This site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Read Our Disclosures
If you are looking for a weights bench that also provides you with a free standing squat rack, the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 Olympic Bench might be the ideal choice for you.
This product article takes a look at the bench and squat rack design in a bit more detail, including the safety features, range of possible exercises, and the overall opinion from a range of customer reviews from people who have purchased and used this bench.
Bench design features
If you are thinking about buying a new weights bench for your home gym, it’s important to make sure you are getting the best balance of price and features.
The Gold’s Gym XRS 20 provides you with a range of different back support positions, including flat and a number of incline settings (not fully upright) to provide a stable base from which to perform some of the most effective upper and lower body exercises.
Although this bench does come with a squat rack, the fact that the bench can slide away from the rack makes dumbbell workouts a much more viable option compared to benches such as the Marcy Diamond MD 857.
As well as the standard chest and back exercises you can use this bench to support, the leg developer and preacher curl attachments help to add variation to your bicep and leg workouts.
The curved shape of the base at the front of the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 bench is also excellent for improving stability, as well as being perfectly positioned to rest your feet on when bench pressing to help improve your upper body power on the exercise.
Gold’s Gym XRS 20 – Features Summary
- 6-Roll Leg Developer -Build and develop your quads, hamstrings, glutes and hip-flexors
- Rolled Preacher Pad – Isolate your biceps and forearms, while ensuring proper exercise form
- Adjustable Safety Spotters – Get a safe, effective workout with these 9.5″ spotters
- 600 Lb. Weight Capacity – With a 300 lb. user capacity and a 300 lb. weight-set limit
- Detachable Curl Yoke
Squat rack design features
While the weights bench certainly offers a range of useful workout features, combining this with the squat rack is really what makes the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 such excellent value for money.
One of the main benefits is that it is free standing. This means that you don’t need to worry about the bench getting in the way of your squats, curls, or any other exercise you choose to include in your workouts.
With the bench out of the way, there’s ample room to position your body between the uprights, allowing you to take full advantage of the safety supports during your squats.
These safety bar supports can be set at a variety of different heights to prevent the bar from moving below a certain point. This is particularly useful if you want to include squats or bench presses in your training, but often workout at home without a spotter.
One final feature worth mentioning for the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 squat rack is the design of the uprights. The height of these can be individually adjusted through a wide range of positions to cater for different user heights, with a very effective bar support style at the top of each upright.
The low front lip doesn’t obstruct the bar when you are ready to lift, while the angle and height of the rear lip makes it easy to line the bar up for returning it to a racked position when you finish your set.
Upper and lower body workouts
While standard weights benches will offer some excellent features but be limited to upper body exercises, the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 also provides you with a number of options for training your lower body.
The following is a selection of just a few of the more effective exercises that are possible When combined with a good quality barbell, dumbbell, and weight plates set:
Upper Body:
- Incline dumbbell flys
- Incline dumbbell curls
- Pullovers
- Flat barbell bench press
- Seated side laterals
- Shrugs
Lower body:
- Dumbbell lunges
- Leg extensions
- Leg curls
- Back squats
- Front squats
Customer reviews
Although Gold’s Gym is a name that is now well known for its world famous commercials gyms and high quality fitness equipment, it can still be useful to know what people who have purchased the Gold’s Gym XRS 20 bench actually think of it.
This is where customer reviews can be so invaluable, with one of the most trusted places to find them being Amazon.
Pros:
- Light and easy to move around, but stable and feels solid in use
- Easy to switch between bench positions
- Doesn’t take up as much space as a power cage or single piece bench and squat rack
- Simple to assemble
- Excellent range of features for the price
Cons:
- It would be useful to have a couple of higher safety support positions for the higher incline bench presses
- Plastic caps can slide off the feet when moved, but can be solved with a bit of glue
- The height of the leg rollers isn’t adjustable
Review Overview
Overall Rating
4.5 / 5
While there are plenty of weights benches available where the bench and barbell rack are integrated, it's often impractical to use these barbell supports for any exercise other than the bench press.
Keeping the bench and squat rack free standing means you can perform a much wider range of upper and lower body exercises with the Gold's Gym XRS 20 Olympic Bench than most similarly priced designs.
With both the frame uprights and safety rails having a range of height settings to choose from, this also helps to prevent the risk of injury when performing exercises such as squats without a spotter at home.
Weight limit: 300 lb on the rack, 600 lb total on the bench
USA Home Gym gives in-depth insights into gym equipment, supplements, and fitness training methods. The motivation behind USA Home Gym is to provide you with information that goes beyond what you can find in any user manual, customer review, or other online review sites.
We go to great lengths to ensure that our reviews are completely comprehensive, usually covering everything from the design features to the warranty coverage and exercise options. This is all to help guide you towards the home gym equipment that’s best suited to your goals and budget, whilst also being the highest quality option in your chosen price range.
