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Bench press specs

WoodyAllen

Well-known member
Does anyone have the specs for a bench press, specifically the regulation height to the bottom of the bench and padding thickness? Also bench pad width. In comps we are given Elieko gear to use so I assume that is the standard height and width bench.

If anyone has a diagram or pdf of an adjustable height bench press with safety bars, that would be even better.
 
Well, that's embarrassing. Yes. Of course.

IPF Technical Rules Book 7 January 2013

1. Length - not less than 1.22 m and shall be flat and level.
2. Width - not less than 29 cm and not exceeding 32 cm.
3. Height - not less than 42 cm and not exceeding 45 cm measured from the floor to the top of the padded surface of the bench without it being depressed or compacted. The height of the uprights, which must be adjustable, shall be a minimum of 75 cm to a maximum of 110 cm measured from the floor to the bar rest position.
 
Scott makes good benches with squat stand combos and face savers and they are really good quality and cheap and he'll paint them in cool colours like black/orange/yellow and probably even stencil them
 
My gym has three bench press setups. All are cheap useless shit. The benches are fine on two of them, one is much too low. I could almost use it to do floor presses. All have fixed pins and no safety stops. With my long arms I have to, literally, do a half rep to unrack them. So I have to drag a flat bench into the squat rack (gasp!) and set up there which pisses me off no end, partly because its defiling the holy of holies but also it's stopping other people from squatting. Which should be a war crime of some sort.

So I am putting a bit of pressure on the gym to nut up and buy a new bench (or second hand one) that has adjustable height and has face savers. My spin on this is to point out that they are "safer". They see no problem buying crappy expensive cardio machines but skip on the real important stuff like real lifting bars, bench presses and collars. Sheesh. I had to bitch so much just to get a set of 1.25kg plates, donated a set of collars that worked and bought my own bar.

Dunno about Brisbane but down here in sunny Melbourne (cough) gyms are popping up like hipster cafes. Pity they are run by hipster PTs. We need a PTC north of the city. Scotty, move down. You will love the weather. It's not humid at all right now and you will have no trouble finding a spot on the beach.
 
My gym has three bench press setups. All are cheap useless shit. The benches are fine on two of them, one is much too low. I could almost use it to do floor presses. All have fixed pins and no safety stops. With my long arms I have to, literally, do a half rep to unrack them. So I have to drag a flat bench into the squat rack (gasp!) and set up there which pisses me off no end, partly because its defiling the holy of holies but also it's stopping other people from squatting. Which should be a war crime of some sort.

So I am putting a bit of pressure on the gym to nut up and buy a new bench (or second hand one) that has adjustable height and has face savers. My spin on this is to point out that they are "safer". They see no problem buying crappy expensive cardio machines but skip on the real important stuff like real lifting bars, bench presses and collars. Sheesh. I had to bitch so much just to get a set of 1.25kg plates, donated a set of collars that worked and bought my own bar.

Dunno about Brisbane but down here in sunny Melbourne (cough) gyms are popping up like hipster cafes. Pity they are run by hipster PTs. We need a PTC north of the city. Scotty, move down. You will love the weather. It's not humid at all right now and you will have no trouble finding a spot on the beach.

Is PTC Eltham too far?

If you can't get a custom job, the force USA Olympic bench is built to IPF spec and is only around $290. The heavy duty model with face savers is around $900.

We've benched off both to around 200kg-210kg on the bar and it's been fine.
 
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