Weight Training Advice
Proper Bench Press Spotting
exercises this means that you will need a spotter to watch you. A spotter can also help you go beyond positive failure by assisting you a bit on an extra rep or 2. However, many people in the gym don't understand proper bench press spotting when weight training.
Without a doubt, the bench press is the exercise that you'll be most likely to use a spotter on. Do you really want to get stuck with a heavy barbell on your chest and hope that somebody is in your immediate area to rush over and help you? This is not only embarrassing, it's also very dangerous. You should always have a spotter there when you're benching heavy. However, there are many people in the gym who don't use proper bench press spotting.
For proper bench press spotting you need to assist just enough for the weight to go up. If you've weight trained for a while, you've almost certainly had someone spot you that grabbed the weight with all of their might at the first signs that you are having some difficulty getting a rep up. Sometimes a spotter will get a little to up close and personal at the beginning of a set and hover over you with their hands on the bar at all times. This is more likely to break your concentration than anything else. For proper bench press spotting you should help the person who's bench pressing with the lift off if they need it, then stand back a bit as they do their reps. Once they are having some trouble getting the weight up, you should be prepared to help them. The time to put your fingers under the bar is when the weight stops moving upward. Just putting your fingers under the bar and applying a little bit of pressure is all you should need for them to get the weight up. If they want to do another rep, you'll need hlp them a bit more. Anybody who goes beyond 2 reps with assistance is really asking too much from a spotter, but it happens.
Sometimes 2 spotters are needed for proper bench press spotting. Elite powerlifters use so much weight when they max out that a spotter may be needed on each side of the barbell. Also, if you try negative only training in an effort to gain more strength, you'll need a spotter on each side of the bar.
Use these tips for proper bench press spotting anytime you assist somebody on the exercise. Hopefully you'll get the same treatment when somebody is spotting you.
If you weight train, you'll get better strength and muscle building results if you go to failure. Stopping yourself short just won't give you the same response as going all out will. On certain
