York B530 Heavy Duty Incline/Decline Bench

Came in one big box and was very straight forward to assemble, taking about an hour or so. This bench is very well built, and feels very stable. Out of the many benches out there this bench actually has a DECLINE on it! Very hard to find! It also has 3 levels of incline and a flat position as well. You can add various accessories to it making it a very versatile bench. I am very happy I bought this product and would reccomend it to anyone.

Comes in a huge heavy box, but is well packaged. Looks a little intimidating when you first open the box as there are so many parts, but actually assembly is quite simple and you'll know where everything goes once you have done the first few parts. While the vital parts of the bench can be assembled using the supplied spanner, the barbell bar hooks (more on them later) require a 10mm spanner and the leg attachment requires a 17mm spanner. While assembling, be sure not to fully tighten the bolts on the bar rack until the bench height-adjust bar is fitted on the highest incline setting, otherwise the sockets that it fits into wont be properly aligned.

Once built the bench is very solid and doesn't creak or flex like some weaker benches. I have no doubt it will easily support the specified 200KG. The padding on the backrest is firm and comfortable. Both the backrest and the seat part can be easily adjusted, although the highest incline setting isn't much use as theres no room for your head, even with the bar racks on the highest setting. However I wouldn't describe this as a fault, as the highest incline setting can still be used for other exercises where the barbell isn't used. Overall the different incline settings are great, and you can really feel the different muscle groups in use.

The only thing that I found to be strange when I first used this bench is that the bar rack is wider than i'm used to and holds the bar pretty much exactly in the center of the textured grips on my 5ft bar. I'm not really sure what to make of this, but basically this bench is suited more to a 6ft bar and to those who (like myself) prefer a wider grip. Can still be used with a 5ft bar, but doesn't give you much space to adjust your grip.

There are these weird little hooks that fit at the top of the bar racks, and it took me ages to work out what they are for, partly because the manual tells you to put them on the wrong way round. Maybe they are a common feature, but I had never seen them before. They actually hook over the bars when not in use, and the reason for this is so that you can change the weights on each side of the barbell without the worry that the bar will become unbalanced, and flip off the rack (I best most people have nearly done this at some point).

As for the leg exerciser, I haven't fitted it yet so cant really comment, but it has big comfortable looking dense foam pads and the weights are held on by an "olympic style" thumb clamp, meaning weights are very quick to change.

In case anyone was wondering, this bench cant be folded up while not in use, and is rather big, especially with the leg attachment fitted. If you have enough space this is no problem.

Overall, an awesome bench which is built to last. Why buy a ~£99 bench from Argos when you can buy a great bench like this for just a little more? I'm glad I went for this one.

I bought this bench after a lot of research, and it is proving a very good buy. It is very stable and well built after assembly, which takes an hour or so. I paired it with Gold Gym's 90 kilogrom barbell and dumbell set. The bench comes with a comprehensive range of exercises, which I am using, and adapting to my own programme. It's well worth buying the curl pad and lat tower. These are much more substantial than I thought they'd be, once again being very solid. They definitely take it up to another level. I paid £30 and £36 for these respectively.

You can buy cheaper than this, eg., Marcy, but I suspect this bench is more solid. It definitely comes in the 'heavy duty' class, and will take more weights than I'll be using for a while!