Whether you are interested in toning your muscles, developing a swimsuit ready figure, or just trying to work out and get into better shape, a gym bench is a simple and cheap exercise tool that will help with muscle strength and endurance. Gym benches are available at any sporting goods or health and workout store, and can cost as little as thirty dollars; other options combine all in one weight systems and even cardio exercise to get a full workout, but these models cost as much as several thousand dollars and are only available directly through manufacturers. Deciding which is best for you is a simple matter of your personal budget concern and the result you are trying to achieve by weight training.
A home gym bench can be as simple as that — a plank of wood or metal with padding to support the upper or lower body. Sitting, kneeling, lying, or leaning against it provides the resistance of gravity to arms, legs, or chest areas. For the very simplest home gym bench, it’s not any more difficult than making one yourself, so long as it can provide enough support for your own weight and the maximum amount of weight you intend to be using. Of course, even the best prop will not do the job for you, so a set of dumbbells, leg lifts, or bench pressing weights is needed to get good results from the tool.
Dumbbell weights, also known as “free weights” (as they do not rely upon a machine), are the most popular type of home workout equipment because of their simplicity, utility, and low cost. With a one hundred dollar set of dumbbells ranging from five to fifty pounds, there are an unlimited number of workout routines that one can go through. Dumbbell benching is the same as bench pressing, except using the two hand held weights rather than one bar support for lifting from the chest. This tones the pectoral muscles and shoulders, and need only be done two or three times a week. 
If you own a bench press set up, then gym bench pressing allows for even greater weights; an amateur can usually work with around fifty pounds and go up to around a hundred in as little as a month. Using more than that is only recommended for athletes who require greater upper body strength, as injury can result from bench pressing more than your own body mass.
A gym weight bench allows you to tone your abdominal muscles as well. Most models have leverage so that they can be inclined or declined, as much as thirty degrees in some cases, to give extra resistance from gravity. Using that resistance to do sit ups or crunches slims down the stomach and can even produce a great six pack if done regularly! Two to three times a week is usually enough for crunches, but if you feel that they are not producing a result after extensive time, use the free weights in conjunction with crunches and increase on a slow, steady basis.
Gym equipment benches are more complex than simple supports for the skeletal structure. You may have seen advertisements from companies like Bowflex, who show pictures of success stories and great bodies, promising that the product can give you these results. This is only partially true – genetic makeup can help or hinder training, so that a lifetime in the gym still may unfortunately not be enough to give people washboard abs – but the equipment still provides an incredibly versatile workout. The machines are designed to target and tone specific parts of the body, so it is just like having a personal trainer to help get you into your desired workouts.
These are perfect home gym machines with an incredible range of capability – from a few pounds to nearly a thousand pounds – so customers must be careful not to over exert their own bodies; working out on a Bowflex gym weight bench more than twice a week may be too much of a strain for your body to maintain and recover from. Bowflex benches and similar products are much, much more expensive than standard resistance planks, so if you want this type of extensive exercise, be prepared to spend a lot on it! The models start at three hundred dollars and can easily cost ten times that amount depending on specifications, and must be purchased directly from the retailer.
If you are interested in developing larger, stronger arms and legs, a home gym bench, accompanied by a good weight set, can provide the workout you need, but be careful of price tags, as they can quickly escalate.
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