The OG Series: the outdoor guided bench press for public spaces

Outdoor training areas have moved on from pull up bars and parallel bars. Local authorities, campsites, hotels, barracks and university campuses now specify full strength stations, and a guided bench press is one of the first machines residents and guests look for. The OG Series answers that brief: a guided bench press built to stand outdoors, unsupervised, all year round.

What the OG Series is

The OG Series is a range of outdoor strength machines that carry the movement patterns of an indoor floor into open air installations. The bench press is the anchor of the range, alongside shoulder press, seated row, biceps curl and leg press, so a site can be equipped as a coherent circuit rather than as a collection of unrelated pieces.

Each machine has a fixed, guided movement path. There is no weight stack, no plates to store and no loose parts, which is exactly what makes it suitable for a site with no staff on it. The user gets a clear, repeatable movement, and the operator gets a machine with almost nothing to lose or break.

Built for weather, not just for outdoors

The structure is S235 steel with a powder coated finish, the plastic components are made from Elastodur, and the fixings are galvanised. That combination is what keeps a machine looking installed rather than abandoned after three winters of rain, frost, sun and salt air.

The finish does two jobs. It resists corrosion on the steel, and it holds its colour under prolonged UV exposure, which matters more than operators expect: a faded, chalky machine reads as neglected long before it is actually worn out. Surfaces are shaped to shed water, so a station is usable again shortly after a shower rather than out of service for the afternoon.

Where it fits on a site

The bench press occupies a footprint of 1.90 m by 1.09 m, with a height of 0.95 m. That is compact enough for a fitness trail node or a corner of a park, and low enough that it does not dominate sightlines in a residential setting. Around that footprint you still need clearance for entry, exit and the movement itself, plus circulation between adjacent stations, so plan the zone rather than the machine.

Ground conditions decide the rest. Fixing method, surfacing and drainage should be settled at the same time as the equipment order, not afterwards, and access for the installation vehicle needs checking on sites with bollards or soft ground.

Standards for outdoor adult equipment

Permanently installed outdoor fitness equipment for adults falls under EN 16630. That is the standard to name in your tender documents and to require on the quotation, and it is not interchangeable with the indoor standard. Indoor commercial equipment is covered by EN ISO 20957-1 class S, a different standard for a different context.

If the same site also carries play equipment for children, that equipment is governed by EN 1176-1, with EN 1177 for the impact attenuating surfacing beneath it. Those two never apply to an adult strength machine, and EN 16630 never applies to a piece of children play equipment. Keeping the two families and their surfacing requirements clearly separated on the plan avoids the most common inspection finding on mixed sites.

Why outdoor strength stations get used

Outdoor equipment removes the barriers that keep people out of a gym: no membership, no opening hours, no queue and no self consciousness. For a municipality that turns a strength circuit into genuinely open infrastructure, used across a much wider demographic than an indoor facility reaches.

For a campsite or a hotel, the calculation is different but the conclusion is similar. An outdoor training area is visible from the moment a guest arrives, it works with no supervision, and it fills a gap in wet or cold shoulder seasons when the pool is closed. For a barracks or a campus, it adds capacity outside indoor opening hours at a fraction of the cost of extending the building.

Specifying a circuit rather than a machine

A single bench press is rarely the right answer. Users arrive in groups and want to move between stations, so a circuit of four to six machines covering push, pull and legs will be used far more intensively than one machine on its own. Browse the OG outdoor strength machines as a range, then place them so that two people can use adjacent stations without colliding.

Where the site also needs cardio, calisthenics or accessible stations, the wider outdoor gym equipment catalogue covers those families, and mixing them is usually what turns a small installation into an area people stay in.

Frequently asked questions

Does the OG bench press need supervision?

No. It has a guided movement path and no loose components, which is what makes it suitable for unsupervised public installation. Signage showing correct use is still good practice on any public site.

What maintenance does it need?

Periodic visual inspection of fixings and finish, in line with your site inspection regime. Galvanised fixings and a powder coated S235 structure are specified precisely so that routine maintenance stays visual rather than mechanical.

Can it be installed on grass?

Fixing and surfacing depend on the ground and on the use the site expects. Tell us the ground makeup at survey stage and we will specify the fixing method with the machine rather than leaving it to the installer on the day.

Which machines should a first installation include?

A push station, a pull station and a leg station cover the most requested movements. Bench press, seated row and leg press are the usual starting three, with shoulder press and biceps curl added as the circuit grows.

Planning your outdoor strength area