My partner and I have very different approaches to interior design. While she (a style-conscious art director) makes the house look good with tasteful additions, I (a fitness writer) clutter it with bulky exercise equipment. But I’ve recently been introduced to something that can satisfy both camps.
The Technogym Bench is designed to deliver “maximum exercise variety with minimal footprint,” neatly fitting dumbbells, knuckle weights, resistance bands and a yoga mat into a compact weight bench. As you’d expect from the notoriously luxurious Italian brand, it looks pretty smart too.
It’s included 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 savvy purchase. But my champagne taste (and not my beer wallet) couldn’t help wanting one, especially after trying it.
The Technogym Bench: what is it?
The Technogym team describes its eponymous bench as “the innovative training solution for home; endless training possibilities in just one station”.
Inside the hollowed-out interior of the weight bench you will find five pairs of barbells (5 lbs / 2.5 kg, 7.5 lbs / 3.5 kg, 10 lbs / 5 kg, 15 lbs / 7.5 kg and 20 lbs / 10 kg), three sets of knuckle weights (1 lbs / 0.45 kg, 1.8 lbs / 0.8 kg and 2.6 lbs / 1.20 kg), light, medium and heavy resistance bands and an exercise mat.
Every tool has its own place, whether it’s a pen, rack or compartment, and there are wheels on one side, making the bench easier to move around. Handy when the whole thing weighs just under 100kg.
The Technogym Bench: What makes it special?
This is the big question: why is the Technogym Bench so expensive?
Out of interest, I searched Amazon and found that for $316.61 I could buy a flat weight bench with all the necessary components. The Amazon Basics series did a lot of the heavy lifting.
But this wouldn’t solve my clutter problem – if anything it would contribute to it – and the equipment wasn’t of the same quality either. When I tried the Technogym Bench, its Batman-esque black and grey colour scheme looked great and every element felt incredibly sturdy.
That stylish aesthetic and premium feel are probably the Technogym Bench’s biggest selling points. The brand recently launched the Design To Move project, which challenged 40 renowned designers like Kelly Hoppen and Antonio Citterio to create their own variation of Technogym’s most decorated product (one member of the brand’s team told me it’s won more awards than any other product on the list). The results were unveiled at Milan Design Week 2024, and you can check out some of the designs below.
“As Leonardo taught us, movement is the cause of all life,” says Technogym founder and CEO Nerio Alessandri. “Design has always been a key element of our journey, a strong ally to transform functional into emotional and needs into aspiration. We are proud that so many designers and artists have joined our dream of getting the world moving again.”
No one’s ever used Da Vinci to sell me barbells before, and that refined look is likely another part of the product’s appeal: the Technogym Bench is definitely of a higher aesthetic standard than 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 range of slickly produced video classes designed to take advantage of the Technogym Bench’s functionality, and you can also use it with the brand’s other machines, such as the Technogym Run treadmill, for bootcamp-style workouts.
I tried a circuit class that featured a cocktail of dynamic full-body dumbbell exercises, muscle-building heroes like chest flys, and core-carving moves with knuckle weights. The 30 minutes flew by, and the minimal setup made it easy to flit between stations.
The bench isn’t without its holes in its game. As a seasoned lifter, heavier barbells would have been helpful. Technogym offers the option to purchase additional weights, and you can always buy more yourself, but there’s no place to store them, and once you’ve spent over $2,000 on gym equipment, chances are you’re not going to want to spend the money any more for a while.
But as the Technogym team pointed out, the included weights are more than capable of handling the boot camp sessions the bench prides itself on: even 20 lb / 10 kg will feel heavy at the end of a high-rep set.
Because the resistance bands could only be secured at low points on the bench, exercise options were also somewhat limited. Think of exercises like high-to-low crossovers and lat pulldowns away from the table (unless you can find another sturdy anchor point high up in the house).
Despite these minor drawbacks and the price, the Technogym Bench is still an undeniably cool piece of equipment. That’s why, for better or worse, I can’t help but want one.