Opinions on a good FID Bench for Home Power Rack

[suburbanhub]

I am putting together a basic setup at my home consisting of a power rack from newyorkbarbells.com, and am finding the decscion on a bench to become quite difficult. There are alot of choices out there, most seem to be either weak peices of junk or very high end and out of my price range.

Has anyone purchased a good FID (Flat, Incline, Decline) bench for home use with a cage or power rack and liked their choice? It needs to be heavy tubing, strong and stable, and have a short base to fit inside the rack. It needs to be a real bench, and not labeled as a 'dumbell bench'. I am not interested in the leg curl or preacher attachments, just the bench and the foot bars for decline and ab work.

Here are two that I am looking at currently. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

Body-Solid GFID31 - http://www.efitnessdirect.com/product.php3?id=672

Powertec Utility FID Bench - http://bigfitness.com/poutfidbe.html

 

[Jim Ouini]

I did some searching around recently too. I finally ended up getting a Parabody bench off of craigslist for $90 - pretty solid and I've done some incline benching with it with no problem.

My main criteria when looking around was that the base was stable, the adjustment mechanism was solid and easy and I would've preferred the cushion not too thick, which actually the Parabody is a bit too cushiony. Plus I like my bench a little bit wider.

But for $90 what can you do

 

[Cynical Simian]

I have the PowerTec one and like it. I don't have a basis for comparison since I decided to get a home setup from the beginning rather than messing around with gym memberships, but none of the common problems (too narrow, much/little padding, unstable) apply to it.

Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with either of the ones you posted. Despite Body Solid's pimping of the bench being designed to fit inside the rack, pretty much any bench (including the PowerTec) should be fine for that. All other things being equal, the higher capacity of the Body Solid might make it a better long-term investment.

 

[suburbanhub]

I have the PowerTec one and like it. I don't have a basis for comparison since I decided to get a home setup from the beginning rather than messing around with gym memberships, but none of the common problems (too narrow, much/little padding, unstable) apply to it.

Honestly, I don't think you can go wrong with either of the ones you posted. Despite Body Solid's pimping of the bench being designed to fit inside the rack, pretty much any bench (including the PowerTec) one should be fine for that. All other things being equal, the higher capacity of the Body Solid might make it a better long-term investment.

Thanks for the reply. From the photos, the Powertec actually looks like the bench itself may be a bit wider thant the Body Solid. Do you know exactly how wide in inches the actual bench (not the base) is across? The measurements the vendors give are always the base and that is mis leading. Im 6'3 and have wide shoulders. If a bench is too narrow, I feel as if Im going to fall off each side when doing heavy flat bench.

 

[Cynical Simian]

12 inches wide.