My partner and I have very different approaches to interior design. While she (a style-conscious art director) keeps the house looking good with tasteful additions, I (a fitness writer) cram it full of bulky exercise equipment. But I was recently introduced to something that could satisfy both camps.
Designed to offer “maximum exercise variety in minimal space,” the Technogym Bench accommodates dumbbells, knuckle weights, resistance bands, and a yoga mat in a compact weight bench. As you’d expect from the notoriously luxurious Italian brand, it looks pretty snazzy, too.
It’s part of our Money No Object range for good reason – at $2,350 in the US and £1,450 in the UK (around AU$3,500), it’s hardly a smart buy. But my champagne taste (if not my beer bag) couldn’t help but want one, especially after I tried 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 at just one station”.
Inside the hollowed-out interior of the weight bench you’ll find five pairs of dumbbells (5 lb / 2.5 kg, 7.5 lb / 3.5 kg, 10 lb / 5 kg, 15 lb / 7.5 kg and 20 lb / 10 kg), three sets of knuckle weights (1 lb / 0.45 kg, 1.8 lb / 0.8 kg and 2.6 lb / 1.20 kg), light, medium and heavy resistance bands and an exercise mat.
Each piece of equipment has its place, be it a pen, a rack or a compartment, and there are wheels at one end to make the bench easier to move – handy when the whole thing weighs just under 100 kg.
The Technogym Bench: What makes it special?
This is the big question: Why does the Technogym Bench justify its high price?
Out of interest, I searched Amazon and found that I could get a flat weight bench with all the necessary accessories for $316.61 – the Amazon Basics range did a lot of the work for me.
But that wouldn’t solve my clutter problem – if anything, it would make it worse – and the equipment wasn’t of the same quality either. When I tried the Technogym Bench, the Batman-esque black and grey colour scheme looked great and each element felt incredibly sturdy.
That stylish aesthetic and high-quality feel are arguably 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 take on Technogym’s most awarded product (a member of the brand team told me this product has won more awards than any other on their list). The results were presented 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 life forms,” says Technogym founder and CEO Nerio Alessandri. “Design has always been a key element of our journey, a powerful ally in transforming functionality into emotion and needs into aspirations. We are proud that so many designers and artists share our dream of getting the world moving again.”
No one has ever used Da Vinci to sell me dumbbells, and that appearance of sophistication is probably another part of the product’s appeal—the Technogym Bench certainly has a higher aesthetic standard than sweaty bedroom burpees.
The other thing that sets it apart from my sloppily assembled Amazon shopping cart is its compatibility with the Technogym app via your phone or tablet. The platform offers a litany of slickly produced video courses that make the most of 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 a circuit class that consisted of a cocktail of dynamic full-body dumbbell exercises, muscle-building heroes like chest flyes, and core-carving exercises with the ankle weights. The 30 minutes flew by, and the minimal setup made it easy to move between stations.
The bench has its weaknesses too. As a long-time weightlifter, a couple of heavier dumbbells would have been handy. 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 exercise equipment, you probably won’t want to spend the money again for a while.
However, the team at Technogym stressed that the included weights are well suited to the bootcamp sessions that this bench promises so much for – even 20 lb/10 kg will feel heavy at the end of a high-rep set.
The fact that there were only low anchor points for the resistance bands on the bench also somewhat limited the exercise options for movements like high-to-low crossovers and table pulldowns (unless you can find another solid anchor point higher up at home).
Despite these minor criticisms and its price, the Technogym Bench is undeniably a cool piece of equipment, so for better or worse, I can’t help but have one.
