements you see ripped individuals attempting for cool YouTube videos. If you can get through this workout unscathed (for the most part), then we bow before you, bodyweight god. This workout should also take you about an hour.

Sample Workout #3

1. Superset: Chest dips + Chin-ups: 4×10 (No rest between exercises; 60 seconds rest between each superset)
2. Superset: Glute-hamstring raises + Jump squats: 4×10 (No rest between exercises; 60 seconds rest between each superset)
3. Superset: Triceps extensions + Inverted rows: 4×10 (No rest between exercises; 60 seconds rest between each superset)
4. Circuit: L-sits, Hanging leg raises, hanging vertical knee raise: 2x failure (No rest between exercises, 60 seconds rest between each circuit)

Notes on the workout: This workout shows you that you can get creative with your Power Tower workouts. Add in supersets, circuits, sets to failure, even drop-sets if you are adding weight to your calisthenics movements.

The sky is the limit! This kind of workout should take less time; you should be able to finish this in under 40 minutes.

Bonus Workout: Tabata

Don’t have time for a full-blown workout? Never fear, the Power Tower is still here! You can get a tremendous workout in as little as four minutes!

Here’s how Tabata works: You go all out on a specific exercise–and we mean ALL OUT–for 20 seconds.

Then you rest 10 seconds. Repeat this format with differing exercises for a total of four minutes. Here is our example:

• Burpees, hanging knee raises, explosive dips (using your feet to help), inverted row, two times.

By doing these four exercises twice over, going 90-100% of max effort for each 20-second set, you should be breathing hard at the end, covered in sweat, and spent.

Not only that, but you still get to include the Power Tower in your workout routine!

Power Tower FAQs

Still not sold on the benefits of Power Tower exercise? Here are a the answers to a few commonly asked questions to help you decide.

Can you put a Power Tower outside?

Many people who place a home gym in their garage also like to capitalize on the space outside. Whether you can safely put your power rack outside ultimately depends on which type you choose. Power towers with soft elbow pads or padded grips are susceptible to the elements. You’ll also want a power tower with an anti-rust, UV ray protective coating, like the Stamina Power Tower line.

What’s the weight capacity of a Power Tower?

The weight limit on a Power Tower ranges anywhere from 250-550lbs, depending on the brand and model you purchase. For example, the well-known Bowflex Body Tower has a weight capacity of 350lbs, while the Power Tower Pull Up Dip Station by Zhichi has a capacity of 660lbs. Pay attention to this feature when shopping for a power rack that’s suitable for your body weight.

Is a Power Tower worth buying?

A Power Tower is worth purchasing if you’re interested in calisthenics and bodyweight workouts at home. If you need a piece of gym equipment that’s affordable, functional, and doesn’t take up much space in your home gym, then this is a fantastic option.

What should I look for in a workout tower?

In addition to the weight capacity and anti-rust coating for outdoor use, you’ll also want to look for versatility. Some Power Towers are simple with just the basic dip bar and pull-up grip elements. Others have padded grips, space for TRX attachments, elbow pads, and other features to enhance make your experience.

It’s also important to consider the overall construction. You want your exercise equipment to support your body weight without rattling and breaking down over time. The size dimensions are also an important consideration, as they’ll impact how much floor space you need. For example, the Marcy Power Tower is uniquely designed with a triangular base to fit in a corner. You might also consider looking for a workout tower with an adjustable height feature.

Conclusion

The Power Tower is an incredible tool that can be used to increase your gains and elevate your time in the gym.

It provides you a unique way to workout with calisthenics, utilizing various stations on the Power Tower. With this, you get a variety of benefits and countless exercises to perform.

Take our Power Tower sample workouts and do them yourself the next time you hit the gym!

We guarantee that if you push yourself to your limit, by simply using the Power Tower, you’re going to feel–and, even better, see–the difference.