How do I bench press safely without a spotter?

Question

What do smart lifters do when they're working out alone and want to do benchpresses?

I have a busy schedule, and it isn't practical for me to have a regular weightlifting partner. I've usually avoided regular benchpresses in favor of either dumbbell benchpresses or smith-machine benchpresses. I like to lift to failure on my final set (or at least get very close to it), and don't want to get trapped under a bar. Also, constantly having to get a spot from strangers in the suburban globo-gym I lift at seems like an imposition.

I see other people benchpressing alone all the time, so I can only assume that my fears are a little exaggerated. What do smart lifters do in that situation? Just not go to failure? Switch to a smith machine for the last set(s)? Just not feel guilty about asking a stranger for a spot?

Details about my background - I'm currently benching a pair of 60lbs dumbbells for 3 sets of 7, and feel comfortable controlling the weight. But I'm curious about switching over to working with a barbell.

Thanks.

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 04 '12 at 21:00

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I stopped benching alone because I didn't trust this method to be enough, but I used to leave off the plate clips. That way, if I get stuck, I can tip the bar to one side and slide the plates off with a huge crash. It would probably damage the floor and/or the plates, but I would be able to get up. I never had to implement this strategy.

Any system that is able to set an actual safety bar just below the level of your puffed-out chest would be superior. You should test the system with an unloaded bar to make sure you can squeeze out from between the bar and the bench.

answered Aug 04 '12 at 21:00

Dave Liepmann

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I have done the bar tip, once, when I first started and didn't have a good sense of where failure was. In my case the floor and plates were OK, but it turned some heads. – Chelonian Aug 07 '12 at 17:11
@Chelonian hehe - yeah I think most lifters out there have had this experience once upon a time! – Mike S Aug 08 '12 at 01:01

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '12 at 20:34

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I would go with doing the bench press in a squat rack. Set the pins at the right height, even if you fail you won't get crushed by the bar.

answered Aug 04 '12 at 20:34

Robin Ashe

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Yep, a support like squat/power rack is a great way to be safe. You need some way to fail... – G__ Aug 05 '12 at 17:27

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 06 '12 at 15:33

The best thing to do is to use a bench station with safeties. Whether those safeties are sawhorses from the hardware store, a power rack, or a squat rack with safety attachments; they will prevent the bar from trapping you on the bench. The safeties should be low enough that you can touch the bar to your chest, but high enough you can slide out from underneath if you need to rest the bar on the safeties.

Even when you aren't training to failure, and have a prescribed number of reps you are aiming for, sometimes failure is inevitable. Using safeties lets you lift without fear of hurting yourself seriously.

Pros of using safeties:

You are still in control of your schedule
You can lift confidently, knowing you will never be trapped
You will never have to worry about someone who thinks spotting means performing rows while you bench--and the awkward view of this person's crotch while they perform the joint exercise.

Cons of using safeties:

It can wipe you out unloading the bar, putting it back on the pins and reloading.
A hand-off can make or break a max attempt--and if you don't have one you will spend a lot of energy getting the bar off the pins.
You may gain the ire (anger) of people who want to use the power rack and don't know what you are doing. People who have pushed themselves to their limits regularly will recognize what you are doing.

If you can get someone to lift with you, or just give you a hand off, that can make things a lot better. If you grab a random guy in the gym, make sure they understand you only want them to hand you the bar and you don't want them to interfere with the bench in any way.

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 05 '12 at 13:07

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I think you answered the question by properly asking it. Don't go to failure. Should you be cautious about benching? YES, I think this is the exercise where people actually get hurt the most, by the bar dropping on them (chest or much worse the throat). I would recommend using barbell in the beginning of your routine and as you get tired, moving to dumbbells. This will give you the experience in using barbell training and the ability to push it with reduced risk of injury using dumbbells.

I workout alone (home gym) and had two experiences where I couldn't lift the bar off of me...dumping to the side (as Dave mentioned above) is the option, you can also purchase safety stands enter image description here .

answered Aug 05 '12 at 13:07

Meade Rubenstein

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I use adjustable-height metal sawhorses instead of safety stands. 1000lb version ran me maybe $30 from the hardware store. – G__ Aug 05 '12 at 17:25
@MeadeRubenstein "don't go to failure" - terrible advice for someone looking for gains. – Mike S Aug 06 '12 at 01:20
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@MikeS - NOT going to failure when you're benching on your own and have no way to unload/stop the bar from doing damage is great advice. On the other hand - Going to failure as planned WEHN a spotter is present is good advice.. – Meade Rubenstein Aug 06 '12 at 11:58
@MeadeRubenstein Obviously I'm saying he should rush out and buy some apparatus so he CAN go to failure and see some real gains. Wasting your time otherwise. Our bodies are an adaptive organism. Push it beyond what it can currently do, and it will grow to accommodate your new activities. Repping away without straining yourself waiting for the magic fairy to bless them with muscle once you've gone through the dance routine - I see it all the time. There are so many people at my gym doing that and looking the same year after year. Here's the 'secret': PAIN - HARD WORK - PAIN. – Mike S Aug 06 '12 at 22:51
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@MikeS - I agree that you should push yourself beyond your current capacity, and no two workouts should be the same, but I'm not sure going to failure all the time is necessary....from what I read (Rippetone, Don John, others) it's a tool to be used as part of a plan. I agree with the hard work and associated pain, there's no magic pill...I think this goes with wearing belts, wraps, etc. - lots of advice on either side and it comes down to what works best for the specific person. – Meade Rubenstein Aug 07 '12 at 06:27
@MikeS I agree with Meade--there are plenty of ways to stress the muscles and disrupt homeostasis without going to failure every time. Coach Sommer's Building the Gymnastic Body method is a good example, as is any 3x5 or 5x5 program. The last reps should always be hard, but there's no need for them to be absolutely maximal, and certainly no need to go to failure on every exercise or every set. Going to failure can be counterproductive (such as with high-technique work like Oly lifts) and frankly dangerous (such as with squats). – Dave Liepmann Aug 07 '12 at 17:20
@DaveLiepmann - Dangerous to go to failure with squats?? I'm speechless. Are any of the guys/girls on this site answering questions < 10% body fat and able to lift decent amounts of weight? The one thing that separates the good physiques from the mediocre is a lot of hard work - that means lifting as much as you possibly can (in reps or weight), every set, every day, every exercise. Tapering volume through sets and over the particular number of weeks in your training cycle helps your body recover as fatigue builds - not doing half assed lifts. – Mike S Aug 07 '12 at 22:56
@MikeS What's your position on the other points I raised? – Dave Liepmann Aug 07 '12 at 23:14
@DaveLiepmann Which part? "The last reps should always be hard..." are you quoting passages from the books these programs are from? I'm not sure what you want me to comment on. Since muscle building is about every increasing levels of intensity, a beginner or early intermediate won't have to go to failure to get gains, because the level of intensity is sufficient to stimulate an adaptive reaction in the body. Is this what you are referring to? – Mike S Aug 07 '12 at 23:28
@MikeS Novice or intermediate, as well as strength or power training rather than hypertrophy work. I'm not arguing against training to failure; I'm saying it's certainly not the only method to get results, and certainly not appropriate for all purposes. – Dave Liepmann Aug 07 '12 at 23:41
@DaveLiepmann I maintain that if you want to get to your goal physique as quickly as possible going to (and through) failure along with enough caloric intake will get you where you want to go the quickest. The HARDER you train (when you train), the greater your body's adaptive response. It takes a while of repeatedly hitting the wall of failure or pain (pain is usually the first wall for legs) to find a gap in this wall and push harder. It sounds like nonsense to people that don't train incredibly hard but its the best way I can explain it. – Mike S Aug 08 '12 at 00:21
let us continue this discussion in chat – Mike S Aug 08 '12 at 00:21

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 05 '12 at 06:25

I only increase my bench press by 2.5lbs per workout, and only if I did three sets of five reps in the previous workout. So, I know I can definitely get a few reps completed before failure. I know what my second-to-failure rep feels like and don't do another rep if I think I may fail on it.

If I've gotten 2 sets of 5 done, and I really want to try for a new 3x5 and don't want any uncertainty about the last rep, I just ask another random person who looks like they're resting to spot me on my last set.

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 06 '12 at 07:54

One more thing to look into is what is commonly referred to as "the roll of shame". Personally, I don't think the name is very fitting, as it's a perfectly good method of controlling the bar when coming a bit closer to failure than expected...

What you do is that when you can't quite get the weight up, you lower it towards your stomach, roll the bar downwards to the hips, and sit up. From here you can move the legs and put the bar to rest on the bench. Be careful if you need to remove the weights here, as the support is in the middle, and it's easier for the bar to flip over.

Of course, if you have a weight way over your maximum, you will not be able to do this easily, but then again that is not really the situation we're looking at here.

It can be a good idea to practice the move a few times with submaximal loads, just to get the hang of it.

Oh, and one more thing - avoid the smith machine. That's where you can really get stuck if you fail and don't succeed with fastening the bar. Quite a number of serious accidents has happened in the smith.

so you'd recommend the power rack then with the safety squat bars? — Mike S, Aug 08 '12 at 01:03
The "roll of shame" is a method that can be employed when you have no safety bars, just the bench. The power rack, safety stands or similar equipment is absolutely safer, but this is a viable option when none of that equipment (or spotter) is available. — Markus Wall, Aug 08 '12 at 09:37
I tried the roll of shame once, and it really hurt rolling over my pelvis — Mike S, Aug 08 '12 at 23:18

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 05 '15 at 08:05

I have trained alone throughout my four years of training, and have twice got in trouble while doing benchpress, which led me to rethink the way I benchpress.Since benchpress is a compound movement, its not always necessary that the pectoral muscle will give up first, at times its the shoulder or triceps that start giving up and making one to stop short of their set or rep. goal.

Best way of tackling this is to start with the heavy weight first, then keep on lowering the weight from one set to another by ten pounds (whichever weight suits you). This way by the time you will be on your fifth or sixth set you will be more confidently pushing the weight without much danger of it falling on you and still go to failure. Try limiting your reps between six to eight in the initail heavy sets, and you will find that from third or fourth set the same weight to be more challenging that you were comfortable with earlier. As mentioned by others, swithcing to dumbles is also a good option. I don't agree that switching to smith machine is better, since motion on smith machine is controlled and very rigid, and in my opion not the correct.

How do I bench press safely without a spotter?

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