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The Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus is a portable pull up bar strong enough to support 250 lbs, with quick and easy assembly.
Multiple grip positions allow you to perform pull ups and chin ups with neutral, supinated, and pronated grips, to strengthen your biceps, shoulders, and back muscles.
But how does the Stamina Doorway Trainer compare to other bestselling home gym pull up bars, like the ProSource Heavy Duty Doorway Trainer?
In this review, we’ll walk you through the features and installation process, to help you decide if this is the best pull up bar for your own home workouts.
Design Features
The Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus has a similar design to many other doorway pull up bars, with a couple of important differences.
Firstly, the weight capacity is lower, at 250 lbs. This is compared to the 300 lbs that comes as standard with the Garren Fitness Maximiza, Ultimate Body Press XL, and dozens of other straight and leverage type doorway pull up bars.
Another subtle difference is the grip positions. Unfortunately, Stamina haven’t attached a second set of pull up bars to the curved handles. This means you can’t achieve the same wide grip that you can with the Sportneer Multi-Grip Trainer or Perfect Fitness Multi-Gym Pro.
The bar sections are mostly covered in high-density foam to relieve pressure on your hands and improve your grip. But there’s a gap in the padding through the middle of the straight bar, which limits how close your hands are doing chin ups.
Having a sturdy steel construction helps create a sturdy base for pull ups, and the bar width means it’s suitable for standard doorways up to 36 inches wide and 5.5 inches deep.
Although the price is competitive, at the time of writing this review, the ProSource Multi-Grip Pull Up Bar was cheaper, offered more grip positions, and supported a heavier weight capacity.
Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus – Product Summary
- Multiple (five) grip positions allow you to build and tone upper body muscles.
- Professional quality, with a sturdy steel construction.
- Supports up to 250 pounds.
- Comes with thick padding and non-slip comfort grips.
- Simple assembly, portable, and attaches and removes easily from the doorframe.
- Fits standard doorways.
- Excellent for pull ups, triceps dips, push ups, and sit ups.
- Assembled Dimensions: 37″ x 16″ x 11″
Assembly and Installation
Stamina Products provide you with step-by-step instructions for how to assemble their Doorway Trainer Plus pull up bar.
There are just 4 steps to follow, which combine with an exploded parts diagram to show you when and how to attach each bar and bolt.
The most important thing to remember is not to fully tighten any bolts until step 4. That’s because you need some freedom of movement to connect the different bar sections and handles. Tightening too early could mean bolt holes don’t line up properly.
58 mm carriage bolts are used to thread through all three bar sections at the handle connection, which doesn’t happen until step 4.
Click here to view the complete Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus pull up bar user manual.
Exercise Options
The Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus supports a complete upper body workout, using only your body weight for resistance.
There are 5 grip positions to choose from, including pronated and supinated (overhand and underhand) pull ups. You can also use a neutral/hammer grip to target the forearms and brachialis. This makes it one of the most effective exercises for training your back and bicep muscles.
Chin ups can also be performed with the bar at the top of the door frame, or move it to the base of the frame for sit ups and ab crunches.
Unfortunately, you can’t perform true wide grip pull ups, as the grip positions are narrower than the door frame.
The ProSource Multi-Grip Doorway Trainer is an excellent alternative if you want all the grip positions of the Stamina Doorway Trainer, in addition to a wide grip option. Both are available for around the same price.
Because of its lightweight design, and fact that it requires no permanent fixings, you can perform exercises from the floor. Push ups and tricep dips will train your chest, tricep, and shoulder muscles.
What Do Other Doorway Trainer Plus Reviews Say?
An important part of any pull up bar review is to look at the feedback from other people who have bought and used the bar in their home workouts.
How easy was it to fit? Did they have a good experience with customer service? Was the bar strong enough, and were the grips comfortable to hold?
But reading through hundreds or even thousands of reviews can be time consuming. That’s why we did the leg work for you, and created a summary of the pros and cons for the Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus, based on direct customer feedback.
Pros:
- Assembly instructions are easy to follow, with some customers starting their first workout within 10 minutes of unboxing
- Includes a useful guide to the best exercises it can be used for
- All the necessary tools you need for assembly are supplied
- Sturdy and well-built design
- Supports a variety of pull up grip positions
- Comfortable padding means you don’t need to use chalk or wear weightlifting gloves
- Also works well for stretching back muscles, even if you’re not performing a workout
- Impressive build quality, with a steel bar and solid bolts that prevent any unwanted movement
- Neutral/hammer grip positions reduce the pressure on your shoulders during pull ups
- Versatile enough to support sit ups and ab crunches, as well as pull ups and dips
Cons:
- Strict form is much more important with this type of pull up bar, as any upwards movement will risk dislodging the bar from your door frame
- Doesn’t fit doorways with a width much more than 6 1/2 inches, including trim boards
- The 37″ assembled width means your doorway has to be at least a few inches narrower, although this is a common requirement for doorway trainers
Review Summary
Overall Review Rating
4 / 5
So, is the Stamina Doorway Trainer Plus worth buying?
The 250 lb weight capacity is a downgrade from most other doorway pull up bars, which support up to 300 lbs.
There’s no special protection on the door frame contact points, which is standard, but could lead to pressure points or black marks unless you wrap them with more foam or old t-shirts.
Overall, the range of grip positions is a little disappointing. The U-shaped grips are useful for creating the two neutral grip positions, but you’re missing the additional set of horizontal bars that make wide grip pull ups possible. This is something that’s available with the ProSource Multi-Grip, which is available for the same price.
The Doorway Trainer Plus appears to be a good quality pull up bar, and there’s hundreds of highly rated reviews on Amazon to back this up.
But in terms of value for money, the ProSource Multi-Grip is a stronger bar with more exercise options for the same price.
Weight capacity: 250 lbs
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We go to great lengths to ensure that our reviews are completely comprehensive, usually covering everything from the design features to the warranty coverage and exercise options. This is all to help guide you towards the home gym equipment that’s best suited to your goals and budget, whilst also being the highest quality option in your chosen price range.
