Stamina X Fortress Power Tower

This has been a great addition to my training especially helping improve my upper body and grip strength. There is so much you can do with it, and it is very sturdy and solid.

This is exactly what I wanted. If you are looking for in home pull up station and more can’t go wrong here. Stable, nice looking, and easy set up.

This review will focus on the design of the Stamina X Fortress power tower. Anyone interested in knowing what exercises can be done can refer to the product video. The Stamina X fortress is an exceptionally solid piece of equipment. This solidity comes from several factors: the use of heavy gauge steel throughout, its architecture and cross-bracing design, its weight (150 lbs.) and, finally, its footing design and footprint. The product is advertised to have a user weight limit of 250 lbs. I stand 5’9” and weigh 157 lbs. and the tower has not moved or yielded in any way even when performing routines that thrust parts of the body forward, such as standing knee and leg raises. The manufacturing has a finished quality to it: the paint is immaculate and soldered joints neat. Quality of steel and termination explain, in part, the price, which is more than so many of the basic towers available in the market. This product serves as a good illustration that you get what you pay for throughout the workout experience. It is clearly not a commonplace consumer item, nor obviously, a professional piece of equipment, but somewhere in the middle, more along the lines of a prosumer product. Every handle is clad in a 3/16” smooth non-slip synthetic cover which holds fast to the handle and does not turn, yield or squeeze down when gripped intensely, as in the cases, for example, of pull-ups or inverted rows. With the cladding, the handles have a diameter of 1.75 in. Dip bars, which are also used for inverted rows, are adjustable in height from 12 to 24 inches in two-inch increments and are braced firmly to the uprights: no bending, no shaking. To prevent one’s body excessive from swinging and to provide a backstop, the X Fortress uses a thick (4 in.) foam roller that fits very snugly into a cross-brace. This equipment does not have the arm rests that form part of many other power towers and which are used, together with a vertical vinyl pad as a backstop, to engage in vertical knee and leg lifts. In the X Fortress, this is one less thing that will eventually wear down and crack because instead of vinyl arm rests and backstop, it employs abs straps and a foam roller to prop the user and support the back. I find the abs straps to be comfortable and effective in bracing the body, and, together with the backstop roller, they provide stability. Abs straps offer the additional advantage of putting added stress on arm muscles if you wish to lift the body slightly as you execute the knee and leg lifts. For those looking for variation in pull-up or who wish to work on grip strengthening, the X Fortress comes with “Boulder Fit” rock climbing handholds and “Stronghold” grips, which are nothing more than something along the lines of billiard balls that hang from the neutral grip handles. The rock climbing handholds screw conveniently into the frame at the height of the handlebars. All the ancillary equipment — abs straps, rock climbing grips and stronghold grips — can be attached to the power tower at the same time: no need to change and replace. The plyo box is a heavy component, consistent with the heavyweight gauge steel construction. It can be placed in heights ranging from 16 to 24 inches in two-inch increments. It is hung from steel pegs and is secured to the uprights with long bolts turned by round grip handles. To assemble it, the equipment comes with two wrench tools and an Allen wrench. I found that a socket wrench set went a long way in speeding the assembly process, given the considerable number of fasteners involved. To be sure, one person alone can put this equipment together, but, given the weight of the parts, it would be wise to get a helper to putting together the uprights, ensuring well-aligned fasteners with strong fits for a tight frame. It took me and a helper three hours to complete the assembly. Make sure that you place the equipment precisely where you want it because moving it after assembly is no easy matter. Finally, on the subject of customer support, the X Fortress arrived in perfect order, except that one of the abs straps was frayed along the stitching. I phoned customer service and a replacement was shipped without any problems.

Tower is easy to assemble and fun to use. Lots of functionality. Sturdy and made from good materials.

Very sturdy, easy to assemble. You probably need better tools to assemble than the two small, multi-hole spanners they had given, if you have to assemble faster.