The Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench is a low-cost, light, space-saving bench that folds – but is it hardy enough for your home gym needs?
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Almost every home gym begins with someone buying a 20kg dumbbell set and thinking things won’t escalate any further. Sadly, they nearly always do. And if you own a set of dumbbells, it is only a matter of time until you realise that you can’t do half of the exercises you’d like to without a bench.
And while a flat bench is an amazing piece of equipment, most home gym owners are more likely to go for an adjustable option.
Storage is a major concern for us Brits. And adjustable benches are so much easier to store than their flat cousins. They are also a lot more versatile.
If they can incline, you can use them for the seated overhead press, incline bench press, incline curls and more.
Adjustable Advantages?
You can use adjustable benches as something to lean on when doing the dumbbell row, probably my favourite lift of all time.
If they decline, you can use them for all manner of ab workouts, as well as funky variations of triceps extensions.
But the best thing about adjustable benches is the fact that you can fold and store them much more easily than a flat bench, which kind of, well… sits there.
If you’re just starting on your home gym journey, or are trying to convince yourself that you’re not really building a home gym at all, you will almost certainly gravitate to a low-cost, light, highly storable, foldable adjustable bench.
As well you might. The biggest British home gym companies don’t really sell this kind of bench. Blkbox ’s options are all heavy-duty. Mirafit makes one folding option, but it doesn’t look superior to more generic, no-name alternatives. Strength Shop specialises in making benches that look like they would survive a nuclear war, so don’t waste your time looking there if you want something light.
So almost inevitably, you will need to look to overseas firms if you want the lowest-cost options for a bench. And that will more than likely bring you, eventually, to Amazon, eBay and the like. And if you spend enough time on these sites, you will doubtlessly come across the Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench.
Pricing
On eBay, this retails for around £70, but eBay is quite pushy so if you put this in your basket and leave it there, the seller may make you an offer. You can also sometimes get 10-20% discounts on certain items with this kind of code.
On Amazon, it is currently available for £73, but it often ends up in the Today’s Deals section for quite a bit less, so keep an eye out.
If you feel brave, you can also dip into the second-hand market, where I’ve seen these going for £10 or less. Who knows what sort of state you will get it in, but that isn’t a very big investment for such a useful piece of gym equipment. Personally, I’d rather buy new when it comes to something like a weight bench, but you do you.
What Does It Do?
The makers of the Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench say it has six settings for the backrest. They include the decline setting, which is the default storage setting.
I only ever use three of these settings: The decline setting for triceps work, the flat setting and the second-to-highest setting for anything where you need an incline. I honestly don’t know what you’d use the other settings for, but maybe you can think of something.
You can also adjust the seat angle, which is quite a nice touch. It helps with storing this bench as flat as possible more than anything else. But I guess if you want to try to use this bench to do ab work, the highest incline on the seat would be the best pick.
The listing says the bench finishing is “made of high-quality faux leather,” stretching the truth if not quite breaking it. It is PU, but it’s not a smooth surface.
It is more like a network of interlaced, cheap PU strips. As such, if you are used to the smooth surface of a commercial gym bench, you may be taken aback.
That lining is relatively durable. I’ve used mine a LOT in several years of owning it, and it has only developed a few minor kinks.
It also has some kind of resistance band anchor points, but I’ve never tried using them – nor would I recommend doing so. There are too many places where a rubber band could catch, fray and break on this bench.
The listing also claims that “the supported tube is built to withstand 300kg capacity,” which is quite a claim for a bench that weighs just 11kg.
The version I bought also has a fabric carrying handle, which wore out and almost broke off immediately. No biggie. I don’t see that advertised anymore, so the manufacturer may have simply removed it to stop people from sending the product back.
Assembly
Like most of these kinds of products, this comes in a (very) flat package, meaning you have to assemble it yourself. A decent set of tools comes in handy here.
But it really doesn’t take too long to put together.
What I Like About It
The Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench is ideal for anyone with a garden. If you have the space to work out on your lawn or patio, this is where it shines. I own a much more heavy-duty adjustable bench than this, but it’s a Strength Shop monster, so even wheeling it a few metres is a major effort.
The Yoleo is so light that you can pick it up with one hand and grab a weight plate in the other. On a sunny day, it’s something you can throw out onto the lawn to use as a resting place for your back foot on Bulgarian split squats. It’s also (just about) sturdy enough to lean an arm on for dumbbell rows.
In terms of actually using it, I recommend it for isolation work: incline curls, triceps extensions, pullovers and chest flyes.
It is also surprisingly good for the seated version of the overhead press – better even than my Strength Shop bench, which struggles to fit in the rack. For a lift that can get quite heavy and grindy, it surprisingly stands up to the task quite well.
Its portability and storable nature are also extremely strong points. You could realistically put this and a small set of dumbbells into a cupboard and go no further on your home gym journey. Unless you pull out all the pins and remove the leg rests, you won’t be able to store it completely flat, but it comes close.
What Don’t I Like About It
While its light weight is a good point as described above, that also makes it quite unsuitable for anything that involves heavy pulling. It just feels like it’s going to shoot out from under you if you try to pull a heavy cable row with this.
The most unsettling lift to attempt with this bench, however, is the bench press.
The bench feels like it’s wobbling all over the place when you’re lifting anything even remotely heavy. And while it probably wouldn’t give out on you, it certainly doesn’t feel very stable or reassuring.
As I said, the “faux leather” surfaces feel cheap and aren’t as easy to clean as a smoother surface. The memory foam cushioning isn’t very thick and you can sometimes feel the wooden layer beneath when you are lifting slightly heavy weights.
Generally, this doesn’t feel like a “premium” gym item. It feels like you are roughing it a bit. And if you are going from high-end commercial gym benches to this, it could be a bit of a rude awakening.
The Final Verdict: Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench – Should You Buy It?
If you are used to the plushiness and luxury of an expensive, well-cushioned bench, the Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench is like jumping out of the driver’s seat of a new Mercedes and into the back of a 1980s Fiat. It’s rough, raw and basic. If you are a powerlifter or like benching heavy, this really isn’t the kind of bench you want to even consider getting for your home gym.
But it’s also a lot of fun. Not everyone enjoys training in a dusty basement all year round.
Some people want to be outside sometimes, and the Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench is one of the few benches that really lets you do that. It’s shorter than quite a few other similarly priced benches (which may be a problem if you are very tall). But that also means it’s easier to get in and out of the house/garage/shed.
If you have a garden, this is almost a must-have in my book. It also may come into its own if you live in a flat (apartment), where storage space is almost always at a premium.
The Yoleo Adjustable Weight Bench is not the most durable item you’ll ever buy, but it’s not quite as flimsy as it first looks, as most of the really important parts are made of steel. Low-quality steel, but steel, nonetheless.
For £50-75, you really could do a lot worse.
