Spec me a bench

Aedus

Aedus

Aedus

Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2009
Posts
8,577
Location
Luton, England
I'm in the market now for a proper bench, I'm back into doing my weights after a long break after a gym injury (Fun times)
I'm looking for a bench with most features I can make benefit out of to get the best range of exercises.

Currently I'm doing 4 sets 10 (Or 8, depending) reps of each exercise, these are:

Dumbbell flies
Chest press (Will be bench press when I get a bench)
Dumbbell shoulder press
1 arm rows
Bicep curls
Skull crushers
Squats

As you can see I'm missing out a great deal of exercises on my back (Upper and lower), my traps and even worse, my legs. Squats are good but i need a real range of exercises I can do.

Nothing too expensive, maybe £100-£200 max

I was personally thinking something like:
http://www.uksportimports.com/catalog/weight-benches-94/vitesse-deluxe-weight-bench-2259.html

Which has a lat pulldown so I can get some more exercise done on my back, and it also has the parts so I can do leg raises (Still no leg press unfortunately) and it's missing a bottom pulley so I can do upright rows and also a place where I can do preacher curls.

Anyway, fire away.
 
bench....
garden_bench.jpg

/Gets coat.
 
That bench actually looks quite good for the price so long as you already have a good amount of heavy discs to use on it. The lat bar is handy as well. Don't see the point in spending a fortune on a bench when they're such simple pieces of kit. most of the exercises they do are better performed free standing anyway imo. Much more than that and you're getting into multigym price range. Of course you're a big girl if you buy a multigym:D
 
Yea defo looks good for the price, I was also looking at this, it's a new 1 I just found:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/V-Fit-STB-09-4-Herculean-Folding-Training/dp/B000TQEXBC

Bit more expensive, but you get a squats rack at the back as an addition and it folds away. Also the lat pulldown, leg curls and preacher pad all as additional attachments.

I will be getting some bigger disks too, the largest ones I have are 15kg disks but even then I've only got 2 of them so will need to invest in some more soon. For now the smaller ones + the 2 15kg are keeping me occupied, but I can't see them lasting that long, especially for squats.
 
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cristi said:
if you want something really useful that will not collapse when you put a bit of weight into it you can always go for this:
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodymax-cf415-squat-and-dip-rack-with-spotter-catchers.php

and the most basic sturdy bench you can find. probably a bit more expensive, but far more sturdy and future proof.

dips are a fantastic exercise and you can also squat a lot more safely on this. :)
Click to expand...

That's kind of a good idea actually. I'll look into it.
 
cristi said:
if you want something really useful that will not collapse when you put a bit of weight into it you can always go for this:
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodymax-cf415-squat-and-dip-rack-with-spotter-catchers.php

and the most basic sturdy bench you can find. probably a bit more expensive, but far more sturdy and future proof.

dips are a fantastic exercise and you can also squat a lot more safely on this. :)
Click to expand...

I'm really contemplating using this atm, I've got back into lifting since I broke my hand a few months back and quickly reminded myself that I have to clean the bar from the floor to do squats, and it's getting a lot harder !

Having never done squats in a proper gym with racks before, would I be squatting upto the catchers ?

Does that allow me to go low enough ?

cheers
 
yes, the catchers are there for safety, you will be sitting in between them.

from the picture it looks like they are pretty low to ensure proper squatting, unless you're really really short and want to go ATG you shouldn't have any problems.

even then, there is nothing from stopping you from stepping a bit more backwards to go as low as you want, the safety catchers would be useless though in this case.
or you could just get a piece of wood to stop on in the middle so you get the right height, so no problem whatsoever.
 
Cool, I am pretty short I think 5 foot ten if that I think, so maybe an issue ??
But as long as I can go parallel I guess I'll be right.

Really good spot on the rack, it's a lot cheaper then anything I've seen the past few weeks :)
 
you'll have to thank Benny for that,he pointed it out in the gymrats thread I just bookmarked it because it is pretty awesome value for money and I thought some day it may be a good addition at my home gym... :D

parallel should be perfectly ok, if you want to go lower and the safety catchers won't let you just make 2 steps back, but on a heavy set I'd rather go parallel and not ATG and be confortable knowing that the catchers are there, the benefit of havings stands and not needing to clean the bar on every set still stands.
 
Aye, if I had the room that's what I'd be buying! Along with an adjustable bench with a leg extension/leg curl attatchment you can smash your hamstrings with SLDL too.

Can do a lot of stuff on that. Rack the bar in the catchers up high to perform pullups/chin ups.

Awesome bit of kit that and the fact it sort of 'folds away' and gets slightly smaller makes it ideal.
 
Yeah, that's the thing.

I don't exactly have the room, so to speak.

This is all going in my already cramped room D: It will be like sleeping in a cupboard soon
 
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