York B540 Heavy Duty 2 in 1 Bench & Squat Stand

The York B540 Heavy Duty 2 in 1 bench has been designed specifically for anyone needing a strong bench for home use but is limited on space.

The following product article takes a look at the wide range of features including reversible bar supports and 5 possible back rest positions to help you decide if this is the right weights bench for your own home gym.

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Design features

If you are thinking about buying a weights bench for home workouts, three of the most important things to look for are a solid frame design, high maximum weight limit and compact dimensions.

The York B540 meets all of these requirements thanks to the thick support frame, high quality materials and construction and a feature you may not have seen on many weights bench systems.

This is that the bench can actually be folded up for easier storage when not in use.

Even though the bench can be folded vertically, thanks to the wide base supports and position the bench folds into this still keeps the center of gravity around the middle of the frame to keep it stable.

As well as the folding feature, there are a few other points that make the York B540 Heavy Duty bench such a good choice for a home gym.

The two main vertical supports each have a series of holes for setting the bar racks at different positions. Because of their design this also means that you can actually reverse them to become bar racks for the walk in squat rack if you are doing a lower body workout.

To help keep the weight plates organised and out of the way when using the York B540 there have also been two weight plate pegs added at the back of the frame.

With upper body workouts in particular it can be useful to be able to change the angle of the back rest to focus on working all sections of the muscle effectively. To support this, the York B540 features a wide, well padded back support that can be adjusted through 5 different positions.

There is also a small hand wheel positioned under the seat to change the angle of the seat, which can be particularly useful when performing either decline or incline bench presses.

One last design feature worth mentioning is the addition of the rubber feet to each of the base frame supports. This not only helps protect your floor but also helps keep the bench in a stable position and prevents and slipping.

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York B540 – Features Summary

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• Types of materials used: Metal, wood and plastic
• Heavy duty uprights double up as a squat rack
• 5 position adjustable backrest from decline right up to 90 degrees
• Storage space for spare weight plates
• Folds for storage
• 250kg Max load (inc user)
• 2 years parts and labour warranty

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Upper body workouts

While the York B540 is certainly a high quality bench, as with most weights bench systems you will also need to buy a weights set to be able to perform any exercises.

By purchasing even a basic set of dumbbells, a barbell and some weight plates this really does provide you with a wide range of upper body exercise possibilities.

With the back rest in the flat, decline or incline positions this allows you to perform barbell bench presses, while the full incline setting changes the back rest to a near 90 degree angle, which is perfect for seated shoulder presses.

By swapping the bar supports around to face away from the bench, you can set them at the lowest position to support a barbell before performing shrugs or even upright rows to help grow your shoulders and traps.

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Lower body workouts

The squat rack design makes the York B540 well suited to squats, which are widely regarded as one of the most effective exercises for working muscles in your lower body such as hips, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings.

As well as this main compound exercise, the leg developer allows you to isolate and more effectively work your quadriceps and hamstrings. To create resistance this will require you to load the front peg with weight plates.

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Possible extensions

While the York B540 is already designed with some clever features to make this well suited to both upper and lower body exercises, there are also a couple of extensions that can be added.

The first of these is a preacher curl attachment. This simply slides into the vertical frame section of the leg developer at the front of the bench and makes it possible to perform preacher curls using free weights.

The second of these is a lat pulldown attachment. Again this slides into the vertical frame support of the leg developer, which is the perfect position for lat pulldowns when seated on the seat or back rest in the flat positions.

The resistance for this lat pulldown attachment is generated entirely from weight plates loaded onto its weight plate pegs so there is no need to worry about heavy weight stacks usually associated with cable machines.

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