Body-Solid Best Fitness BFOB10 Adjustable Olympic Folding Weight Bench for Home Gym

I am not a fitness guru, more of a type who exercises after looking in the mirror thinking "I better do something". I purchased a dept. store Golds Gym bench for my son and it basically was never used. A few months ago during one of my "I better do something" moments, i started to use the bench. However, found that I could not safely work on upper body because the poles that hold the bar were not wide enough. Potential hand killer! There are so many different benches and manufacturers, reviews for many were not good. Looking for something affordable, olympic style - where the bar holder/poles are wide enough to work on upper body, sturdy/solid, and better quality. The Body-Solid Best Fitness Olympic Folding Bench seemed legit, a tad higher than I wanted to go but remember personal safety is important also. When purchasing these types of things online, you take a risk of sorts. Took sweet time to build mainly because I wanted to do it right and not rush. The instructions are not the easiest to follow, thankfully its not rocket science. Nice illustrations but not enough text and confusing part identification. The parts are nicely packaged in the box, everything is wrapped in plastic and some parts had plastic covers to prevent scratching. The bolts feel solid and weighty but some bolts fell out of the packaging during transport. There are two supplied "wrenches" or tools which is nice but a tad difficult to use. Need both hands to use the tools! The positive thing is that, at least the tools were supplied. The steel used in this item is heavy gauge, feels solid! Overall the bench is weighty and solid. Better quality than I expected! The bar holder uses pins, much safer than what your typical dept stores benches. The cushions are nicely padded and again solid! There is a good amount of foam toward the leg area, which protects against abrasion and injury. Update: I still like this weight bench, the finish on the steel is nice. The space between the bar holders is great. However, I find that the leg curl/leg extension mechanism is too low to the ground. My feel get stuck during leg extensions. i have to extend my legs up before starting a leg extension, which means I cannot do a full leg extension. Also, there is a good amount of weight on the leg extension unit on its own. I am only using half the weights. On the old bench, the leg extension mechanism was higher off the ground and less weighty. I was able to use more weights. Update 2: Customer service is terrible! I contacted the manufacturer regarding the leg curl/leg extension issue and they could not offer anything. Dropping to 3 stars. Update 3: The bolt that holds the leg extension bent, therefore causing the leg curl/leg extension to tilt. I ended up returning this bench. In the end, it did not work out.

I bought this mainly because it can fold up and I don't have a lot of room. At 60+ years I will not be using heavy weights and will use it only 1-2 times per week, so consider that as you read my review. Before purchasing I read the reviews about units arriving with parts missing, broken components, I figured more junk from China but I'm used to dealing with that by now and I hit the "buy" button because of the folding feature and relatively low price. I've purchased and assembled a lot of junk since the 1960's, first, junk from Japan, then their quality improved. American manufactured items can be good or crap depending on the manufacturer. Then came China. With the quality of most of their goods, you wonder how they keep a country functioning. In this case, my expectations were low. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. The packaging was excellent, with all parts wrapped in plastic within the box and fastened with zip ties to keep the parts from rubbing against each other and scratching the finish. All nuts, bolts, and washers were shrink wrapped on a piece of cardboard with the sizes noted that corresponded to the sizes indicated in the assembly instructions, and nothing was missing. The paint on all parts was flawless which is a real rarity from China. The assembly instructions were easy to follow. Everything fit together perfectly. I kept expecting to come up short on a component or fastener, but every time I thought I had, it turned out something was still in the box or I had dropped something. Apparently the Illinois based company that designs and imports this product understands the expectations of the American consumer and knows how to deliver. So, a tip of the hat to Best Fitness and also to whoever does the manufacturing, painting, and packaging. Again, I'm not really a fitness guru so look to someone else for that review, but so far I'm pleasantly surprised and I rarely give five star ratings

The bench is very sturdy and supports a couple hundred lbs on the bar. It is well built and will hold up to moderate use. The leg extension is a bit low and causes you're feet to drag/pinch. Because of this, you can't really load more than 45lbs on it, otherwise it'll be too heavy to lift to get your feet underneath it. There is a rather large gap between the seat and back of the bench. It's a little uncomfortable but for the most part negligible. The incline settings are nice, but limited. With only 3 settings (and nothing completely vertical) it provides no support for overhead and military press, and limits incline chest work. The material on the bench is a bit slick also. Wearing basketball shorts, or dri fit polyester T's causes you to slide on incline settings, and with no foot support, I find myself constantly having to adjust. All that said (minor cons that I can absolutely deal with), this is a phenomenal value for the price I paid. It is constructed with quality materials that fold up out of the way for easy storage. The unit is light enough to move if needed, but sturdy enough to handle substantial weight. This is a great bench for beginner and intermediate home gym setups. Add some dumbbells and a pullup bar, and you've got a really nice, cheap setup!