York Fitness Bench Review
The York Fitness Bench is possibly York’s simplest design for a weights bench in their entire range.
Despite this simplicity it doesn’t sacrifice any functionality and still offers the flat, decline and incline positions.
The following product article takes a look at the bench in a bit more detail, as well as looking at the benefits of owning a bench such as this and the exercises it can be used for.
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Design features
While many weights benches feature complicated designs with lots of different attachments added on, the York Fitness Bench has been designed with simplicity in mind.
Despite this simple design, there is still a high recommended weight limit of 200kg due to its solid construction and stable frame design.
You will often find that benches that offer a decline position aren’t as stable as benches that don’t, simply because the supporting frame hasn’t been designed well.
This isn’t the case with the York Fitness Bench, where the main angled support frame is also strengthened with a solid cross brace bar. This single section then attaches securely to the base support legs.
The legs at the front of the bench have been designed to spread out to the sides at an angle instead of just being vertical. When you combine this with the thick supporting base bar at the top of the bench and the rubber coated feet this all ensures that there is no movement in the bench when lifting.
To make sure the York Fitness bench is as easy to use as possible, you won’t find any hand wheels or complex pin positions here. Instead if you want to adjust the angle of the back rest you can simply lift it up and move the back rest bar to rest on the required setting.
The thick padding in the seat and back rest help to make sure you are as comfortable as possible when in use, allowing you to fully concentrate on the exercise.
While there is a set of dumbbell holders attached to the cross brace bar underneath, these are designed mainly for smaller dumbbells and probably not suitable for storing heavier weights.
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Exercises possible when combined with other equipment
There are literally hundreds of exercises and variations that can be performed with a weights bench and various items of popular fitness equipment.
[one_half]A few of the direct exercises:
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- Bench press
- Seated dumbbell press
- Lying tricep extensions
- Pullovers
- Dumbbell flyes
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[one_half_last]Useful as support in these exercises:
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- Dumbbell rows
- Dumbbell kickbacks
- Concentration curls
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York Fitness Bench – Features Summary
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- Types of materials used: Metal, wood and plastic
- Durable dumbbell bench that brings a touch of style to training with weights
- Multi-position, easy adjust backrest-from flat to 90 degrees in seconds
- Extra thick cushioning for maximum comfort
- Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
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Benefits of owning a weights bench
While more new ways of exercising without free weights are being developed all the time, such as resistance bands and calisthenics workouts (using just your own bodyweight for resistance), a weights bench still plays an important role in the muscle building and fitness routines of many millions of people.
There are a few reasons why this is the case, the top 5 of which are listed below:
1. Support for heavy weights – There is no better platform to support your body when pressing heavy weights.
Bosu balls and swiss balls certainly have their place with lighter dumbbell workouts, but if you are looking to lift heavy weights then you would put yourself at risk of injury due to the instability of the ball.
2. Easy to learn – Even if you are stepping into a gym for the first time or trying your first home workout, the chances are you will know how to use a weights bench. While the mechanism to alter the angle can differ, essentially a weights bench is very easy to use.
3. Space saving – While there are many ways of working muscle groups using cable machines or seated lever press machines, these all take up quite a lot of room which probably isn’t practical if you are working out at home.
A weights bench such as the York Fitness Bench is extremely compact and can even be lifted onto its end for storage thanks to its light weight frame.
4. Targetting a wide range of muscle groups – While multi gyms do an excellent job at making a whole range of exercises possible, again there is the problem of space as well as usually being much more expensive.
In many cases a simple weights bench and dumbbell / barbell set will allow you to perform a much wider range of exercises.
5. Targetting the same muscle from different angles – A great benefit of a weights bench is the ability to change the angle to hit different areas of the same muscle.
A good example of this is triceps. With the bench flat you can rest your hand and knee on the bench to steady yourself for tricep kickbacks. Lying on the bench allows you to do lying tricep extensions, while increasing the incline allows you to do overhead tricep extensions.
Close grip bench presses are even possible when combined with a rack and barbell.
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