I’m on the free Bridge program after many idle years of non-lifting and some LP, but am steadily closing on 300 for all my PR’s at 54 yrs old. Pin squats and bench are somewhat new to me and we don’t really have a great setup at my gym for it. I figured out the pin squat but really feel off on the bench part and can’t really set my feet and arch like I want. Any tips on this type of setup? It’s a Hammer cage but the pin hooks are pretty far apart and the bench kind of sucks.
I lift in the exact same cage at my gmy.
For pin squats, I just played with the pin height and found what is closest to a normal squat depth. Admittedly, the pin height produces a SLIGHTLY high squat by about 1 inch and doesn’t reach perfect depth, but the next pin down is way too low. I just use the slightly high pin setting and move on with my life. That 1 inch doesn’t really matter…just ask my girlfriend 
For bench, I run into two problems.
- I am 6’4" so I have pretty long arms. When the bar is in the rack, one hook position is too low and when I raise the bar out of the rack, it hits the hook above it. But then the next hook up is too high. To rectify this, I actually have to place 5lb plates under the bench and it raises the bench up just enough so the higher hook works well
- After this 5lb plate raise, I’m closer to a pin setting that works, but it’s still about 3 inches off my chest. Not the perfect setup as it’s like a board press pin bench since it’s further away from my chest.
Moral of the story, just do the best you can and move on. “What are you gonna do, not train?”
1 Like
Good tip on the small plates. I’m 6’3" so I think that will help. I didn’t get the part of the bench in the picture where my feet go but it really makes it difficult to get good foot placement due to the width of the base. I may just haul a flat regular bench over next time.