Power towers are a piece of calisthenics workout equipment. They come in all shapes and sizes and provide you with a vast amount of exercise. From pull-ups and dips to leg raises and incline push-ups. A Bowflex power tower can offer a full-body workout if you know how to use it properly. But how exactly do you use a Bowflex power tower?
When it comes to using a Bowflex power tower, there are a myriad of exercises that you can do on one. Depending on what comes with your Bowflex power tower of choice, you can do:
- Pull-Ups
- Dips
- Leg Raises
- Incline Push-Ups
- Decline Push-Ups
- Knee Raises
- Front Lever Pulls
- Back Levers
- Chin-Ups
- Muscle-Ups
This is just a small list of workouts that you can do on a Bowflex power tower. As long as the base of the power tower is stable, you can use your imagination to do just about anything on a power tower.
As you continue to read this article, we will be describing how to use your Bowflex power tower. Along with this, we will also go in-depth about the benefits of owning a power tower and the benefits of doing calisthenics.
How To Use A Bowflex Power Tower
Power towers are among the most incredible pieces of equipment on the market. Finally, there’s a place for it in your exercises, whether you’re building an excellent home gym or exercising at a commercial gym. Power tower exercises generally employ body weight, but with the appropriate additions, such as weighted clothes, there is space for you to expand enormously.
A power tower is packed with different exercise opportunities. Below, we will go over a few of the exercises that you can do on a power tower to get a full-body workout.
- Pull-Ups And Chin-Ups
The pull-up is the first and perhaps most popular exercise for the power tower that we will talk about. All that is required are the high bars at the top of the machine. The only challenge is to grab and hold onto the bars. This can be done easily for taller people. However, you can jump or even stand on a box or crate to reach the bar as well.
These power tower exercises are great for back training, but they also help build your shoulders and biceps. These movements may significantly increase your upper body pulling strength. In addition, they broaden your shoulders and back.
While chin-ups are slightly easier to do than pull-ups, they focus more on your arms than your back. When you do chin-ups, your hands are gripped onto the bar with your palms facing you. This will make you utilize and work out your biceps more than your chest or back. To do a chin-up, grab the bars with your palms facing you. Once you are ready, engage the muscles in your arms to list yourself up until your chin passes the bar.
For pull-ups, your grip is going to be slightly different than a chin-up. Firstly, you will grip the bars with your palms facing away from you. Most of the time, your arms will be spread further apart, allowing you to use your back in conjunction with your arms. Once you are in position, use the muscles in your upper back and your arms to lift your body until your chest touches the bar.
- Tricep Dips
For tricep dips, your Bowflex power tower will use its extended arms to allow you to rest your arms or hands on the grips. When in this position, lift your legs off the ground. Crossing your feet together will help keep you from touching the ground. Once you are ready, extend your arms upwards until they are fully outstretched. Finally, relax them until you are back in the starting position.
While this exercise focuses more on your arms, you can add additional stress to your chest by leaning forward on your power tower.
Bowflex power towers often include cushioning for your hands to make them as comfortable as possible to do, which also means that it may truly isolate the triceps because there is no other point of contact from the body to the floor. All of the weight is dependent on the triceps, which is difficult to reproduce.
- Leg And Knee Raises
When it comes to Bowflex power towers, there are many different variations in leg and knee raises. Most power towers come with padding for your arms and back where you can sit comfortably on the same outstretched arms where you do dips.
However, you can also hanging leg and knee raises by holding your body off the ground on the pull-up bars. Furthermore, some models come with slings where you can balance your weight on your arms. Finally, you can add gymnastic rings to your Bowflex power tower as well for leg and knee raises. All of these additional options allow you to add other muscle groups to your leg or knee raise workout.
Leg and kine raise work on your core muscles more than anything else. While you are doing this exercise, keep your back straight and keep your legs together. Use your legs as dead weight, and lift them using your core muscles. For leg raises, raise them until they are perpendicular with the rest of your body. For knee raises, lift your legs as high as you want to.
- Push-Ups
Most Bowflex power towers come with grips at the bottom of them. These grips are used to add variations to your push-up routine. Some Bowflex power towers allow you to extend the height of these grips for slightly easier push-ups. Furthermore, some towers come with a bench where you can lay your feet for some more difficult decline push-ups.
What Are The Benefits Of A Bowflex Power Tower?
The benefits associated with a Bowflex power tower apply to all power towers. Other than a few differences like a bench or more pull-up grip options, most of them are the same. With that said, there are plenty of reasons why you should add a Bowflex power tower to your home gym. The benefits of owning a power tower include:
- Power Towers Offer You A Full Body Workout
As previously stated, you can do just about any workout that involves using your body weight on a power tower. For example, you can do pull-ups with different grips to target specific muscles in your arms, shoulders, and back. In addition, you can do quite a few different leg and knee raises to work out your abs in different ways. Certain Bowflex power towers also offer options that allow you to work on your calves and even your chest.
With a Bowflex power tower, you can even do compound exercises that will let you train different groups of muscles simultaneously. Thus, a power tower truly allows for an actual all-in-one workout.
Furthermore, you can purchase additional equipment to use alongside your power tower. Additional equipment like:
- Dip belts to add extra weight
- Pull-up assist bands
- Weighted vests to add extra weight when doing specific exercises
- Gymnastic rings to provide you with alternative grip options
As you can see, with a Bowflex power tower, the sky’s the limit when it comes to different exercise options.
- Compact Design Offers Easy Storage And Takes Up Little Space
When it comes to setting up and storing your power towers, you can bet that it will be quick and easy. Power towers are manufactured to be quick to set up and disassemble. Not only that, but power towers are very compact when they are set up. Being compact and easy to set up and disassemble gives you the option to take it out when you want to work out or leave it set up somewhere in your home.
- Bowflex Power Towers Are Inexpensive
Purchasing a Bowflex power tower is a fantastic idea when you want to start making a home gym or if you want to add to it. Power towers are relatively inexpensive for the number of workout options that they provide. Only costing roughly $100 to $400, depending on what tower you choose to purchase. There are more expensive power towers on the market, and these towers will come with more additions that provide other workout opportunities.
While this might seem expensive for some people, it’s not much different if you compare it to your regular gym membership. A standard gym membership can cost you anywhere from $50 to $100 a month. Sure, you can have access to a myriad of different workout equipment. However, if you aim to stay in shape and healthy, you can purchase a power tower that will allow you to do so from the comfort of your own home.
What Are The Benefits Of Calisthenics
When it comes to working out on a power tower, you are going to be doing calisthenics. Calisthenics is a form of strength training that uses your body as weight. Every exercise that you do on a power tower is considered calisthenics.
With that said, there are plenty of benefits that you gain from doing calisthenics. Below is a shortlist of some of those benefits.
- Calisthenics Combines Strength Training And Cardio
If performed correctly, calisthenics may provide an excellent cardio exercise. Of course, there is no such thing as a single “correct” method to accomplish anything. However, if you want to increase your aerobic fitness, completing circuits of body-weight exercises is a fantastic way to train aerobically.
Switching between muscle groups in this manner allows you to complete the circuit with minimal rest. Your heart will be racing, you will gasp for oxygen, and you will be drenched in sweat. Working out will improve your cardiovascular fitness and endurance while also making you strong and muscular.
- Calisthenics Is The Best Exercise To Combat Aging
As you grow older, naturally, your body will start to decay and lose function. However, because calisthenics is based around your body weight and your body’s natural movement, it can be used to stay healthy well into your later years.
Calisthenics is the best exercise to combat aging because it targets things you begin to lose as you age. Things like your joint strength, posture, core stability, and balance are all things that calisthenics works to strengthen. Unfortunately, as you grow older, these are key areas that start to degrade. However, with calisthenics, you can stay healthy and fit well into your 70s and even older.
- Calisthenics Targets All Of Your Muscles
You may work out numerous muscle groups at once when practicing calisthenics. Pull-ups, for example, strengthen your arms, lower back, and abs. Body-weight exercises have natural movement patterns that involve using several areas of the body at the same time. Therefore there is no isolation training in calisthenics. Weight lifting activities, on the other hand, do not fall under this category. Every session in weight lifting exercises targets a different muscle group.
Because calisthenics works out different muscles simultaneously, it makes a fantastic way to lose weight. After performing strength training activities that include calisthenics, your body will continue to burn calories for hours, often up to 24 hours.
Although this may be useful in ensuring that you practice and concentrate on each muscle separately, when you miss days when you are meant to train on specific muscles, those muscles generally get underdeveloped. You do not want this to happen; an example would be having a buff upper body and a small lower body.
Final Thoughts
Bowflex power towers are a great addition to any home gym. They are allowing you to work out a massive portion of your body at a moment’s notice. Not only that, but calisthenics is one of the best forms of working out and can keep you healthy as you get older.