Everlast EV-340 Weight Bench Review

The Everlast EV-340 Weight Bench has been designed for anyone that needs a stable support for free weights training at home, but has a limited amount of space.

With a weight limit on the bench of 180kg including user and free weights this is perfect for a range of fitness and strength levels, from those who are just starting a fitness program to those who have been lifting for a couple of years.

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Rack design features

A key feature to look for when choosing any weights bench system for use at home is how adjustable the barbell supports are.

There are many weights benches that only offer fixed height supports, or such a limited amount of adjustment that you still end up in an uncomfortable position when performing incline barbell presses.

To ensure this doesn’t happen with the Everlast EV-340, each of the vertical barbell supports is adjustable through an effective range of increments. A simple hand wheel system means that you can easily adjust the height depending on the exercise you want to perform.

This leads onto another benefit of the Everlast EV-340 weights bench set in that the bench is completely separate to the barbell support frame. This makes it well suited for anyone looking to preserve space when the bench is not in use, as well as making exercises such as overhead presses and squats a possibility.

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Barbell supports and safety

An area of design often overlooked when it comes to barbell supports is how the actual bar rests at the top of the supports have been designed. With the Everlast EV-340 there is a high back lip section to give you a larger area to press the bar against when setting it back on the rack after bench presses.

This then flows down to an angled section which helps prevent the bar from bouncing or slipping off the supports just after racking it. Safety is paramount when lifting at home, often without a spotter. This clever little design feature is one of many that increases the safety of your lifts.

Another is the addition of the ‘hooks’ that rotate at the top of the supports when you are changing the amount of weight on the bar. These will lock the barbell in place and prevent it from becoming too overloaded on one side and tipping off the frame.

The extra width of the frame also gives the Everlast EV-340 the advantage over many other weights benches, making it compatible with barbells all the way up to 7ft in length (1″ and 2″ versions).

Despite the added width, the stability of the frame is not compromised. This is improved by the thick base support bars and brace bar that connects the two vertical supports.

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Everlast EV-340 Weight Bench – Features Summary

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• Adjustable weight bench features flat, incline and decline back pad angles
• Preacher pad included for bicep exercise
• Leg developer included for hamstring and quadricep exercise
• Oversized foam roller pads ensure maximum comfort
• Leg developer lock allows for ab crunch exercise to be performed
• Rack can take 7ft standard 1″ or Olympic 2″ barbells
• Maximum User Weight: 110kg
• Maximum Weight Load inc User: 180kg

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Bench design features

Being supplied with a bench that is completely separate to the rack gives you much more room to perform exercises such as dumbbell flyes and squats.

As well as being a standalone bench, a great benefit of the Everlast EV-340 design is the fact that it is adjustable through the flat and decline positions, as well as various incline settings.

To help support you during decline presses, you can wrap your feet under the lower padded rollers at the front which can be locked in place.

The preacher curl pad is removable, which is useful if you find it gets in the way of your bench pressing or exercises with the leg developer.

With the preacher curl pad removed you have the option of performing either leg extensions (targetting quadriceps) or lying leg curls (targetting hamstrings) to supplement your main squat and stiff legged deadlift exercises for training legs.

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Possible exercises when combined with a weights set

[one_fourth]Chest:
Incline Press
Flat Press
Decline Press[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Back:
Bent Over Row
Reverse Bent Row
Deadlift[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Shoulders:
Seated Shoulder Press
Front Raises
Upright Rows
Shrugs[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth_last]Biceps:
Barbell Curls
Preacher Curls
Reverse Curls[/one_fourth_last]

[one_fourth]Triceps:
Tricep Press
Tricep Extensions
Bench Dips[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Legs:
Squats
Leg Curls
Leg Extensions
Romanian Deadlifts[/one_fourth]

[one_fourth]Abs:
Barbell Rollouts
Decline Crunches[/one_fourth]

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