If you’re gonna do some serious lifting, and you expect to be moving some real weight – then you need to go with an Olympic weight bench.
Now this is not to say that you can’t lift decent weight with a standard bench but when you try you’re going to run into a couple of problems:
- If you lift a lot of weight you’re probably a big guy. You may find that the distance between the uprights on a standard bench gives you claustrophobia. Sometimes standard bench manufactures will tried to separate the uprights a little to give you some room around your ears, but this is even worse. It puts them in a no man’s land. Far enough apart that they get in the way, but not so far apart that you can put your hands inside them when lifting.
Phoenix 99226 Power Pro Olympic Bench
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- Standard benches are probably not going to be able to handle the kind of weight and velocity that you’re going to apply it to them. Just picture yourself at the end of a hard set of 350 pound benches, and having an upright bend, or barbell catch snap off. This is not a place you want to be.
olympic weight bench
If you would just go and bite the bullet and get an Olympic bench you have a solid, well constructed piece of equipment that will stand the test of time. I recommend that if you do get an Olympic weight bench, you go for one of the less expensive commercial models, rather than a more expensive ” home gym” model. And here’s why:
- Even one of the bottom of the line commercial Olympic weight benches will be able to handle 700 or 800 pounds easily. Not only that, but you’re not gonna be able to break it no matter what you do. This is one of those cases where you have a chance to buy something that will literally last you for the rest of your life.
- If instead, you opt for something near the top of a line on a home unit what you are going to see is a weight bench with a lot of fancy attachments and gadgets that you may never use. In addition, whenever you add complexity to something, you add more parts, and parts break.
If you’ve been lifting for a while and you have simply outgrown your standard weight bench, you’re going to need weights as well. This means that what you’re really should be looking for is one of the better Olympic benches, complete with an Olympic weight set – what is known as an Olympic set.
A standard Olympic set consists of a 7 foot knurled barbell with rotating collars and two dumbbell handles them. The set will also include 305 pounds of Olympic plates, which should be enough to get just about anybody started.
You can find a decent Olympic bench, Olympic bar, and plates for 5 to 600 dollars retail. If you can afford to spend more I recommend that you do so. As stated above this is a chance to buy a piece of equipment that you can use for the rest of your life.
Body Solid GDIB46L Olympic Bench with Leg Developer
