Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench Review – Big, Bold, and Beautiful – 2026

Last updated on January 5th, 2026 at 07:23 pm

Prime Fitness has been a STAPLE in the best commercial gyms around the world for decades. In the last several years their focus has been split between commercial machines, and high end home gym gear. Their Prodigy Line of equipment is sought after for its functionality, aesthetics, and flat out awesomeness. Then they released the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench and teased the dozen or so exercises it would be able to do, the attachments, and the eventual Smart Arm release, and everyone’s heads turned to watch patiently.

I’ve had the Prime Shorty in my gym for two years, testing, tweaking, and putting it to the test. The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has a lot going on with the addition of some attachments. But can Prime find that sweet spot between commercial and home gym? Can they create the perfect home gym bench? Or will this be expensive and underwhelming? Let’s find out!

Transparency Note

I’ve worked with Prime Fitness for multiple years now on the Garage Gym Competition. They are one of the coolest companies to work with for a number reasons, and they seem to like working with me as well. They sent me their Super Squat Bar awhile back, I recently got their Prototype Trap Bar, and they sent me the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench and all the fixings for free for sake of review.

I also have an affiliate link and code with them that gives me a kick back and saves you some cash on your purchase. Hopefully none of that impacts my results here. I appreciate your support, lets dig in.

Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench Overview

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench weighs in at a BEEFY 100lbs. It has laser cut numbered ladder adjustments from 0 to 85. The front seat also declines and inclines multiple angles. It has wheels and a handle to help move it. The bench has a simple aesthetic with the two tone colors separating the base from the bench itself (plus the Prime Green accents). From first view, this bench looks like the majority of adjustable benches on the market. Where it takes a turn and ups the ante is with the attachment options and some of the finer details.

Shipping & Assembly

Prime ships the bench in a box, which is actually on a pallet, which is packaged in the most heavy duty packaging possible. The chances that anything shows up dented or dinged is near impossible. You will have some work unpacking this beast, but it isn’t a frustrating experience. Just be ready to cut the bench out of the box.

Side Note – I always post my packing materials on Marketplace for small businesses to come grab for free. Prime’s stuff always gets snatched up QUICK. Saves you some space in your trash can, helps out a small business, and keeps that stuff out of the landfill. Give it a shot!

Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench Specs

• Brand: Prime Fitness USA
• Made In USA: Yes
• Dimensions: 51L x 27W x 18H in.
• Vertical Storage Dimensions: None Currently
• Weight: 100lbs
• Suitable Athlete Height: So far so good at my 6ft height
• Finish: powder-coated steel – charcoal gray bench frame and black base
• Weight Limit: 1000lbs in flat, and 600lbs in incline
• Additional Notes: Back pad adjust-ability from 0 to 85 degrees & five seat pad angle adjustment
• Assembly: Took me about 1 hour which included clean-up of materials
• Warranty: Click Here
• Return Policy: Check Here
• Military Discount: On request

Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench Build

Prime Fitness has a STRONG focus on hypertrophy. Their machines, their bars, their cable attachments, everything is geared towards building big muscles. And the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is no different. This is NOT a powerlifter bench. You can tell by the thinner pad, the lack of grippy vinyl, and the overall construction and concepts. This bench was designed with attachments in mind and blasting a nasty pump.

Padding & Vinyl

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has a very different design in the padding department than any other bench in my garage. The padding itself is very thin, especially compared to a bench like the REP Nighthawk. It is also not very dense. This combination creates a VERY rigid bench, which can definitely be seen as uncomfortable for some.

The vinyl itself, as mentioned, is the NON-grippy style. This is what we have seen in commercial gyms for decades. It lasts a long time. It is easy to clean. It looks aesthetically fantastic and seems to hold sweat stains much less. But for those of us trying to use a single bench in a home gym for everything, it can be problematic. The vinyl works well for most accessory movements, but when we get into the big barbell benching set-ups that require lots of leg drive, you simply have nothing to grab onto.

You can remedy this in a few ways, including wearing an A7 Grip Shirt, or leveraging an old powerlifter trick of adding bands to the bench. But in the end, this bench is going to fall flat as a stand alone bench for heavy benching. So if you intended to own ONE bench, this might be game over for the Prime Fitness Shorty Adjustable Bench.

Pad Width

This is one that is going to bob and weave based on your own preferences. The pad width on the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is one of the THINNEST benches I’ve ever seen, let alone used in my gym. As a powerlifting dude, I tend to use my Thompson Fat Pad for flat benching, because it is thick, wide, and grippy. Three things that the Prime Shorty is not. This can be a legit concern for those trying to make the Shorty their one and only bench.

On the flip side, if you don’t really care about flat benching like a powerlifter, a thinner pad might be preferable. You get a better range of motion for prone work like rows, and the various attachments you are going to use. You get the ability to have your scapula move a bit better with pressing movements, and the bench is more suitable for more audiences. My wife HATES the Fat Pad, because it is way too freaking big. And while I love it for benching, it is totally unusable for basically anything else.

So we are back to Prime’s focus on hypertrophy. This is a hypertrophy first adjustable bench, not powerlifting.

Pad Gap

The pad gap is a fun topic. We have learned that there are a few ways to do this correctly, and a bunch of wrong ways. It can get complicated, or simple, depending on the build. But the end result we want is to be able to lay down on the bench and not have an adjustment pin poking us in the rear end, or having our butt drop right down in a crevice when arching.

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench tackles this topic in a very simple but creative manner. They simply cut a U-shape piece out of the frame, where the front and back pads pivot into. So you have a very minimal pad gap benching flat, through every incline angle, as well as seat adjustment. And it does this without any manual adjustments. When people talk about Prime Fitness, this is the kind of details they are thinking about. Nicely done Prime!

Aesthetics & Finishing Touches

We can’t skip the general look and feel and final touches of the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench. The overall presentation of the is fantastic. Over the two years we have had it, with use, moving around, bumping into it, even using it for part of an obstacle course, it shows very few signs of wear and tear. You can even get the bench in a number of different colorways. You will have to be comfortable with the POP of Prime Green, but to me that isn’t a terrible thing.

Where many benches have issues with plastic end caps falling off, vinyl tearing, or powdercoat scuffing, the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is commercial rated. This is a TRULY commercial grade piece of gym equipment. Now, I wouldn’t put this in a typical commercial gym, because you’d end up losing the shorty pad in someones gym bag and the preacher curl attachment would wind up in the shower for some reason. But this is a truly OVERBUILT bench.

Oddly enough, the front post on the bench has a rubber grip on it. And for some reason, it isn’t attached in any form of permanent fashion. We have no bolts, no tape, no glue, no adhesive, nothing. It is just there, waiting to fall off over and over and over. Now that I am done reviewing the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench, I’ll be adding some spray adhesive to keep this on.

Angles & Adjustments

Since the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is so focused on a number of attachments, Prime went out of their way to include a lot of adjustment options for the bench itself, but focused them heavily on the lower portion of the range. We go from flat, to 10, 20, 30, 35, 40, 45, 60, 75, and 85. Most benches are going to make consistent 15 degree jumps from 0 to 85. The front pad also has FIVE adjustment options. This goes from decline (which is important to unlock the full potential of the Decline Leg Attachment), up to Incline.

In use, I never once felt like I was missing an angle I needed for anything. And since we are so heavily leaning towards adding attachments to the back side of the Prime Fitness Shorty Adjustable Bench, the additional lower angles gives us more control to dial in exactly what we want.

I will say that the ladder design of the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is not my favorite. Where the REP Nighthawk is smooth and easy to adjust every single time with the CATCH design, there is a bit more effort to drop the post in the right hole for the Shorty when adjusting. It often “bounces” until you find the right spot. Keep in mind that I am being ULTRA picky here. It isn’t like this is frustrating, just something I’ve noticed using them side by side. If I’m picking one bench solely based on the ladder design, it is the Nighthawk.

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench also doesn’t have a rear cage, which can be troublesome if things get a little crazy. We’ll talk in a second about mobility and storage, but the rear cage is like a fail safe for making sure you don’t end up in no-man’s land with a bench collapsing on you.

The bench itself is a bit different in terms of how the weight is distributed as well. When you design a bench to take attachments like the Prime Shorty does, you need to have a REALLY rock solid base. This is incredibly evident as I would wager that a huge majority of the weight on this bench comes from the bottom frame. The downside here is that we forgo some stability in the bench itself. This is similar to my experiences with the Hyper Pro, where the back pad and seat have some give side to side, but it disappears in use.

We’ll see later on that I had no issues with the bench moving or rocking side to side even with heavier lifting. But for those ultra picky home gym owners that expect no give, no movement, no wobble, even for a commercial rated bench at 100lbs, we still got some activity going on.

Mobility and Storage

December 2025 Update: Prime finally released their Vertical Storage Kit for the Prime Shorty Bench.

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench, even after being in my garage for over two years, STILL does not support vertical storage. Prime mentioned early on that they had a vertical storage solution in the works. Perfect! They told a number of reviewers over the past two years that it was “just a month or so out”. Perfect! We even saw it at HomeGymCon 2025 (the picture above). Perfect! It is September 2025 as I write this. I originally shared this bench in my First Look Video and article in August of 2023. So the bench has been out in the wild, for 2 years, with no official release of the vertical storage.

If you take a look at the above, it seems to be a pretty simple solution. Which I’m excited about. But I have a hard time justifying a two year turn around for something that should have been standard with the bench at launch. Prime, seriously, finish this thing. No vertical storage for me and many others is a non-starter in a home gym. For the past two years the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has flat out been in the way. I have to move it around the gym any time I want to use it, or even when I don’t, because it is just there.

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has some plus sized wheels, which definitely help make up for its 100lb frame. They are smooth, and once the bench is up, it is fairly easy to navigate into position.

Unfortunately the bench only has one handle, which is off to the side. This means that the most comfortable way to pick up the bench is with one arm. If a bench has the handle in the front, you can easily use both hands for smaller athletes. Since the day this bench arrived, my wife has struggled to move it around our gym successfully. It is a little different if the bench is out in the open space, but navigating around anything, over a platform, or through the gym in general is really difficult.

How Do The Attachments Work On The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench?

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has three different areas for attachments. The first up is the side rails. You’ll see that you have holes that run from top to bottom of the main back pad. This allows you to use attachments with pop-pins, such as the Elbow Pad Kit. Next up is the ingenious pop pin that takes the top “shorty” pad off the bench and opens it up to a number of possibilities and attachments. And last is the bench support post in the back, to sneak in an extra accessory.

This is what is really cool about this bench. The bench could sit flat and look fairly basic. No drastic additions, tubing inserts, or glaring pop-pins everywhere that call out “This Bench Does Stuff”. Instead, Prime made the bench a bench, and then added attachments creatively. These all pop on and off with a quick pin or placement. No struggle to align, set, or get things working properly. The pop-pins aren’t the ones that need any tension, so they simply pop-in and are ready to work.

Storage For Attachments

With a handful of attachments, we need somewhere to store them. Prime released their Wall Mounted Storage option for the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench. This is a great solution IF you have wall space available. I do not. So all of my attachments over the past two years have been stored on my Mass Storage unit. This works as well, but is a little more clunky. If this bench was going to be my forever bench, I would probably snag this and figure out a retrofit kit for my storage solution.

I’m happy that Prime thought about this, because a lot of benches with attachments have NO storage, or some really poorly thought through solutions. I just don’t have the luxury of wall solutions currently.

Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench Performance

The above covered the basics of the bench build, construction and features, now we are going to dig into the performance. Meaning, how does the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench handle the demands of a workout, or 2 years of workouts, to be exact.

When I look at adjustable benches, I like to start with how the bench works as a bench. Meaning, forget the attachments for a minute, and talk about how this bad boy works with a barbell, dumbbells, cable system, and other odds and ends in the home gym. Most home gym owners aren’t likely going to own more than one bench.

If they do, it would be a dedicated flat bench and a good adjustable bench. So that adjustable bench needs to crush it for everything else. I need me some solid attachments, but I can’t sacrifice the basics for a crummy bench.

Just A Bench

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has some strong pros and cons in the bench category (some I have already mentioned) and this is going to depend GREATLY on how you plan to use it, and your own home gym layout.

The Shorty is meant to be used as an accessory bench for bodybuilding purposes. If your goal is to do this, then this might be your only bench. If you have space to sit the bench down in a rack or in front of some dumbbells, and not worry about vertical storage, then this might be your only bench.

Now here is the fun part… I’ve managed a 315lb bench on the Shorty. I’ve hit a 370lb bench as my best of all time, so this isn’t exactly PR worthy, but that also isn’t too far off. What I’m saying is, unless if you are chasing down all time PRs and trying to crush massive weights, the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is probably “good enough” as a basic bench for even the flat barbell bench press. I had trouble with any heavy barbell work, just because I wanted to get my feet set and stable, but some minor adjustments make this doable.

The thinner pad width and thickness give you some improved abilities for basic exercises like prone dumbbell rows, as you have less bench to get in the way of your arms and the dumbbells. In fact, the majority of accessory exercises are going to benefit from this thinner pad design. It is really just a discussion about benching like a powerlifter (or not). And since the bench is designed AS A NORMAL BENCH, we aren’t dealing with side posts like the Wide Body Bench, or having weird front posts that get in the way on the Inspire SCS.

Because the front seat can drop down to a decline, you have creative abilities to do decline pressing, use the bench for hip thrust variations, and more. You will however struggle to use this bench in some other scenarios, like with a cable system. Since we have no grip to the vinyl, if you are sitting on this bench for seated rows, you are likely to slide right off. I often had to hold my daughter down with my body weight for her to be able to do this. If you have a good foot platform solution, you might be in business. But keep that in mind.

Would I choose this as my one and only bench? Nope! Would I choose this as my one and only adjustable bench, paired with a solid flat bench? It is definitely a consideration.

If you just want a good adjustable bench, I think you have a lot of other options, for less money, that tick more boxes, than the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench, for just an adjustable bench. The REP Nighthawk is a fantastic basic adjustable bench, is cheaper than the Shorty Bench, easier to move around, has vertical storage, and is more suitable for being a One-and-Done bench for a home gym due to its vinyl, wider pad, and more.

Utility Seat

Take the top pad off, and you get a utility seat. This works well for your typical Seated DB Shoulder Press, DB Overhead Triceps Extensions, and anything where that top pad gets in the way. This concept is now seen in a few benches, such as the Freak Athlete ABX. The top pad folds down into different angles and positions. There are some pros to that, because instead of it just being removed, it can be used for chest supported rows and other exercises.

In use, this feature works great. Dumbbell pressing is much better with just a LITTLE thoracic extension. You also don’t have your face pressed into a pad when doing prone work, which is a big win. If you like to use your bench with a cable set-up, this can let you do seated rear delt work (again, no face in the bench), or potentially do some face pull options since your bench is shorter.

Plus, this opens up some creative exercise options when paired with other devices. I hooked up my ANCORE Pro to the frame of the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench and was able to do some behind the head triceps extensions. These caught up to me QUICK, and I’d take them over the dumbbell variation any day.

I would, however, love to see a V2 of this pad that could both fold down and come off. Have it rotate or attach in a couple of angles, letting me do the aforementioned chest supported rows, but come off entirely for the rest of the attachments.

Preacher Curl Pad and 45 Dumbbell Cradle

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench comes with TWO accessories that give it a full Preacher Curl effect.

First, is the Preacher Curl Pad Bench Attachment, which drops into the top pad spot. This gives the bench that angle we want for preachers. We can adjust the angle by adjusting the bench itself, to give us some more or less stretch and range of motion.

Second, is the Dumbbell Cradle Bench Attachment. This piece goes on to the bench support post, and gives us the ability to hold our dumbbells OR a curl bar of our choosing, both before and after the set is done. This can also be used for prone DB Rows and other exercises, and if you get fancy (like I show below) you can rack cable attachments on it.

The preacher curl set-up, like the rest of the Shorty, has some wins and some losses. First, is that you are going to be slightly limited compared to a dedicated preacher bench in the customization of height and angle. What I mean is, when you want to raise or lower the height of the arm pad for taller or shorter athletes, it requires you to change the angle of the bench, which changes the angle of the preacher pad. This isn’t always ideal, especially at extremes for very tall or very short athletes. They can potentially also have issues of running into the dumbbell cradle, depending on their arm length.

Second, is that this is a one-and-done attachment. You are not likely to do ANYTHING with the Preacher Curl Pad and Dumbbell Cradle, other than do preacher curls. In my own programming, preacher curls typically only show up every other block, or even every third. This means we have TWO attachments that are sitting for months at a time, because they only perform a single exercise.

I used a curl bar, and this worked well. I used dumbbells, and while I personally HATE Dumbbell Preacher Curls, it worked well. I also found that the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench played nicely with the VOLTRAs for curls. In fact, this was an absolute BONKERS set up, as I got to use whatever cable attachment I wanted, with a pretty damn consistent strength curve from the VOLTRA, and it fully fit into the Shorty Bench with the Preacher Pad and cradle.

Because the Shorty Bench is so heavy on the bottom, this thing doesn’t rock or move at all. Something that almost every other adjustable bench I’ve used struggles with when loading up weight on attachments and adding my 240+lb frame. The adjustments give you something that a standalone preacher curl pad almost guaranteed doesn’t have. And above every other solution out there, the dumbbell cradle attachment brings it all home so we don’t have to drop our implement on the ground.

I would 100% rank these above using something like the AbMat Preacher Pad. And this is far better than the curl attachment for the Wide Body Bench, for the Bells of Steel Buzzsaw, the Ironmaster Super Bench Pro V2, or any other preacher set-up I have used in a home gym.

But, my “hack” above includes a $2000 cable system, a $700 bench and two attachments that are going to run you close to $400 plus the cable attachment and mount, and you are looking at ~$3500 to do some curls. You really need to look at whether preacher curls are a mainstay exercise in your programming before dropping that kind of cash.

Decline Attachment

The Decline Bench Attachment is pretty straight forward and functions like most benches. Drop the seat, angle the bench, and get after your decline sit-ups. Again, this pops into the top pad spot, and we also have a number of angle options as the bench has so many incline adjustments. Keep in mind though, that since the bench does not have a typical locking ladder design, and has no ladder cage, you can not go higher than 45 degrees for decline sit-ups without some unfortunate results.

The majority of the other benches I have tested have limitations here as well, except for the Ironmaster Super Bench Pro V2. You can go essentially completely vertical if you felt like it for decline sit-ups.

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench design does have some solid choices to it though. First, they included a handle. It sounds simple, but getting in and out of decline sit-ups can be challenging, a handle makes it much easier. Because we have a true decline set-up, it means we can always use this bench for decline pressing. A number of benches, like the Freak Athlete ABX, don’t go into decline, so you lose this feature.

This is one of my least enjoyable versions of core work, and the science seems to be trending away from it as well due to a lack of stretch. But Prime figured out a quality solution here to give us some extra opportunities. This isn’t the best Decline Sit-Up option on the market, it requires a fairly expensive attachment, but it does give us some features that YOU might want. I can’t tell you the last time I did any kind of decline pressing that wasn’t simply for the sake of review/testing. But maybe you love it?

Elbow Pad Kit

The Elbow Pads Bench Attachment goes on the side rails, and gives us the ability to do traditional DB Incline Curls but with a support pad. Think of it like the old school Biceps Bombers. Because you have the stability of the pad, you can really push back into them and curl with some extra force.

Now the science forward guys today might argue that these pads aren’t ideal. If we want to encourage a stretch in the biceps, especially one that gets our bicep behind the shoulder as these put a greater emphasis on the long-head of the bicep, this doesn’t allow for that. In fact, it completely stops that from happening. A typical incline DB Curl would have your arms hanging down and getting a stretch at the bottom, that can’t happen when the pads are in the way.

I sit firmly in a camp today that says we should probably get a little bit of everything in our bodybuilder diet. Some stretch focus, some contraction focus, variable hand placements, heavy weight, lighter weight, full range and partials, you name it. It all seems to work for different reasons, so I think including something like this isn’t per-se “good” or “bad”, just “different”. The hard sell for me though, is that since we don’t “need” these pads to get a potentially better exercise, they might be the least useful attachment option for the Shorty Bench.

What I would personally like to see here, is for Prime to take a piece from Wide Body and make these pad arms rotatable in various ways. This would give us more opportunities to get creative, to use them in a prone position, maybe even replace the Preacher Pad attachment entirely (save some cash and some space). If they rotated and were slightly bigger, you’d have similar functions to the Wide Body for floor pressing. I’ll give Wide Body the win in this category as their arm pads do more, better, than the Prime.

The Smart Arm

When the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench first was announced, Prime teased a Leg Curl/Leg Extension attachment. What we didn’t know was that it would evolve into a full rack attachment with Prime technology.

The Prime Smart Arm gives us Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Machine Preacher Curls, Triceps Extensions, Ab Crunches, and Back Extension Work. This thing resembles the BulletProof Isolator in a number of ways with its rack attachment style, unique adjustments, and creative function. But Prime focused on tackling a few exercises, instead of going with the “infinite possibilities” approach from BulletProof.

I got to use the Prime Smart Arm briefly at HomeGymCon 2025. Not enough for a full review, but enough to give some basic feedback to help you understand the pros and cons of this ecosystem. The biggest win with the Smart Arm is that you are taking even further advantage of the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench. You are unlocking some of my favorite exercises with Leg Curls, Leg Extensions, and Machine Preacher Curls. Back in my commercial gym days, Machine Preacher Curls were my favorite bicep exercise.

The downsides come in a few pieces. Again, we have an additional cost. The Smart Arm on its own is $1250, with another close to ~$1500 in additional attachments. This is on top of what you already bought paid for the bench. To compare, the Bells of Steel Buzzsaw 2.0 comes with a couple of attachments and would cost you $860 combined.

You now need storage solutions for all of this. Multiple attachments for the bench, multiple attachments for the Prime Smart Arm, and storage for the Smart Arm itself. And remember, the Shorty Bench doesn’t store vertically.

There is set-up time associated with all of this. Since you need to grab these pieces from storage, attach to the rack, set-up as needed, and begin the workout, this adds some friction to the piece.

And the last one, which is one of the more difficult items for me personally, is the space you need on your rack to use it effectively. This comes in a few different factors. First, is that these larger rack attachments do not play nicely with racks that are bolted to platforms. You need to be able to set up in a very particular fashion, with the bench at certain angles, which is nearly impossible to do with a platform and a tight space.

Second, is that it makes super-setting with anything inside the rack, or even with the bench, very difficult. I often superset leg curls with squats. This is a method I picked up from John Meadows, and has treated me well over the years. If I have the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench with the Prime Smart Arm set up on the side of my rack, I am very likely going to struggle to also squat in that same rack at the same time. If you like to do supersets of say, biceps and triceps at the same time, you might struggle to do preacher curls and machine triceps extensions.

Does it do a lot? Yep! Does it have Prime’s patented ability to adjust the strength curve? Yep! Do I think they did a better job than the Isolator? Yep!

But the Prime Smart Arm completely takes over the Shorty Bench and the majority of your rack, needs to be situated in a particular way, requires a heavy investment, set-up time, and storage space. You need to REALLY think through your space and layout before committing to this in your gym.

Two Years Later – What Else?

I mentioned in my First Look video for the Shorty, that I was really excited to see what Prime had cooking. That their creative attachment concepts could easily be expanded on to add more functionality. Yeah, we got the Smart Arm, but we haven’t gotten anything else. And no one else seems to be designing attachments for their system either. We actually have Dialed Motion creating a BANGER of a Leg Developer, and I think it’ll come out for every other bench BUT the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench.

I really want to see them drop a seated calf raise, or some kind of chest supported row… something that continues to separate this bench from the others on the market.

Who Should Buy The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench?

You should strongly consider buying the Shorty if you meet the following criteria:

• Budget – You have a few thousand bucks sitting around to spend on the bench and the majority of the attachments including the Smart Arm
• Pump Time – You focus primarily on a bodybuilder style of training
• Powerlifting Who? – You can either add a dedicated flat bench or aren’t worried about maximizing your flat bench press from a powerlifting perspective
• Space – You have the space needed for the bench, to effectively use the bench and attachments on a rack (no platform, 3×3 rack w/ 1″ holes, etc.), and to store the attachments when not in use

If you meet the above criteria, the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench is solid, creative, functional, and adaptable to a near endless list of accessory movements. You’ll be able to train chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps, hamstrings, quads, low back, core, and more without ever leaving the bench.

If you have other toys like a VOLTRA, you’ll have even more fun. There are a few small hiccups in the execution of the occasional exercise, but the build quality on everything is at the top of its class. American Made craftsmanship is on display here in the best way possible. And you can even get the bench in custom colorways.

Other Options On The Market

Buy THIS Adjustable Bench For Your Home Gym In 2025

If you are considering going a different route, or just want to see what else is out there, I have a full article dedicated to my experiences with adjustable benches. I cover a wide FAQ list of bench items, and walk through an S-Tier to F-Tier list of how I would look at and buy an adjustable bench for my own home gym.

Wrap Up

The Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench has been in my gym for the past two years. I absolutely love the Preacher Curl Pad and Cradle set-up, especially with my VOLTRA. And the other creative hacks I’ve done have been MUCH easier to perform with the shorty than any other bench. The basic attachment line-up for the Shorty outside of that is lackluster with the Decline and Arm Pads not really adding a ton of function. But the SMART Arm is freaking cool, just very expensive and with it’s own limitations in use.

If I wasn’t a reviewer constantly juggling equipment, I MIGHT decide to keep the Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench solely because of how awesome the preacher curl function is. I’d snag the Smart Arm and figure out how to make it work in my space. And I’d pursue every last drop of bodybuilding glory I could. Plus I’d own a flat bench. As it is, this bench is going to one of my local friends who has the HIGHEST of quality expectations, already owns a VOLTRA, and is going to absolutely love this thing.

You just need to decide what kind of home gym owner you are, and how this fits (or doesn’t) into your space.

💲Want to buy a Prime Shorty Adjustable Bench? Use this link and Code: GGC to save 5%

Here are all the various attachments for the Shorty Bench, along with the Smart Arm attachments.

• Preacher Curl Pad
• Decline Attachment
• 45 Dumbbell Cradle
• Elbow Pad Kit
• Wall Mount Storage
• Smart Arm
• Smart Arm Wall Storage
• Smart Arm Triceps Attachment
• Smart Arm Leg Extension Attachment
• Smart Arm Leg Curl Attachment