What About A Bench Press Monolift?

A Fortified Iron poster sees the benefits of using a monolift for the squat and wonders whether it could work for the bench press as well. He says:

Monolift for bench press, Who'd be for it?

I'm curious about this. It has to be a pain for some of the really big benchers since it's not easy to find someone to handoff that kind of weight. It seems like it'd a lot safer for the lifter.

Has there every been any serious discussion by a federation about using one?


I think Forza are building one if I remember correctly. There was a discussion about this on powerliftinguk.co.uk a while ago.

Some of the points I remember...

-Unracking will be difficult on max weights because it'll be like a lockout to get it off and the spotter will be able to offer very little help because the bar will be so far down the lifters body

-danger of losing your arch and flattening out

-hard to determine proper starting bar position

I think a monolift on the bench is a stupid idea

No uprights to go back into on a missed lift.
Harder to take the handoff directly over you than it is to be handed to you.
Racks could be a distraction to the lifter as well as hazard if swung back early/late.

Skiba was going to get one of these and we talked him out of it. I don't think they'll ever take off. You'll see more 3-man handoffs but not a monobench.

The monolift is designed for 2 reasons:

1.To remove the walk out and the rerack, for the safety of the lifter.

2. To allow the lifter to get into a wider stance.

It will have no benefit for the bench because:

There is no walkout.

Competitors already use the max grip width allowable.

It will interfere with the work of the spotters, and be potentially MORE dangerous. Imagine if a lifter dumps the bar. The spotters crowd around to catch the bar, but getting it back into the hooks of the monolift will be potentially problematic, at least more so that just getting it out from above the lifter and putting it on the rack would be.

Some good points. There'd have to be some thought into the design. I think if the bench was long enough then you'd be able to get a good setup wherever you needed the bar. You could adjust the height of course. It'd take some work for the design to safely allow spotters to position themselves.

no point for one

Origonally hte monolift was developed for the bench, not the squat

It wouldn't work, aside from the danger aspect, just to lift the bar off of the hooks it'd be doing a lockout and wasting valuable energy.

Sorinex auto spot !!! That is about as close to a bench mono as you can get.


bench link

it seems pretty dangerous and could get in the way of things too if it went pear shaped. 3-man handoff all the way.

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The problem I see with it is this:
Imagine you set the monolift so the bar was to be unracked at upper chest level. The forks are then swung out the way and the lifter starts their bench. The lifter misses the lift just a couple inches from lockout and has flared so much that the bar is now level with the neck. The spotters grab the bar and the monolift hooks are swung back to start position. The problem now is that the bar is behind the hooks, making it a nightmare for lifter and spotters to return the bar.
The solution to this would be to have the hooks swing away toward the lifter's feet. The problem with this is that seeing the hooks in front of you may be off putting.
My opinion is to keep with the current methods.

I don't know if its right or not, but I was told the whole idea of a monolift was started for a bench press, and I think in some of the old Powerlifting USA's their are advertisments for a bench press monolift. Not sure though

-MIke Pelosi

Sounds like a conspiracy! Something that the pro, non-tested forces are trying to popularize ;)

Yes I remember there used to be monolifts for a bench press, but it never caught on. I remember it from an old powerlifting usa way back.

Ernie Frantz has a couple of the original mono-benches at his gym. They were designed first, then they came up with the squat rack. It works OK for lifting by yourself, but with max weights, as others have said, it can be difficult to unrack it yourself.

haha, it was my question and I'm definitely not a pro. Heck, I've never even squatted in a monolift. I've always done walkout meets.

I'm sure we've all had a bad liftoff that made us neverous. It can a be big wild card at meets unless you bring your own. I'd rather walkout a squat than have some random person give me a liftoff.

the handoff is part of the setup and helps the lifter prepare for the load.

The monolift was, as I understand it, originally for the bench press. I agree it is not a great idea for the bench, but the evolution into the monolift for squats of course is great.

Another poster mentioned the Sorinex autospot bench.I have both the flat and incline and love them. Everyone who has ever used them love them! The uprights are on a pivot and you just line up the bar above your eyes (give or take and inch or two) grab the bar and pull it forward over your prefered lift off area and push the bar straight up. The uprights pop back into place. You do your set and then rack as normal. This really saves your shoulders and specifically the rotator cuff. You can get their drop in dumbell holders if you want something really cool.


Monolifts for benches are awful, but for squats they are great. Some people like different things, I guess, when it comes to weight lifting.

Elite makes something similar to a bench monolift. They have a video of it being used on their site and it looks pretty sweet.

Blowing my own horn here, but the Free-Spotter http://www.shermworks.com provides the same functions as a monolift for squats and benches, and saves you from spotters to weak to catch your weight. And no need to walk the weight out to do squats.