Marcy Diamond MD 857 Olympic Surge Bench Review

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If you are looking for a weights bench that provides a range of both upper and lower body exercise options, the Marcy Diamond MD 857 Olympic Surge Bench could be just what you need.

This product article takes a look at the bench in more detail, providing information on the variety of features that set it apart from similarly priced designs, as well as a summary of the most common positives and negatives found throughout the customer reviews.

Design features

While commercial gyms will often have a large floor area with lots of room for weights benches and squat racks, when working out at home space will usually be much more limited.

This is why it’s so important that the Marcy Diamond MD 857 bench combines a walk in squat rack with a weights bench to provide both upper and lower body exercise options.

The main uprights of the frame are strong and stable enough to support a fully loaded bar at any of the preset positions on the front, as well as on the rear bar supports for when you want to perform squats.

To improve the safety of your workouts there are two different sizes of bar support provided, with the shorter set designed to support the bar at the start and end of your set, and the longer supports used to prevent the bar dropping below a certain point.

When you need to change the angle of the back support, this is just as quick and easy as switching the height of the bar supports.

By lifting the back support and sliding the padded section along the steel track you can adjust the bench to a position that bests suits your height and lifting preference.

Upper body workouts

Unlike many weights benches, the Marcy Diamond MD 857 Bench provides many more exercise options than just your standard flat barbell bench press.

Together with the incline and flat barbell bench press, the higher set of rear barbell supports can also be used to support standing overhead presses to help add strength and size to your shoulders.

The preacher curl pad at the front of the bench also allows you to perform one of the most effective exercises for isolating your biceps; preacher curls.

A curling attachment has even been added to the top of the leg developer to perform the exercise, so you don’t need to worry about buying any extra barbells.

Lower body workouts

Although a weights bench is traditionally designed for the barbell bench press, the Marcy Diamond MD 857 Bench also provides both compound and isolation exercises for working your lower body muscle groups.

The main mass building exercises of back squats and front squats are possible thanks to the walk-in squat rack, while the leg developer is an excellent way to isolate the individual muscles.

From a seated position you can slide your ankles behind the lower set of contoured leg rollers to perform leg extensions (works your quadriceps), or lie down on the bench and slide your ankles behind the higher set of rollers to perform leg curls (works your hamstrings and glutes).

Customer reviews

While images and videos go some way to show the features of the Marcy Diamond MD 857 Bench, one of the best ways to really find out its quality over time is to read some of the customer reviews.

Fortunately, due to its popularity there is no shortage of customer reviews for this particular bench, the vast majority (approx. 80%) of which are 4 or 5 stars on Amazon.

Despite the fact that there are so many positive reviews, it can still be useful to know any issues people have had with this bench. This is why we have summarised the most common pros and cons across all of the Amazon reviews, to help you decide if this is the best choice for your own home gym.

Pros:

Cons:

Although the reviews do feature a handful of negative points, none are really regarding the actual quality of the bench.