Need opinions on this-

I've been in the market for a new home gym, just found this one-
Powerhouse gym
I can't take my old set up to my new apartment, which is why I'm looking for something little more compact- This one seems to have everything I'm looking for- I want something with a stand alone bench, which this has, a safe way to do squats, which this has (multiple adjustable places to catch the bar is all I need for that) and a pulldown station- I think this also has a low pulley system, but it's hard to tell from the pic. Please let me know what you think.

I think it looks okay.. I was looking and thinking and my first thoughts were.

1) Man.. I'd have to move a lot of stuff to do squats. And where's my safety if I go too low.. there's no bars.. And that's a pretty tiny area to put the bar once I'm done.

2) Humm.. I'm doing bench presses or dumbbell presses and there's a lot of support bars around me..

Here's what you do..

Go to a gym store in town.. go to Sears.. go to a place that has home gyms. Sit on them.. stretch out.. lay on the bench. wiggle around. Pretend you have the 50lbs in your hand and you are doing flyes.. can you get a full range without whacking the bars.

Before you buy anything.. if you can.. test it out. It's like a car.. your going to be on it a lot.. and nothing would be worse then not feeling comfortable.

It looks great in the picture but until you sit on it.. it's really hard to tell.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

Actually, to do squats all I'd have to do is move the bench out- Which is also how I would do dumbell presses, with the bench away from the rest of the thing. The bench is a seperate piece from the rest, so when it comes to bench presses, you can position the bench as needed.
As far as the squats go- You're right, a nice big place to rest the bar lower down would be optimal, like I have on my cage setup now- But I've actually never used that feature. If you look on this one, you can see the lower bar catches are larger than the higher ones, and you can put them pretty low too.
But, like you said, I have never tried out a bench like this, I'm just going through the exercises in my mind. Until I actually try one out, I won't know how it'll really work for me. Good advice, thanks!

Until I actually try one out, I won't know how it'll really work for me.

Exactly. If you can find this bench somewhere or something similar and try it.. then go for it.

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com