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TURBO
TOWER EXERCISE MACHINE
by Altus Company Prices as of 04/29/2011 on
AMAZON.COM
LIST: $149.99 MARK-DOWN: $66.61 Product Features (as given by AMAZON.COM) • Use for Strength Development, Fitness Exercise and Stretching • Assembles Quickly and Easily in less than 5 minutes • Adjustable Cross Bar - Simply Slide Up and Down allows easy adjustment for multiple workout options • Use with Bench or Step for Barbell Presses and more strength workouts • Holds up to 350 lbs./Exercide Chart Included Reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) lunch.com 04/28/2011 name of review: For less than $70 you can fill a nook in your home with a versatile workout machine rating: * * * * review: by qigongbear TURBO TOWER by Altus looks like a nearly five foot high clothes rack or a frame to dry a large wet towel. Amazon.com sent me a free sample to try out and then review of this made-in-China, assemble-it-yourself, 35-pound, 57 inch high metal exercise framework. It took my septuagenarian wife and four-years older me about 20 minutes to assemble TURBO TOWER after five minutes taking the notably heavy, carefully packaged metal components, nuts, bolts and one small wrench out of their colorful packing box. Also another five minutes were given to looking over the clear two-page "Assembly Instructions." Promised assembly time was five minutes, but, hey, we're old and don't assemble bookshelves, exercise frames or toys for grandchildren more often than we have to. I had planned eventually to donate TURBO TOWER to the workout room of our retirement community (and myself, of course). But it is not sturdy enough, I judge, for heavy use by a variety of exercisers (who dare not weigh more than 350 pounds apiece per instructions -- I am 6'1" and weigh 225) over the course of a busy workout week. I think taking it apart (probably to transport 75 miles south and to give to a son for his home use) will be very easy, and he can certainly reassemble TURBO TOWER in five minutes or less. I don't have that much extra room to keep the frame permanently in our small retirement house. My wife talks of moving it to a patio and covering it. But I suspect it might rust. As I write this review for lunch.com, I have already had the benefit of reading early reviews on amazon.com. Others agree with my wife and me that TURBO TOWER wobbles a bit, left to right, front to back. That wee wobble is the primary reason I would not expect to find the machine in a professional Pilates Exercise Center or in any public workout facility. For heavy, continuous duty or for public service TURBO TOWER does not claim to be. It's not a big wobble, but by all accounts, friend wobble cannot realistically be eliminated. It took me only about 30 seconds of use to feel familiar and safe using TURBO TOWER. Just beneath TURBO TOWER's fixed top bar is an "adjustable bar" that you can use to chin, do arm presses, leg stretches and the like. Two easily added or removed "cloth handle straps" allow you to stretch your legs on an exercise mat below you and pull yourself up and down on the adjustable bar. That adjustable bar is easily raised and lowered and fixed firmly in whatever place you choose by two spring clips among 18 parallel holes about an inch and 3/4 apart spread evenly from top to bottom. There are also barbell holders that can go side by side about 32 inches apart if you want to place barbells on the TURBO TOWER. You would have to supply your own weights and weight pressing bench. The packing box contained a page with 27 illustrations of people using TURBO TOWER. Of these one shows the assembled TOWER. Four show people using weights and back supports and fully 22 show things that you can do with the equipment standing alone: except that five illustrations also show a standard exercise (yoga) mat spread under the TOWER for users to slide their feet along. I have notably tight calves and thighs and work on them via tai chi, Feldenkrais and Pilates. I have already had good usage standing erect before the TOWER and placing my heels one at a time atop the adjustable bar at a medium height and stretching. Put that bar a little lower and I have done standing pushups at an angle. In one illustration, a female is doing full pull-ups with legs lifted off the ground. I have also used the cloth straps to pull myself up off the ground. As I learned from some of the amazon.com reviews, there is a symbiotic relationship between American manufacturer/distributor Altus (of Altus Oklahoma) and fitness trainer Cathe Friedrich. Friedrich enthusiasts among amazon.com reviewers were delighted to use the Cathe-endorsed TURBO TOWER for the list price of $149.99 currently marked down by amazon.com to $66.61. For my part, I was pleased to read a new (to me) theory of exercise: Cathe Friedrich's Shock Training System (STS). Go to the website of both the Altus Company and Cathe Friedrich and find an abundance of training aids, including DVDs. Our congenial TURBO TOWER is no orphan. It is embedded in Cathe Friedrich's theories and practice, supported by Altus's line of equipment and is product of components impressively made in faraway China. I like the TURBO TOWER a lot; and costing less than $70, it's a steal. I might even give TOWERS to fitness-minded friends as birthday presents. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/reviews/d/UserReview-Altus_Athletic_Altus_Turbo_Tower -1732173-206547-For_less_than_70_you_can_fill_a_nook_in_your_home.html =-=-=-=-=-= (2) amazon.com 04/28/2011 title of review: TURBO TOWER: A Steal at $66.61 (including shipping) rating: * * * * review: I am an American male, 75 years old, in good health. I like Altus TURBO TOWER for several
reasons:
-- (1) It came very well
packaged
-- (2) with very clear instructions for assembling -- (3) and with 27 colored illustrations of various ways to use TURBO TOWER -- (4) and costing, if ordered via amazon.com, only $66.61, a 56% or $83.38 saving from the list price of $149.99. -- (5) TURBO TOWER took my wife and me together only 20 minutes from unpacking to set up. And we are notably clumsy at such things. -- (6) Individual metal components included impress as sturdy, shiny, weighty. -- (7) Within minutes I was happily doing exercises adapted from my various classes in tai chi, qigong, Feldenkrais and Pilates. I stretched my tight calves and thighs on the easily adjustable bar with its 18 different heights at one and three-quarter inch intervals from top to bottom. I practiced sitting up using cloth straps part of the original equipment, along lines recently taught at an Asheville Pilates center. I did pushups and chinups with feet extended on the floor in front of me. I look forward to doing perhaps as many as 2/3 of the postures illustrated in the accompanying chart. My
criticisms:
-- (1) The 57 inch TURBO
TOWER wobbles slightly, front to back and side to side. I had thought
of donating TURBO TOWER to the fitness rooms in my North Carolina
retirement community for others to use in addition to my wife and me.
But this is distinctly NOT equipment for public use day in and day out.
-- (2) Although the equipment has two easily snapped in barbell holders if you want to lift weights while reclining beneath them on a self-supplied bench, the equipment frame can support a maximum weight of only 350 pounds, which is just 125 pounds more than what I am packing inside my skin. -- (3) The TURBO TOWER is easily dismantled. And dismantled it must be if you plan to store it out of sight in a small closet or in a bedroom corner. It is not something to display as a work of art in the center of a cramped living room. It reminds of a clothes rack or a frame on which to hang a large wet towel to dry. -- (4) Certain exercises virtually require the user to put a yoga pad underfoot to prevent sliding as she/he pulls on the straps. BOTTOM
LINE:
-- (1) TURBO TOWER is an amazing bargain for what you pay. It is plenty sturdy enough for my private purposes. The wobble is slight and took me about 30 seconds to adjust to. -- (2) One way or another, you can get moderate exercise of many major muscles in your body. TURBO TOWER is a grand supplement to classes in yoga, Feldenkrais, Pilates, QIgong, Tai Chi or to aerobic exercises via bike riding, treadmill and the like. -OOO- https://www.amazon.com/gp/vine/product?ie=UTF8&asin=B0032HW1B4 other reviews http://www.amazon.com/Altus-Athletic-Turbo-Tower/ dp/B0032HW1B4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) epinions.com 04/29/2011 Review Title: TURBO TOWER Exercise Frame Asks Only to be Loved Product Rating: * * * * Pros: An exercise machine that works
out many major muscles. Costs less than $70.
Cons: Wobbles a bit. Unfoldable. Takes up space. Not confusable with expensive Scandinavian parlor furniture. The Bottom Line: TURBO TOWER is a versatile, inexpensive exercise frame. Grand for septuagenarians or exercisers willing to treat TURBO TOWER like a lady. A tad wobbly. 350 pound weight limit. aohcapablanca's Full Review:
A couple of weeks ago amazon.com offered to send me for free an Altus brand TURBO TOWER exercise frame to try out and review. The TOWER arrived yesterday, beautifully packaged and marked "Made in China." And that despite the fact that the Altus Company is headquartered, where else, in Altus, Oklahoma. It took me and my wife only twenty minutes from beginning to end to unwrap and assemble all 30 items in the shipping box, most of them notably heavy pieces of shiny metal. They included a Vertical Upright Post, a Top Bar, an Adjustable Bar, two Barbell Holders, two Handle Straps and four each of Acorn Nuts and Machine Screws. This morning I set to work using this not quite five feet high contraption that reminds of a clothes rack or a large electric towel warmer. Fortunately TURBO TOWER was accompanied by a large folded page with 27 photos of two very fit models chinning themselves, lifting weights, stretching calves and thighs and doing various forms of pushups and pullups, at times with their feet sliding along a yoga mat beneath the TOWER. So far I have emulated about half of what the models were shown doing, except for lifting the weights. Those you have to supply yourself and the only ones I have are made of wood and weigh 2 1/2 pounds each -- an inheritance from my paternal grandfather. Nor did TURBO TOWER come with the back support platform for me to go supine on and lift the weights. I also noticed that TURBO TOWER accepts no more than 350 additional pounds to be suspended. That would allow me to hang no more than 125 pounds from the barbell holders, while suspending myself, knees raised, feet off the ground, from the Adjustable Bar. Those barbell holders, like the adjustable bar to which I also attached the cloth handle straps, fit easily but tightly into any of 18 slots 1 3/4" inches apart from top to bottom of the tower's two 32 inches apart Vertical Upright Posts. There are not many aspects of TURBO TOWER for which I might wish improvement. -- It wobbles a bit from
left to right and from front to back. That only took 15 seconds for 75
year old me to get used to and empathize with.
But being wobbly suggests instability and would, I fear, entail a very short life in the hands of our very fit 41-year old son. If he hits the TOWER the way he tears up his treadmill at home in Dallas, it would be bye-bye TOWER in six weeks or less, alas. By contrast, for a considerate geezer like me -- who knows how to treat a lady -- TURBO TOWER ought to be good for couple of years at least. -- I don't have a lot of
nooks in my small retirement community house and TURBO TOWER is not
something you can fold up and put into a closet. On the other hand, it
is easy to dismantle and re-assemble. My wife wants TURBO TOWER out of
our living room. But I don't like her idea of exiling Miss TURBO to our
patio covered with a tarpaulin when not in use. The metal admittedly
looks like titanium, but I suspect it would rust. So it's either
dismantle it and give it to our other son in nearby South Carolina or
take it apart every day and put it away in a closet. Hmm.
Mainly, I am in love with TURBO TOWER. It's great for stretching my tight calves. And one of its moves with the handle straps reminds me of something I was taught last week in a fashionable Pilates center in uptown Asheville. Moreover, the exercises shown in the pictures seem compatible with what I am learning in Pilates, Feldenkrais, qigong and tai chi classes. And even though I paid nothing for my sample TURBO TOWER, I am also pleased with how little money you or I would have to shell out to buy it on line from amazon.com: only $66.61, a 56% or $83.38 mark-down from the listed price of $149.99. Even at that price I admit that TURBO TOWER would not tempt Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tiger Woods. But for 75-year old me, it's just right. Hey, what's a bit of a wobble among friends? I might just send a TURBO TOWER to a favorite laid back epinionator for a Christmas present. For less than $70, how can you go wrong? Think how many dozen decent restaurant meals for two that you can work off for the price of one TURBO TOWER. What, you need even more information before deciding to buy or not to buy TURBO TOWER? Then consider this: Altus Company markets TURBO TOWER in alliance with famed fitness trainer Cathe Friedrich. I had never heard of Ms Friedrich until my gift from amazon.com arrived yesterday. But my Feldenkrais instructor informed me today that his wife swears by la Friedrich and buys her every new DVD as it comes rolling off the press. ACTION RECOMMENDED: For a different take, I strongly urge some super fit epinionator to try out and review Altus brand TURBO TOWER. I leave it to him or her to supply all the little fine points that are important to top athletes. For laid back geezers like myself, I am going to stop here. 'nuff said. Recommended: Yes -OOO- http://www0.epinions.com/reviews/Altus_Athletic_Altus_Turbo_Tower =-===-=-=-=-=-=-- http://www.patrickkillough.com/ethics/turbotower.html |