In this video, Victoria Dorsano provides a comprehensive review of the Freakathlete Nordic Mini bench, a compact piece of equipment designed for Nordic hamstring curls and ATG‑style training. She explains that the bench was gifted for review but she would have purchased it herself because of its space‑saving design (≈38" × 18"), all‑steel frame, and 300‑lb weight capacity. Key features highlighted include wheels for easy relocation, an adjustable ankle lock, a low‑profile footplate that allows regression using nearby furniture or mats, and thick, evenly distributed knee padding that feels comfortable even for someone with prior knee injury. Victoria offers practical loading‑plate guidance: users under 180 lb may not need plates, while heavier users (180 lb‑300 lb) should add 45‑lb plates to stabilize the bench during full Nordics. She notes the assembly takes about 30‑60 minutes and is straightforward if the user has proper adjustable wrenches; the supplied wrenches are thin and can make the process slower. The brand’s customer service receives high praise—quick responses, reliable shipping, a lifetime warranty, and a 100‑day trial with a full‑refund option. Victoria shares a discount code (Victoria10) for 10 % off, encourages viewers to comment with questions, and asks for likes and subscriptions.
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What is up, you guys? I am super excited to do another product review and share with you guys my thoughts about the Nordic Mini from Freakathlete. Now, full transparency, Freakathlete gifted me this Nordic Mini in exchange for a review, but this is something that I would have bought on my own anyways, especially for all the ATG style training that I do and how Nordic hamstring curls are such an essential part of not only that training, but really just being an athlete and an athlete that wants to remain injury-free. I've talked about the benefits of doing those eccentric Nordic curls and how important those are in a previous video, which I'll link down below if you want to learn more about that. But this Nordic mini bench makes it way too easy to just hop on and get your Nordic hamstring curls in and move that bench to the side when you're done because of how compact it is. So right off the bat, I want to go ahead and talk about the design of the Nordic mini bench because again, a lot of Nordic benches out there are pretty big and they take up a lot of Sure, they're sturdy, but the amount of space that they take up is just not feasible for an in-home user or somebody that just needs to kind of navigate equipment around a room really easily. So the Nordic Mini is really compact. It's only about 38 inches long and 18 inches wide, but do not let the size fool you because this thing is stable as all get-out. The frame is made out of pure steel. It has a nice comfortable padding on top. There's a solid footplate in the back and a loading bar attached to that footplate. And the cool thing is this thing has wheels, so you could easily just hinge it up and wheel it around in your space and really easily move it around wherever you need to put it. And now with the adjustable loading bar that you can unscrew from the footplate, it also is easy to just prop up and sit flat on the footplate, so that way you're able to store it vertically. So really the design of this is really well thought out. It's super stable. It can hold up to somebody who weighs about 300 pounds and is 7 feet tall, which is pretty incredible for how compact the design is. And I am not 300 pounds, nor am I 7 feet tall, but I have kind of tested it around and tried to like move pretty chaotically on there just to see how sturdy it is, and that thing does not budge. And that's without even loading the plate with weights. The other thing I love about this design is the adjustable ankle lock. So everything else, as sturdy as it is, that piece can be adjusted and you can make it suit, you know, however you need to situate your ankles in there to feel the most secure. The other cool thing about the design is because it's low to the ground, you can also put it up close to a wall or close to, you know, a coffee table or a couch, and you can use that surface to kind of regress the movement. Or you can stack something on the ground even to raise the surface right in front of it. So you can use like a BOSU or a stack of mats or anything to kind of give yourself a little regression format to doing a full Nordic because I know for myself I am not at a full Nordic. I still need to regress the movement. So for me, it's really easy to roll the Nordic Mini up to a coffee table or a couch or again elevate the surface in front of it and be able to regress the movement that way. So I'm not having to go all the way down to the ground. However, if I do want to go all the way down to the ground, I can always catch myself with my hands, push myself back up. So it's all good. Now, just so you know, for adding plates on the back, for somebody like myself who is not at a full Nordic, uh, yet and is under 180 pounds, I do not need to put loading plates on the back. I can— if I try to do a full Nordic and extend my weight out straight for as long as I can, which is all about like a quarter of a second at this point, that bench is still not going anywhere. But if I were 180 pounds and above and were able to do a full Nordic, that amount of weight moving forward, you're going to want to put a 45-pound plate on the loading bar and back, and that's just to kind of stabilize the Nordic Mini. Now, if you are at the maximum capacity of the 300-pound user, you're going to want to put about 2 45-pound plates on the back, so 90 pounds in total, to help stabilize the Mini so it doesn't teeter forward. And that's only, again, if you're able to do a full Nordic at that point. And if you don't have like Olympic plates to load on the back, you can also load it with, you know, a sandbag on top of the loading bar or a kettlebell. You can get creative with how you decide to kind of weigh that down on the back end of the Nordic. Other thing I want to mention is that really comfortable knee padding. Freakathlete did a great job with making sure that the padding is thick and evenly distributed and feels really soft and comfortable on the knees. And this is coming from somebody who has broken their kneecap before and has had ACL surgery, so has a really sensitive piece of scar tissue there, and it's super comfortable. So I know for some Nordic benches it can get a little dicey, but I have to say, like, this padding is awesome. Now I will say this: the only con about the Freakathlete Nordic Mini Bench is the assembly. Now I do have to say, with any piece of gym equipment that is on the larger side, like larger than let's say the TriFlexor from FreeGat or, you know, something where it actually is going to require some screws and bolts and all that good stuff, like it's going to take some assembly time, right? This was a little tough, um, not gonna lie. I didn't have the appropriate tools though, so I will say that. So they give you these two wrenches which are fit for the bolts that you put into the bench. However, if you have solid adjustable wrenches at home, it will make it so much easier. It's still going to take about 30 minutes to assemble, but with just these guys, it took me like closer to an hour and it was, it was a little tough. But like I said, if you have the appropriate tools on hand, much easier, much more doable. It just does take some assembly time and you have to be patient. I will say the user guide of how to assemble it and, you know, put it together and get it ready super clear, very easy. It wasn't like an IKEA one where it can be confusing and then you end up with things that are built like upside down and backwards. This was super easy as far as understanding what goes where, how they labeled the bolts and the screws and everything that goes into it. The only thing, like I said, is just making sure you have the appropriate adjustable wrenches. These were fine, they worked, but it was just hard to hold down and get things adjusted because they're so thin. So they do come with them in case you need them, but I definitely recommend having your own adjustable wrenches, which they do mention in the assembly guide itself. Now that we've talked about the design and the assembly, I have to say that Freekathlete has been an absolute pleasure to work with. I've mentioned this in my other review videos, but I think it's important to reiterate. They're a small business, but they really, really do take pride in their customer service. They get back to you right away. They ship things out when they say they're going to ship things out. They are always listening for feedback from their users. So I just really value that they do that as a company and that they really take pride in their customer service. And aside from that, they really help to assure you about the quality of their products by offering you a lifetime warranty on the product and a 100-day trial of the product itself. So if at any time during the 100-day period of trying it out you don't like it, you can send it back and get a full refund. There's not many companies out there like that these days. So kudos to you, Freakathlete. Keep making awesome stuff, keep being an awesome company. Um, I know I will continue to utilize your guys' products because They've been amazing, you guys have been amazing, and I think in a world where you can order stuff wherever and get kind of crappy or mediocre, uh, customer service, it's really worth going to the smaller businesses that are going to treat you right and really, um, you know, really appreciate you as a customer. Anyways, as an appreciation token to you, Freak Athlete has given me a discount code to give you guys for 10% off your purchase. You can use discount code Victoria10 at checkout and get 10% off your entire purchase. Again, that is discount code Victoria10 at checkout. I'll go ahead and put that link down below in the description as well. All right, you guys, I hope this review was helpful. If you have any questions about the Nordic Mini or anything more about my experience doing Nordics in general and how those can be extremely beneficial, go ahead and comment below in this video. I'm happy to get back to you guys there. And if you like this video and found it helpful, go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. I would greatly appreciate it. All right, you guys, till next time, bye!
