True, it’s pretty expensive for a flat bench, but I think a good bench should be expensive up to a point. In my opinion though, the 5-Star is overpriced. Yep. I said it. The bench I love the most is also a bench that I think is overpriced, as are most of Ironmind’s tools. Having said that, I also think Ironmind’s tools are the best, so I am willing to pay the premium price tag that comes along with owning one of their pieces of equipment. In the 17 years I have owned Ironmind tools, never once have one of their pieces of equipment broken or failed to perform in some way. I just live Ironmind.

Furthermore, I also belong to a gym, but if I know I am going to be doing bench work for that day I train at home. No exceptions. I cannot stand the benches at my gym. They wobble, rattle, and just overall do not offer me the confidence I get from my 5-Star bench.

The only time I train at the gym are on days I am doing dead lifts or squats or calf work. My apartment just will not accommodate these movements at present. Other than that, all bench work, chins and dips and dumbbell work is done at home.

thanks again

You know, that is an interesting question and its somewhat hard to answer, because it is a “yes and no” kind of thing. I tend to be compulsive about stuff. I like things in order. Can’t stand for things to be crooked even a little bit, whether it be books, lawyers, politicians, preachers…you name it. So, at first it sorta drove me batty. However, as I began to use the bench for a variety of things, I began to appreciate the utility of the bench and the ease with which the pad came off and went back on.

When I am doing step-ups and bent over rows from the bench, even when I do pullovers, I like having a solid steel surface to work from. When doing chest work and the like, I prefer staying put in one place, which is when having this pad comes in handy. As little as a pound or two is all this material needs to stick to the top deck like glue. It really is very cool. Then of course you have the strength of the bench itself which is a plus.

In the final analysis, once I was able to exoerience all the benefits of this bench, I quickly got use to the pad being crooked every so often.

As an aside, I am brainstorming for ways to keep the pad in place when I tilt it up for inclines and such.

Yes, I still have the 5-Star and I love it. It’s the most solid bench I have ever used, in or out of the gym.

The Superbench from Iromaster offers the great adjustability, and that is a great plus, however I think I prefer the 5-Star because of the firm wide surface. Also, I like being able to remove the pad so I can do step ups on a more solid, non-flexing landing strip.

I have been doing incline bench pressing on a flat bench at my gym. I find it gives me way better leverage when I load up the weights for dumbbell pressing, and it’s much easier to lower the weights off to the floor when I’m done. On an adjustable bench I always end up wrenching my shoulder. I also like the ability to remove the pad.

The Ironmaster Quicklocks look fantastic, but I’m skeptical about their Super Bench. It appears to measure very high off the ground for Flat Bench Presses. But I’ll try to keep an open mind.

Thanks again!

The only caution I have is to make sure you have the bench base on a solid rubber base of some sort, such as a home made lifting platform like the one suggested at Ironmind. Look here: http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/ironmind/Main/homesweathome6.html

Having the bench on one of the rubber sections or some sort of rubber pad will keep it in place.

The removable pad will not slip off once there is even a few ounces placed on top of it. It is a very unique material with some incredible grip/sticky feel with metal. Pretty cool.

My only real suggestion is that if you feel you are going to do lots of incline work, then scrap the idea of the 5-star bench. Consider getting one of these:

Ironmaster Super Bench http://www.ironmaster.com/store/Super-Bench-pr-3.html

I have one of these and it is quite durable and a very affordable bench at around 250.00 The bench is very, very solid. Weighs around 75 pounds or so, and the padding is dense. The padding for the seat could be a bit denser for my taste, and the shape of it could be a bit more tapered.

For about three times as much money, here is a an even more solid adjustable bench (I think it costs around 850.00) that would be as solid as the Ironmind bench and offer the adjustability you want.

http://www.power-lift.com/product_details.php?product_id=2

Power Lift USA is a gold star company. University after university has their weight rooms stocked by Power Lift. It cost top dollar, but the equipment has no equal.

As for me I am happy with my 5-Star

Hope this helps.

I really like to do incline bench presses. I’ve thought about just getting a bench like this one and placing one end on top of a 18″ or 24″ plyometric box to do inclines with a barbell.

Do you think it is sturdy enough to angle it at that height for inclines?

Do you think I’d have any trouble with the removeable pad if I used the bench for inclines?

Thanks!

This is the newest model of the bench and it is 48″ long with a 12″ wide deck. The height of the bench is a perfect 17″ tall with a base that measures not quite 16 inches (15.5 by my calculations). These dimensions result in a bench that feels very stable when you are on it. And as Ironmind states in their catalogue, it’s strong. I am not sure how they tested it, but the the catalogue states that in one test it held 4000 pounds. This is remarkable for a bench that weighs approximately 60 pounds.

I am very pleased with it. More posts on this bench will follow as I am structuring a strength program around the design of it. Should be fairly interesting.

Is this the newly redesigned Ironmind bench or one of the previous benches? If you get a chance, could you verify that the top measures 10″ across (vs. 12″ on the new model)?

Congrats on the awesome equipment (and buddies!), and good luck on your road to recovery.