My partner and I have very different approaches to interior design. While she (a style-savvy art director) makes the house look good with tasteful additions, I (a fitness writer) clutter it up with bulky exercise equipment. But I’ve recently been introduced to something which could satisfy both camps.
The Technogym Bench is designed to deliver “maximum exercise variety with minimum footprint”, neatly slotting dumbbells, knuckle weights, resistance bands and a yoga mat into a compact weight bench. As you’d expect from the notoriously luxe Italian brand, it looks pretty smart too.
It’s in our Money No Object franchise for a reason – at $2,350 in the US and £1,450 in the UK (around $AU3,500), it’s hardly a shrewd purchase. But my champagne tastes (if not my beer pockets) couldn’t help but want one, especially after I gave it a go.
The Technogym Bench: What is it?
The Technogym team describes its eponymous bench as “the innovative training solution for your home; infinite training opportunities in just one station”.
Within the hollowed out interior of the weight bench you’ll find five pairs of dumbbells (5lbs / 2.5kg, 7.5lbs / 3.5kg, 10lbs / 5kg, 15lbs / 7.5kg and 20lbs / 10kg), three sets of knuckle weights (1lb / 0.45kg, 1.8lbs / 0.8kg and 2.6lbs / 1.20kg), light, medium and heavy resistance bands, and an exercise mat.
Each piece of equipment has its place, whether that’s a peg, rack or compartment, and there are wheels on one end to make the bench easier to move – handy when the whole thing weighs just shy of 220lb / 100kg.
The Technogym Bench: What makes it special?
This is the big question: Why does the Technogym Bench warrant its lofty price tag?
Out of interest, I raided Amazon and found I could pick up a flat weight bench with all the requisite ingredients for $316.61 – the Amazon Basics range did a lot of the heavy lifting.
But this wouldn’t solve my clutter problem – if anything, it would add to it – and the gear wasn’t of the same quality either. When I tried the Technogym Bench, the Batman-esque black and gray color scheme looked great, and every element felt incredibly sturdy.
This stylish aesthetic and premium feel are arguably the Technogym Bench’s biggest selling points. The brand recently launched the Design To Move project, which challenged 40 renowned designers such as Kelly Hoppen and Antonio Citterio to create their own variation of Technogym’s most decorated product (a member of the brand’s team told me this product had scooped more awards than any other on its roster). The results were displayed at Milan Design Week 2024, and you can see some of the designs below.
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“As Leonardo taught us, movement is the cause of all forms of life,” says Technogym founder and chief executive Nerio Alessandri. “Design has always been a key element of our journey, a strong ally to turn functional into emotional and needs into aspiration. We are proud that so many designers and artists have joined our dream of putting the world back in motion.”
Nobody’s ever used Da Vinci to sell me dumbbells before, and this air of sophistication is probably another part of the product’s appeal – the Technogym Bench is certainly pitched at a higher aesthetic standard than sweaty bedroom burpees.
The other thing that sets it apart from my shoddily assembled Amazon cart is its compatibility with the Technogym app, via your phone or tablet. The platform has a litany of slickly produced video classes designed to capitalize on the Technogym Bench’s functionality, and you can also use it with the brand’s other machines, like the Technogym Run treadmill, for bootcamp-style workouts.
I tried one circuit class which comprised a cocktail of dynamic full-body dumbbell exercises, muscle-building heroes like chest flys, and core-carving moves using the knuckle weights. The 30 minutes flew by, and the minimal set-up made it easy to flit between stations.
The bench isn’t without a few holes in its game. As a long-time lifter, some heavier dumbbells would have been handy. Technogym offers the option to buy additional weights, and you can always buy more yourself, but there’s nowhere to store them, and once you’ve spent upwards of $2,000 on exercise equipment the chances are you won’t want to splash the cash again for a while.
However, as the Technogym team pointed out, the weights provided are a good fit for the bootcamp sessions the bench prides itself on – even 20lb / 10kg will feel heavy by the end of a high-rep set.
Only having low anchor points on the bench for the resistance bands also limited the exercise options a little, with moves like high-to-low crossovers and lat pulldowns off the table (unless you can find another solid anchor point up high in your home).
In spite of these slight gripes, and its price, the Technogym Bench is still an undeniably cool bit of kit. That’s why, for better or for worse, I can’t help but want one.
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Harry.Bullmore@futurenet.com (Harry Bullmore)
