Today I built a bench

(G. Andrew Duthie) #1

I’m saving my pennies for a decent power rack and Olympic weight set, but until I get them, I needed a better way to do bench presses than the board across a couple milk crates (with some foam on it) that I’ve been using.

I’ve been in the process of disassembling an old Weider multi-station gym that took up way too much room, and didn’t really work all that well, and figured with a few 2x4s and some of the seat pads from the Weider, I could come up with a decent bench. A couple of hours later, and voila!

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And here are a few pics of the disassembled Weider gym. Man, that thing took up a lot of room.

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Can’t wait to do my next SL 5x5 workout and see how I like the new bench!

(Stickin' with mammoth) #2

Nice! But remember, Rocky beat Drago by running through the snow.

(eat more) #3

who’d he beat with stairs? apollo? (yes i should know this)

(G. Andrew Duthie) #4

We haven’t had enough snow this winter to be worth running in. :slight_smile:

Besides, I’ve got a rower for HIIT. The bench is for resistance. Sadly, today the power rack I was looking at buying seems to have disappeared from Amazon. Going to be very bummed if it’s discontinued, as it was really inexpensive and looked pretty decent for the price. They still have the version that comes with a bench, but it’s nearly twice the price, so I figured I could save a bit making my own. Oh, well. I still have a usable bench for now.

(Ross Daniel) #5

“I must break you.”

(Stickin' with mammoth) #6

I’m surprised you didn’t hinge it for incline/decline. You could build something to stick under one side, I guess.

(G. Andrew Duthie) #7

Kept it really simple, on purpose. At the moment the program I’m doing has only:

  • Squats
  • Bench Press
  • Barbell Row
  • Overhead Press
  • Deadlift

Given that only one of those needs the bench, I opted to just make it fast and simple. Once I had my workbench cleared off, I don’t think it took more than about an hour and a half total to build. If I end up needing incline/decline, I’ll probably buy a proper bench.

(Stickin' with mammoth) #8

Propping it up 8" on one end will net you some righteous pecs if you do incline press, 'specially if you switch out regular and close grip on alternate sets. Are you using some dumbbells for flies? Alternating form to touch the tops and bottoms of the dumbbells together is a great hack for sculpting pecs.

This website is your best friend.

(Jake P) #9

[quote=“devhammer, post:7, topic:7488”]Kept it really simple, on purpose. At the moment the program I’m doing has only:

Squats
Bench Press
Barbell Row
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Given that only one of those needs the bench, I opted to just make it fast and simple. Once I had my workbench cleared off, I don’t think it took more than about an hour and a half total to build. If I end up needing incline/decline, I’ll probably buy a proper bench.
[/quote]

5x5 Stronglifts baby!

(G. Andrew Duthie) #10

Yep. This week I’ll be squatting double what I started with. I like that progress!