[RoseRodent]

I should be able to start controlled lifting in earnest again relatively soon, but am struggling for equipment. I need ot stick to a small range of possible lifting actions and one I can definitely do is paralympic code bench press. But I can‘t figure out where to gett hold of a weight stand that is an appropriate height.

In paralympic bench press you lie on the floor on mats under a weight rack, lift the barbel down to the chest and press it back up to straight then return it to the rack. Most racks I see are massively high as they are designed to stand above a weights bench not on the floor.

Gyms don‘t tend to have this kind of equipment either (ones that claim to have wheelchair equipment tend to turn out to have one piece of equipment they are proud to show you you can get your chair under, though you‘d have to ask for teh bar to be passed down to you each time - DOH!) and that‘s if you can make it to the gym anyway. Any ideas for something I can rig up to a bed or floor to press bar weights? (Dumbells are a no go)

[fatmad]

I guess I have usually seen a lie down bench for this. Maybe contact paralympics or does a local disability group have help for this?

[RoseRodent]

Unfortunately paralympic sport association has always been pretty poor on this front as they tend to know only of clubs, not facilities outside of clubs. They sent a list of clubs I could join but most addresses were in London, with the closest being a mere 285 miles away. They ought to be more interested in people who want to get a bit fit but do not want to become olympic athletes, but with time and budget restraints really they want to know about the olympic hopefuls.

The reason it has to be done from the floor not a weight bench is because if you don't have the strength of torso to correct a side to side twist then you'd plummet off the edge of the narrow weight benches. People with able bodies do this as a matter of course without even knowing they do it because it's small muscle corrections, but when you can't do it you soon find yourself falling out of bed! It would be too dangerous to set up on a bench unless it was really wide, or I got someone to strap me down to the bench. One slight flicker, maybe one arm is stronger than the other and I lockout on only one side and that would throw me over on the floor with the bar on top. Any bench would need to be minimally 3 feet wide, and at a height I can manage to get onto, whilst being so small it doesn't take up any space in my tiny house! I think it's going to need to be the floor for me.

I need to find me a metalwork class, any time I have these problems somoene always says "get someone to make it for you, there are plenty of blacksmiths around" but I bet they haven't ever actually tried to use one, cos I have and it's a total blank.

[KDuffer]

Would a power rack possibly work for you? The one I use have pin settings that are fairly low (usually for putting in safety pins) but you can use those lower pins to put in the j-pin (this is the thing that holds the bar). From there, I would think you can just lie on the floor and lift the bar off of the lower pins. If you do a google search for power rack, you will see what I mean about the lower pin holes.