I enjoy working out. It’s one of my pleasures in life. But the start-up costs can be prohibitive. You either have to fork out for a very expensive gym membership. Which comes with people watching you and the minefield that is gym etiquette. Or, you spend a ton of money buying expensive equipment and building your own home gym. I mean sure, you can get second-hand equipment for cheaper from Craigslist, but wouldn’t it be more fun to have a go yourself?
I mean, let’s say you go the home gym route. Which bench do you get? There’s so much choice out there! You read reviews and settle for a decent bench like the Steelbody Deluxe. It seems solid and looks a reasonable price at less than 200 bucks. It’s a great bench. But you might not have noticed something. It’s only rated for 300lbs maximum weight. And that weight includes you as well as weights.
So you can quickly max out the weight and then you’re back to square one. Needing another bench at a higher cost.
Or, if you are reasonably handy you can do as the Buff Dudes did on Youtube, build your own gym bench, make it as sturdy as you like and save yourself a fortune! Their bench only cost $50 and is pretty simple to make.
To make your own gym bench from their video, all you need is the list below:
- Four 4×4 wood blocks cut into 12 inch long pieces
- One 4×4 cut into a 37 inch long piece
- One piece of 3/4 inch plywood, 12 inches wide and 50 inches long
- Foam for the cushion
- Vinyl for the cover
- Screws, strong ties and of course power tools.