Power Outage: When Spotters Are Necessary
June 17, 2009 by Kris Jones
Filed under Weight Lifting
The streak is dead. I had increased my max bench press for the last 3 workouts, but I pushed my luck today with a late workout and came up short on 307 lbs. I could have gone for 302, but I didn’t feel like adding the ultra tiny 2.5 lb plates to each end of the bar. Plus, I’m usually one to go for the gold rather than play it conservative when it comes to weight lifting.
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Fortunately, I had a spotter to help me out once the bar got stuck two inches off my chest. Anytime you think you might need a spotter, play it safe and get one. Trust me, this is coming from a guy that’s been turned back on the bench more than once.
Not having a spotter can result in:
- injury
- embarrassment
I don’t have a third bullet point for you, but the first two should be enough to deter you from lifting without someone watching over you. Fortunately the times I have gotten stuck, it hasn’t been with massive weight. I tend to push my last reps pretty hard so I’ve only gotten stuck with weight I could wiggle off.
