Thursday, 3 October 2024

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Body Solid SBL460P4 Leverage Gym Review

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If you are looking for a multi station home gym that offers more resistance than your standard cable machines, the Body Solid SBL460P4 leverage gym could make an excellent choice.

With 3 main workout stations and the popular FID46 weights bench included in the price, this review takes a closer look at the features and exercise options you get for your money.

Bench press station

Body Solid SBL460P4 chest press station

Arguably the most popular exercise to feature in upper body workouts is the bench press. Pressing a heavy weight up from your chest is one of the most effective ways to build overall strength and mass in your chest, triceps, and shoulders.

The main benefit of the Body Solid SBL460P4 is that it combines the safety aspects of a smith machine with the more natural range of motion of free weights.

Rather than pressing using handles built into the main arm, a hinge is created by adding the ergonomically designed handle bars. This is what creates the natural range of motion and helps increase your strength and muscle gains by recruiting more stabilizer muscles than your standard lever gym.

The pressing lever arm also includes a locking pin feature, allowing you to quickly change the starting angle. This is ideal if you want to quickly switch from flat to incline bench presses, or even roll the bench out of the way and perform standing bicep curls.

While the handles attached to the main pressing arm are perfect for performing bench press and shoulder press exercises, it’s also possible to use the separate handle attachments to perform isolation exercises such as pec flys with greater freedom of movement.


Body Solid SBL460P4 – Features Summary

  • Free-weight leverage gym for maxing out and training to muscular exhaustion
  • Extra-strong, extra-large 3-by-3-inch steel mainframe with all-4-side welded construction
  • Performs more than 40 exercises for chest, shoulders, back, legs, biceps, abs, and more
  • Safety guards at every station prevent pinning under heavy weight without a spotter
  • Measures 104 x 83 x 107 inches (W x H x D) without bench
  • Lifetime warranty on all parts

Body Solid FID46 weights bench

Although the Body Solid SBL460P4 provides a wide variety of exercise possibilities, it can also be beneficial to include dumbbell exercises in your training.

The Body Solid SBL460P4 also includes the popular heavy duty FID46 weights bench

This is part of the reason why the free standing Body Solid FID46 weights bench is also included as part of the main leverage gym.

Buying this bench on its own will usually cost anywhere from $280 to $475 due to its high quality design and range of decline, flat and incline positions.

As well as being able to roll the bench up to the pressing arm to perform bench press and chest exercises, you can also use it as a base from which to perform a range of dumbbell exercises and better isolate individual muscle groups.

The leg developer at the front of the bench also allows you to perform leg extensions and leg curls, which can combine with the hack squat station to put together an effective lower body strength workout.

To ensure you are as comfortable and well supported as possible when performing these exercises, the FID46 weights bench features contoured back support padding to better protect your lower back.

Lat pulldown station

The lat pulldown station can also be used for preacher curls and even tricep pushdowns, with various attachment options

With your back being one of the largest and most complex muscle groups in the body, it’s important to be able to target the muscles from a variety of different angles.

With pulldowns being one of the most popular exercise choices, the Body Solid SBL460P4 features a high lever arm specifically designed to support this exercise.

As with the FID46 bench and hack squat stations, the lat pulldown station includes a number of different padded supports to keep you comfortable and supported through every set and rep.

The extra thick back support padding creates a slight arch in your upper back, helping to push your chest up and keep your upper body at the optimum position for contracting your back muscles.

Padded rollers have been added either side of the seat to slide your legs under when performing the exercise facing the frame, which help you to use more weight without worrying about being lifted up off the seat.

Preacher curl

The Body Solid SBL460P4 includes a preacher curl pad for if you want to isolate your biceps

If you are looking to train your biceps but prevent using momentum to swing the weight up, preacher curls are one of the best isolation exercises you can include in your workouts.

The Body Solid SBL460P4 includes a heavy duty preacher curl station specifically for this exercise, with thick padding and side guards to cushion your triceps.

The angles of the preacher curl bar provide two possible grip positions which let you switch focus between the long head of the muscle, and the short head and brachialis. This helps to develop fuller and thicker arms than bicep curls alone.

There is also a pivot point between the handles and the preacher curl arm to create a more natural range of motion and prevent any discomfort in your wrists when curling.

Hack squat and calf raise station

Although the leg developer on the weights bench can be used for lower body isolation exercises, one of the most effective ways to build strength and size in your legs is with squats.

This is why the Body Solid SBL460P4 provides a hack squat station, allowing you to perform both hack squats and calf raises due to the design of the foot plate.

A simple locking mechanism holds the hack squat lever arm in place until you are ready to perform the exercise, at which point you can fold the locking pin out of the way and hold onto the handles for extra stability.

The same high quality padding and upholstery is again used to protect your shoulders and back against the weight of arm and loaded weight plates.

Exercise options

With so many different attachment options, the free standing weights bench and the design of the various lever arms, there are dozens of exercises you can perform with the Body Solid SBL460P4.

A few of the most popular and effective options are listed below:


  • Bench press (Incline ,decline, flat)
  • Shoulder press
  • Pec flys
  • Lat pulldowns
  • Pull ups
  • Preacher curls
  • Leg extensions


  • Hack squats
  • Calf raises
  • Tricep pushdowns
  • Seated rows
  • Bicep curls
  • Upright rows
  • Shrugs

Professional home gym assembly services

When ordering a new home gym system, you might be wondering how easy will it be to setup? Most will include some form of manual, but the quality of assembly instructions can differ greatly between the different models and manufacturers.

This can be especially true with multi-station home gyms like the Body Solid SBL460P4, where you have multiple pivot points to assemble and a heavy steel frame.

One option is to hire a professional – someone who has experience setting up this type of home fitness equipment. So who can you trust to get the job done?

Home Gym Assembly
Start by confirming your service location

Amazon have recently introduced a number of home assembly services, for ellipticals, treadmills, and now home gyms. Simply enter your zip code in the form above to check the options for your location.

You can even find hundreds of highly rated reviews from customers who have already taken advantage of Amazon’s professional home gym assembly service.

With all the necessary tools and experience, and a typical assembly time of just 3 hours, it’s often the quickest way to get started with your new weight training workouts.

Customer reviews

Generally speaking weightlifting equipment does tend to receive less customer reviews than fitness equipment such as treadmills and exercise bikes.

Despite this, we did manage to find some customer reviews on Amazon, which provided a number of surprisingly in depth reviews.

While reading about the Body Solid SBL460P4 can certainly help give you a clearer idea about its features and benefits, it’s equally useful to read the opinions of other people who have bought and used this home gym.

After reading through the reviews ourselves, we compiled the following list of commonly reported pros and cons:

Pros:

  • Easy to follow instructions
  • Exceptional commercial level build quality and stability
  • High level of customer service
  • High quality padding

Cons:

  • The handles on the preacher curl don’t rotate
  • Preacher curl seat can get in the way if using the high lever arm to perform pull ups
Body Solid Home Gym Guide

Review Overview

Overall Review Rating

4 / 5

The Body Solid SBL460P4 Freeweight Leverage Gym is designed for anyone looking to increase their overall strength and muscle mass without being restricted by the resistance created by the weight stacks in standard cable machines.

Each station adjusts to fit your size for proper positioning, beneficial pre-stretch and full range of motion. For additional comfort while you workout, the leverage gym features 2 of the 2" and 3" thick DuraFirm seats, as well as back and shoulder pads to support you through the heaviest routines.

To prevent any unwanted movement and to keep this home gym stable when fully loaded with weight plates, the extra heavy-duty mainframe is built from 10 and 11 gauge high tensile strength steel, with all-4-side welded construction.

The Body-Solid Free Weight Leverage Gym is built to last a lifetime and is backed by the Body-Solid exclusive In-Home lifetime warranty on everything; pads, pulleys, cables, frame. This was just one of the reasons for the high user review ratings.

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