My partner and I have very different approaches to interior design. While she (a stylish art director) makes the house look good with tasteful additions, I (a fitness writer) clutter it with bulky exercise equipment. But I was recently introduced to something that might satisfy both camps.
The Technogym Bench is designed to offer a “maximum variety of exercises with minimum space”, allowing you to neatly fit dumbbells, knuckle weights, resistance bands and a yoga mat onto a compact weight bench. As you’d expect from the famous, luxury Italian brand, it also looks rather stylish.
It's in our Money No Object franchise for a reason: at $2350 in the US and £1450 in the UK (about $3500 AU), it's not a smart buy. But my taste for champagne (though not beer) couldn't help but make me want one, especially after trying it.
The Technogym bench: What is it?
The Technogym team describes its eponymous bench as “the innovative training solution for your home; endless training possibilities in one station.”
Inside the hollowed interior of the weight bench, you'll find five pairs of dumbbells (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 lb/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 piece of equipment has its place, be it a peg, shelf or compartment, and there are wheels at one end to make the bench easier to move around, which is handy when the whole thing weighs just under 220lb/100kg.
The Technogym Bench: What Makes It Special?
This is the big question: Why is the Technogym Bench worth its high price?
Out of curiosity, I did some research on Amazon and found that I could get a flat weight bench with all the necessary ingredients for $316.61 (the Amazon Basics range did a lot of the heavy lifting).
But this wouldn't solve my clutter problem, it would just add to it, and the equipment wasn't up to par either. When I tried out the Technogym bench, the Batman-esque black and grey colour scheme looked great, and every element seemed incredibly sturdy.
This sleek aesthetic and premium feel are undoubtedly the Technogym bench’s strong points. The brand recently launched the Design To Move project, which challenged 40 renowned designers, including Kelly Hoppen and Antonio Citterio, to create their own version of Technogym’s most awarded product (one member of the brand’s team told me that this product had won more awards than any other in its catalogue). The results were showcased 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 Nerio Alessandri, Founder and CEO of Technogym. “Design has always been a key element in our journey, a strong ally in turning the functional into the emotional and the needs into aspirations. We are proud that so many designers and artists have joined our dream of putting the world in motion again.”
No one had 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 designed to a higher aesthetic standard than sweaty burpees in the bedroom.
The other thing that sets it apart from my poorly 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 make the most of the Technogym Bench’s functionality, and you can also use it with other machines from the brand, such as the Technogym Run treadmill, for bootcamp-style workouts.
I tried a circuit class that included a mix of dynamic, full-body dumbbell exercises, muscle-building exercises like chest flyes, and core-strengthening moves with knuckle weights. The 30 minutes flew by, and the minimal setup made it easy to move from station to station.
The bench does have a few flaws. As a very experienced weightlifter, heavier dumbbells would have been helpful. Technogym does offer the option to purchase additional weights, and you can always buy more yourself, but there's nowhere to store them, and once you've spent over $2000 on exercise equipment, you're likely not going to want to spend that money again for a while.
However, as the Technogym team noted, the weights provided are suitable for the bootcamp sessions the bench prides itself on – even 20lb/10kg will feel heavy at the end of a high rep set.
Having only low anchor points on the bench for the resistance bands also limited exercise options a bit, with moves like high-low crossovers and lat pulldowns off the table (unless you can find another solid anchor point high up in your house).
Despite these minor complaints and its price tag, the Technogym bench is still an undeniably great piece of equipment. So, for better or worse, I can't help but want one.
