Need help in finding a piece of equipment

[Jayden716]

My 13 year old son wants a bench press in his bedroom. Due to safety factors I am willing to purchase him a bench press machine with a weight stack. Unfortunately I cannot locate a place to purchase one. I only see the units where you sit upright. This is not what he wants. Below is a link with a picture of the type that I want to purchase. Any help is greatly appreciated.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=73935&item=7146291706&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

[blut wump]

I'm not convinced that a weight stack is safer than free weights. It restricts his movement and hand placement and could lead to shoulder problems or uneven development. It also makes it harder to work his triceps and he'll want a free bar for other exercises, anyway.

Provided that he doesn't have so much weight on the bar that it could crush his chest then the only danger is that he crushes his neck. Very strict instructions never to be so stupid as to benchpress down to his neck unsupervised should solve this. Getting a bar stuck on your chest is never a problem since you can lower one side and wriggle out. It's worth a bit of practice. It's also worth knowing how much weight he can take on his chest and be able to wriggle out from. This isn't going to be much of a problem until he gets quite a bit stronger.

Ideally get him a bench which has a set of hooks near the bottom of the movement so that he can hook the weight off when he does fail to lockout at the top.

 

[Madcow2]

I'll second the free weight. If he can be trusted not to blatantly misuse the equipment he should be fine. Also, the training benefits to the free weight variety are orders of magnitude greater than a machine. Meaning - he can work like a dog on that machine and make far far better progress being a slacker on the free weight bench. In addition a bar and weights have a lot more flexability. Get a bench that can serve as a rack which will allow him to squat also. The bar can be placed on the floor for rowing or pulling from the floor. All fundemental exercises and most far better at developing a strong, muscular, athletic and balanced body than the benchpress itself.

He's young and he needn't train to failure for progress. Don't get snowed into buying a smith machine version (bar on tracks) - it's equally bad in a variety of health and functional ways.

You'll have to look some but this is a bench that allows for squats too I'm not endorsing it but it's an example (squatting is really important - maybe the most important thing he can do despite the popularity of the benchpress): http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15281&item=7145336774&rd=1

If you really want to hook him up and keep him safe too, this is the best option. This is a basic power rack (you can find them locally I'm sure). He can take the bar in any exercise from the rests and he always has the pins to rely on should he bottom out (obviously the pins need to be below the full range of motion for the exercise but it's a nice safety bail out if need be (incidentally, great gains can be made by never going to failure, especially when young - if you need help for a program PM me). Of course with the rack you need to purchase a basic flat bench (no rack attached) to slide in when benching an example of which is the 2nd link. If I was your son and you hooked me up with this - man, I'd be thrilled:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15281&item=7146789273&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15281&item=7146640845&rd=1

Bar and weight can be found locally. An olympic bar and 300lbs is generally $99 or less (don't get this stuff shipped). You can probably find a lot of this stuff locally for reasonable prices - check large sporting goods stores, Sears, used equipment stores. My only concern about outfitting a 13yo is if it's just a fad or will he stick to it. Maybe you don't want to go too all out if you think it's going to be a close rack (still, if you are going to invest in your son this isn't too bad and if he refuses to ever lift again you could sell it at a consignment shop). Anyway, those are my best ideas. If he were my son and I was reasonably sure he'd stick to it, I'd get him the powerrack setup. My son is 15 months so he's not quite there yet but when he was just crawling I'd frequently tie a rope with a brick to it to get him pulling heavy (just joking!).

 

[blut wump]

That Gold's XR5 wieght bench is an impressive item. I've never seen its ilk.

Clearly a power-rack and associated extras would be supreme but the price does start to climb once you've added in the bench, bar and plates. That said, it can be the centrepiece of an excellent home gym for yourself and your son the total cost of which should be no more than a few hundred.

 

[ruggermu]

I also say free weights. When I was younger my father didn't trust me not to be stupid showing off to friends so here is what he did. Got a bench and free weights(Bar and DB's) But he kept them in a room where I could only get to them when he was there to supervize.

 

[Madcow2]

That's an idea. Remove the bar and nothing can be done without supervision.