The 5 Best Roman Chairs
A Roman chair is a type of fitness and strength exercise equipment. It is primarily designed to work out the lower back, gluteal muscles, hamstring and especially the abdominals.
When you perform exercises on a Roman chair, your own bodyweight is providing significant resistance. You can also add more weight to increase the strenuousness of the exercise.
There are several primary exercises that you can perform using the Roman chair: spinal extension, spinal flexion and knee extension.
Padded ankle supports enable you to give your abs a strong workout, and padded handles enable you to take on challenging fitness routines with or without a personal trainer.
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Our Top Pick: The Stamina Hyper Bench
- The Stamina Hyper Bench can be sed with or without dumbbells
- Has a thickly cushioned bench with rugged stitching
- Non-slip footrests keep you secure as you exercise
- An adjustable foot & back rest helps to accommodate users of different heights
- Foldable for convenient storage
Let's take a look at some of the best reviewed Roman chair options available for online purchase.
Quick Picks: Best Roman Chair Options
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Our Roman Chair Reviews: Some Good Options
1. The Best Choice Ab Bench Roman Chair Review
The manufacturers claim you can develop ripped abs and a “beautiful physique” by using this Roman chair.
With a 45-degree angle and five position pad adjustments, it is certainly a dynamic alternative. It is designed to decrease stress and pressure on the lower back compared to standard Roman benches.
It’s construction of heavy-duty steel it can be used by a person weighing up to 200 pounds.
It is powder coated and fairly scratch and rust resistant.
Some are unhappy that their unit seem to be weak and that the padding is thinner and stiffer than they’d like.
2. The Marcy Roman Chair Review
Designed to facilitate various Roman chair exercises, it helps in strengthening the lower back muscles while also targeting the hamstrings, glutes and abdominal muscles.
With a 2×2-inch heavy duty frame, high density foam padding and vinyl upholstery, this equipment is a good investment for home fitness.
Its overall dimensions are 43.5 x 28 x 38 inches in length, width and height, respectively. Moreover, it comes with a 14-gauge steel frame. When you buy this product, it comes with a 2-year limited manufacturer warranty.
However, some users reported that their chair wobbles despite proper installation.
3. The Stamina Hyper Bench Review
Our Top Pick
This padded Roman bench is popular for its ergonomic design.
It comes with non-slip and adjustable backrest and footrest and vinyl upholstery.
It is also foldable for easy storage. If you want to strengthen your back, you can use this equipment to perform various exercises and crunch positions.
To increase or decrease work intensity, it allows for easy adjustment of its angle.
However, it should be noted that it does not have a footplate though you can let your feet rest on the back support. Also some users noted that the main pad is a little on the thin side, which can be supplemented with a folded towel.
4. The Stamina Pro Hyper Bench Review
The Stamina Pro bench is another solid option if you want to regularly perform Roman chair exercises on a durable piece of equipment. It is heavy-duty bench with sturdy steel frame construction. Its design includes adjustable thigh support and easy-to-reach hand grips.
For comfort and aesthetics, it has an attractive, thick vinyl upholstery padding.
Moreover, it comes with pivoting foam rollers for holding your lower leg when doing hyperextension exercises or your feet when doing crunches.
To accommodate the varying height of users and workout intensity, this Roman chair has an adjustable backrest, footrest and thigh support.
However, some taller users are felt that this chair is a bit uncomfortable for their height.
5. The Goplus Adjustable Roman Chair Review
This Goplus Roman chair promotes itself as providing a strong, total-body workout.
With overall dimensions of 23.5” length x 18.9″ width x 39” at maximum height, it can be safely used by users weighing up to 220 pounds.
Additionally, the height can be adjusted in 5 levels from 28.7 to 23.5 inches.
It has a heavy-duty construction that keeps it stable while performing exercises. Pad thickness is 1.6 inches, just enough to keep you comfortable. This Roman chair is particularly effective at targeting the lower abdominal muscles.
Our Favorite Roman Chair
The Stamina Hyperbench
Effectiveness
Price
Ease of Use
Roman Chair Video Tutorial
4 reasons to buy a roman chair
A Roman chair or hyperextension bench as they are also known as are exceptional pieces of home and gym fitness equipment. You probably have seen them on late-night television, with a toned fitness instructor going through seamless exercises on a Roman chair.
You might have been skeptical and thought that it was another fad or exercise scam that you couldn't really get any value from. On the contrary, there are several strong reasons why you should consider purchasing a Roman chair.
Improved posture
If you find yourself slumped over a desk at work, you probably sit with bad posture all day long. Roman chairs are great for doing back extension exercises that strengthen the muscles in the lower back.
Also, they provide exceptional abdominal exercise to strengthen your core and improve your overall posture. As you improve your internal musculature, particular your core and lower back, you will find that your posture naturally improves. The benefits of good posture are many and it has been medically proven that it contributes to longevity.
Preventative exercise
Perhaps you are not plagued by back pain now, but the smart thing to do before you suddenly develop it is to exercise and strengthen your body to prevent the onset of a debilitating pain condition.
Many people who bodybuild or weightlift recreationally will neglect their back and as they lift heavier and heavier weights they are actually prone to developing back injuries because they have not developed that region of the body. Roman chair hyper extension back exercises are great way of preventing back injuries down the line.
Effective back pain treatment
Besides being a preventative strategy for avoiding back pain, Roman chairs can be an effective way of treating it as well. Back pain can be a nuisance or it can be debilitating. If you are experiencing back pain it would make sense to check in with a physician to determine whether a Roman chair exercise strategy could benefit you or not.
Many local gyms have on-site trainers who can help walk you through the proper form to use when exercising on a hyperextension bench.
Convenient home fitness solution
Hyperextension benches have a relatively small footprint, so if you're looking for a total body workout with a strong emphasis on abdominal development, you can purchase one of these exercise chairs to use in your own home. Since they are adjustable, if you have other members of your family who would like to use the chair you will be able to adjust it to their height.
A Roman chair is a unique piece of home fitness equipment that can provide powerful benefits if you stick with it and perhaps watch a few YouTube videos to get a sense of how to train it effectively on it.
What Roman chair buyers think
- Users like that roman chairs and hyper benches are exceptionally dynamic- You can do a lot of different exercises on them at home.
- One reviewer writes that his Stamina Pro Hyper Bench provides a great workout for his 4'11" wife and 5'9" child, though it was a little too short for him at 6'3" and 290 pounds.
- Commenting on the range of exercises that he is able to accomplish using the bench, he writes that he is able to do concentrated curls, side hyper extensions, crunches, sit ups, dumbbell step ups, split squats with dumbbells, regular dumbbell flies and many more exercises.
- One more satisfied Stamina Pro user writes that it provides a great deal of downward extension.
- Sometimes he adds extra padding for added comfort using a towel over the pads.
- The Stamina Pro is also commended for easily collapsing- making it a cinch to store in a closet.
