Thread: Bench pressing without a spot?

I think the highest I have ever gone without a spotter is 365, I need my liftoff to stay all tucked into the bench. Its a luxury I am lucky to have right now.

Benching without a spot is easy as long as you have the experience in reading your body and pretty much know how much weight you can push for a certain amount of reps x sets. I usually workout by myself and i've done pl'ing routines on my own (90+% of 1rm), you just can't be stupid and pick a weight that you are not sure of.

However just last week i got a little overzealous when repping with 185 and the bar got stuck on my chest. There was a kid there just staring at me, i had to ask him to come over and help me lift the bar off my chest after 'sitting up' with the bar failed. Another reason to build core strength.

ive never trained with a spotter altough my gym only has dumbbells up to 30k so there not exactlly heavy, i think i will from now on as yesterday i was shoulder pressing to 28k and as i got to the top on my last rep i lost control of my left arm causing the dumbbell to pull backwards and dislocate my shoulder.

However just last week i got a little overzealous when repping with 185 and the bar got stuck on my chest. There was a kid there just staring at me, i had to ask him to come over and help me lift the bar off my chest after 'sitting up' with the bar failed. Another reason to build core strength.

LMAO!! You fucking pussy!!! 185.....that better have been a 50 rep set.


Yeah, if you are good at reading your body and know your percentages you can do it no prob. Like mudge said, the hardest part for me is once I get up in weight I need a lift off. Especially being a midget and all my stubby arms can't really reach the bar and un-rack a weight that is towards the top end of my intensity.

You can bench in the power rack and set the pins at chest level in case you get stuck.

What do you mean your chest doesn't get it if you don't do forced reps?

I tend to get stuck at the half way point anyway, in which case I can still rack the weight as the benches at my gym have multiple spots to rack it.

I've never worked with a spotter. It's not like you arms just suddenly lose all their strength. You may lack the ability to push it back up to the rack but you can still lower it slowly to your chest. Then move it down to your quads, sit up, get up, and the remount it.

Squatting without a spotter is so much more fun though...

I have a training partner who spots me all the time, but occasionally he can't make a workout and I go about it as I would normally. It's a help, not mandatory.

Originally Posted by P-funk

LMAO!! You fucking pussy!!! 185.....that better have been a 50 rep set.

fuck you it wasn't a 50 rep set but it was short RI's (long enough to get a sip from the water fountain 10 feet away) with high reps (12+) and it was like 4th or 5th set. Plus you know my bench was always shit.

Originally Posted by Yanick

fuck you it wasn't a 50 rep set but it was short RI's (long enough to get a sip from the water fountain 10 feet away) with high reps (12+) and it was like 4th or 5th set. Plus you know my bench was always shit.

relax. I was just giving you crap.

you get that email I sent ya??? cool stuff!!

Originally Posted by P-funk

relax. I was just giving you crap.

you get that email I sent ya??? cool stuff!!

i know you were givin me crap, and i know that is pussy weight (that was my though as i was typing) i just had to justify it to myself through that post.

Originally Posted by P-funk

What do you mean your chest doesn't get it if you don't do forced reps?

I mean 90% of the time my freind is here to spot me. We always do forced reps or negatives - on the last few reps of our last set.

That is all.

I sometimes ask for a neighbour to spot.

But if I don't have a spotter than I don't go to the same level of failure... so to make up for it I just do an extra set.

Seems to work fine.

I haven't done regular bench presses in so long. I should, CG presses are getting tough

Originally Posted by cfs3

I've never worked with a spotter. It's not like you arms just suddenly lose all their strength. You may lack the ability to push it back up to the rack but you can still lower it slowly to your chest. Then move it down to your quads, sit up, get up, and the remount it.

That's hard to do when your doing decline press. I had to ask for help.

Originally Posted by Duncans Donuts

I haven't done regular bench presses in so long.

What do you do for chest?

i never work out with a spot. i like doing damn near everything alone. i use machines or free weights that i'm confident in doing myself. if i can't lift it, i just roll it down my chest and sit up, dismantle, remount, reload, and relift it!!!

Just pick up 100 lb plus DB's and lose the spotter.

i dont use a spotter and im gaining like crazy..i think if you need a spotter your pushing too much weight..a spotter should normally be used when your trying for a max..

Originally Posted by leykis1o1

i dont use a spotter and im gaining like crazy..i think if you need a spotter your pushing too much weight..a spotter should normally be used when your trying for a max..

no such thing as too much weight
Goin heavy is the only way for me, I hate it when my program calls to shift to reps for a while, just no damn good at reps, love goin heavy.

Don't put the collars or springs on, then you can dump if you really get stuck.

What do you do for chest?

Typically I do close grip bench presses and I'm rotating a few other exercises.

Originally Posted by Yanick

Benching without a spot is easy as long as you have the experience in reading your body and pretty much know how much weight you can push for a certain amount of reps x sets. I usually workout by myself and i've done pl'ing routines on my own (90+% of 1rm), you just can't be stupid and pick a weight that you are not sure of.

However just last week i got a little overzealous when repping with 185 and the bar got stuck on my chest. There was a kid there just staring at me, i had to ask him to come over and help me lift the bar off my chest after 'sitting up' with the bar failed. Another reason to build core strength.

yea that sorta happened to me like 2 months ago except i was benching with dumbbells and my arm just sorta tilted inwards at the top of the press and i ended up dropping the dumbbell on my hip and dislocating my left shoulder in the process....not fun....at all...hurt like a bitch for the next three weeks.

Originally Posted by phantom939

yea that sorta happened to me like 2 months ago except i was benching with dumbbells and my arm just sorta tilted inwards at the top of the press and i ended up dropping the dumbbell on my hip and dislocating my left shoulder in the process....not fun....at all...hurt like a bitch for the next three weeks.

yea i meant to write that as a response to this post:

"ive never trained with a spotter altough my gym only has dumbbells up to 30k so there not exactlly heavy, i think i will from now on as yesterday i was shoulder pressing to 28k and as i got to the top on my last rep i lost control of my left arm causing the dumbbell to pull backwards and dislocate my shoulder."

sorry, i must be really tired or sumthin

Originally Posted by Mudge

I tend to get stuck at the half way point anyway, in which case I can still rack the weight as the benches at my gym have multiple spots to rack it.

This is close to what I was going to say. Find a rack with multiple spot on the rack or I bench on a smith machine. Ofcourse it doesn't hit everything like a regular barbell bench but I prefer benching on a smith anyway because I have a bad shoulder.

Originally Posted by Newt

This is close to what I was going to say. Find a rack with multiple spot on the rack or I bench on a smith machine. Ofcourse it doesn't hit everything like a regular barbell bench but I prefer benching on a smith anyway because I have a bad shoulder.

i cant stand smith bench

I tried it a couple of times, but it seems like no matter how far i scoot back, it comes way to high on my chest heh

Originally Posted by Newt

I prefer benching on a smith anyway because I have a bad shoulder.

read this article on pattern overload. you may be causing more harm than good using the smith to bench

http://www.paulchekseminars.com/articles.cfm?select=27

The smith eats my shoulders on a flat bench. Horrible restriction of NATURAL movement. You should not be moving in a straight line.

That article does make some sense LAM. I don't know that I'm doing more harm than good though, in my case anyway. I'm not saying that my shoulder hurts more when I do regular flat bench than smith bench, I may just feel safer when I'm on a smith machine. I don't think doing a lift in a straight line with no NATURAL movement is that bad anyway Mudge. I guess that means you do every workout totally machine free. If you do that is fine but if anyone does anything on a machine of any kind than that is also taking away NATURAL movement as well. I'm not trying to start anything Mudge, you know that, but isolated machine lifts are also unnatural then. I know, blah, blah, blah, long story short is it works for me but I do apreciate all of your concern for my safety and health.

I think you missed Mudge's point completely... I happen to agree. I can do DB or barbell bench press and I feel much less stress and strain on my bad shoulder than I do with flat or incline smith presses. Overall, it's just not a great apparatus. It has it's place for some I guess.