The Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench is Rogue’s only (current) foray into easy-to-store, minimal footprint benches. It is a budget-friendly, easy to move and competent bench press that should stand up to anything that a home gym can throw at it. I wouldn’t suggest trying to set bench press world records on it. However, we find our utility bench meets all of our needs as Olympic Weightlifters, CrossFitters and general trainers that need a solid bench to work with. Add in an easy to use wall mount and this Fold Up Utility Bench is the best option out there for small-space home gyms.
In this review we will highlight why we bought the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench and the home gym solutions it provides. I’ll also highlight a few issues with the bench and, most importantly, who shouldn’t buy it.
Pros:
- Budget friendly
- Fairly Stable
- Easy to store without taking up floor space
Cons:
- Lining up holes for locking pins isn’t perfect
- 14″ wide base isn’t great for exercises off the side of the bench
Who is the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench Built for:
- People that want a cost-effective, solid bench that can be stored easily without taking up floor space
Who Shouldn’t Buy:
- Dedicated powerlifters or bench pressers looking for a world-leading bench
Table of Contents
Key Features of the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench
The Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench is built from 2”x3” 11 gauge steep and has a footprint of 47” long x 14” wide at the feet. It is 17” tall when unfolded, including the 2.5” standard pad. (This height fits within the International Powerlifting Federation guidelines). The bench is 7.5” tall when it is folded.
The Fold Up Utility Bench weighs 48 lbs and does not have wheels. At sub-50 lbs, the bench is maneuverable enough that it isn’t a hassle to move it around your gym and hang it for storage. The 11-gauge steel construction and welded supports give confidence as you are lifting.
Rogue includes a Bench Hanger with purchase. You do not need to add a hanger to your basket. The bench pad is approximately 8” off the wall when hanging on the storage rack. This results in a very minimalistic and sleek storage solution for when the bench is not in use.
The bench folds easily using detent pins that (usually) fit easily into the hinged support legs. This also allows the bench to work as an incline bench when needed – though I wouldn’t recommend using it as such for heavy lifts.
The Problem that the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench Solves
The Fold Up Bench does exactly what is was designed for and looks good both on the floor and when stored away.
The Fold Up Utility Bench was designed for home gym owners that have limited floor space but want a solid and sturdy bench that can handle serious weight.
The genius of this bench is how easy it is to fold it up and store. It can be done in a couple of minutes. This means that this bench is perfect for people that want to maximize their floor space for weightlifting or CrossFit style lifting.
The Fold Up Bench also allows home gym owners to use floor space for more immovable equipment because the storage system utilizes vertical wall space. Who doesn’t want more equipment available in their home gym?
I personally love this bench because of its ability to convert to an incline bench, as shown below. I shove the bench against a wall so it doesn’t slide and can do incline dumbbell bench press without having to splurge on a flat/incline bench. This feature also comes in handy for shoulder accessory work like reverse flies and YTW’s.
Why We Bought the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench
I won’t try to hide it; we love Rogue gear at Home Gym Life. It’s good quality and looks good. Most of our equipment is Rogue.
The Fold Up Utility Bench mirrors our experience with other Rogue equipment.
Though we don’t bench press very often, we were looking for a bench to use for hip thrusts, Bulgarian split squats and single leg box squats, among other exercises. We wanted one that wasn’t crazy expensive and was easy to store.
We often have up to 4 or 5 people lifting in our gym, and even when we are alone we are usually doing Olympic lifts or deadlifting so we needed to keep our floor space accessible.
The Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench hit all the key points for us. A big selling feature was that it came with the storage hanger included and had free shipping to along with the budget friendly price.
We now use it nearly every workout we do. This means we often leave it out on our gym floor, but we love that we have the ability to store it away when we want a bit more space.
What We Would Like To See Improved
The one issue that we have run into with the Fold Up Utility Bench came from assembling it. It was a bit of a pain to tighten the bracket bolts that the bench feet rotate around to fold inwards (see the picture below).
The bolt positioning is finicky and took a long time to set up. We eventually gave up when the bench legs hinged well-enough to fold when we needed them to. But we run into some issues trying to get the detent pins to slide through the pre-drilled guide holes to lock the legs in place.
We usually must give it a few tries to get the pins through, and often we have to wiggle the leg and the pins to get everything to line up. This is a minor annoyance but not so bad that we would take the bolts out and re-assemble it.
My only other concern is that the relatively narrow footprint of the bench makes it a bit wobbly when doing hip thrusts off the side of it. It is an easy fix to push the bench against a wall to overcome this shortcoming.
I honestly cannot think of another issue with this bench or anything I would change about the bench.
Why You Shouldn’t Buy the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench
The Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench is not for people that are competitors in powerlifting or that take bench pressing super seriously. A better option in those cases would be the Rogue Monster Utility Bench, which wheels and either a competition pad or Thompson Fat Pad, or this Rogue Monster Lite Competition Bench that has a bench and uprights in-one.
Obviously, this bench does not have incline or decline adjustability. Therefore, you will have to look elsewhere if you are looking for those options. A few great flat-incline-decline (FID) bench options include the Rep Fitness AB-3000 and the Rogue AB-3 Adjustable Bench.
I also would not buy the Rogue Fold Up Utility Bench if we had more floor space and storage room available. Instead, I would buy a beefier flat bench with wheels and a fat pad, like the Monster Utility Bench from Rogue.