Williamstown, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/17/2015 -- Fitness, health, and wellness entrepreneur, Christopher Porreca, has announced the launch of the official Kickstarter campaign to engineer and manufacture a revolutionary safety and fitness device – the patent-pending Bench Buddy. The new and innovative fitness device is designed to help athletes and recreational fitness consumers perform safer, more effective, and spotter-free bench-press exercises.

Bench Buddy is designed to prevent the weighted barbell from impacting the user's body in the event of a failed repetition or accidental drop and was created for exercisers of all abilities – from first time weightlifters to advanced bodybuilders.

"Bench Buddy is a reliable piece of portable fitness equipment that is affordable, easy to use, and minimizes the risk of injury," said Christopher Porreca, designer of the Bench Buddy. "The bench press is one of the most popular exercises, but can potentially be one of the most dangerous, especially when done alone or without a spotter. Bench Buddy will prevent injuries and could literally save lives."

Bench Buddy allows users to safely perform the most common bench press exercises including partial range-of-motion, reverse, reverse-grip, and isometric bench press exercises. The device will help users explode through plateaus and barriers safely and effectively.

Porreca is a weightlifting enthusiast with more than 30 years of exercise and fitness experience. The idea for creating Bench Buddy came to Porreca when he became pinned under a bar while performing a bench press exercise and was unable to roll the weighted bar off himself or dump the plates. He was shaken up and lucky to not be seriously injured.

"I knew I needed to create a way for consumers to safely bench press alone at home without having to purchase expensive machines and without taking up a lot of space," said Porreca. "After making and testing several prototype designs, the solution became clear."

Porreca has partnered with a U.S. metal fabrication company that has manufactured and brought other high quality products to the market, including intricately engineered products and components built to the strict specifications of the U.S. government. The current proof-of-concept prototype has been thoroughly tested and performs flawlessly.

Because of the large expenses associated with the design and production of Bench Buddy, Porreca set up a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter. The Bench Buddy Kickstarter campaign went live on July 6, 2015, and will run through September 4, 2015. The current financing goal is set at $30,000 to help bring this innovative safety and fitness device to production. Investors who contribute to the Bench Buddy crowd-funding campaign will have a variety of backer options to choose from.

"Kickstarter provides a unique platform to reach investors from all over the world," said Porreca. "The opportunity to build product awareness and backing among a global online audience is crucial to reaching our goal."

Porreca will begin to fulfill and ship Bench Buddy units to Kickstarter backers in December of 2015 and will begin direct consumer sales through the official Bench Buddy website in January of 2016. Porreca hopes to introduce Bench Buddy to the market and make it a widely accepted and popular device within the next few years.

Patent-pending Bench Buddy is now available for pre-order exclusively on Kickstarter. For additional information or to support the Bench Buddy Kickstarter campaign, please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/464443721/bench-buddy-for-safe-effective-bench-press-exercis

CONTACT:
Christopher Porreca
856-625-2195
theoriginalbenchbuddy@gmail.com