Proper Use of Spotters and Proper Spotting

When doing the bench press, it is really important to use a spotter. The obvious reason for this is personal safety. When lifting weight close to your one rep max, it is possible to get to the point where you can't push the bar to the top of the rack in the middle of a rep. In this situation, you can get pinned to the bench under the bar. This can cause damage to your head, neck, or chest. It could be a potentially fatal injury.

For this reason, I encourage everyone to use a spotter whenever doing the bench press. At the very least, make sure there are other people around to rescue you if such a situation happens.

The best part of finding a spotter is that anyone can do it. Even if you are lifting 250 pounds of weight, a 17 year old girl can easily spot for you. When you press weight upwards, you are pressing up with more force than the weight of the bar. For example, if you are benching 200 pounds, the bar will go up if you press up with either 220 pounds of force or 203 pounds of force. You will push with the most force in your first few reps but each successive rep will push with less force. Eventually, you may stall out in the middle of a rep. This is the point when you push up with 200 pounds of force and the bar weights 200 pounds. The bar stops moving. At this point, your spotter needs to pull up with just one or two pounds of force and the bar will move up. This is the proper use of a spotter.

There is a mistake I've seen before in the gym.

I've seen men in the gym stall out. When the spotter comes in for assist, the man on the bench press just gives up pressing. This is a complete disaster. Even if the weight is light such as 150 pounds, if the presser stops pushing up, the spotter has to pull up with more than 150 pounds of force to bring the bar back up. Make sure this doesn't happen to you. If you are pressing, you cannot give up until the bar is safely locked back into the rack. Your spotter may not be able to pull up 150 pounds of force from the spotting position.

Using a spotter has the secondary benefit of getting making your workout more effective. You get to press to your absolute limit without the fear of getting injured by failing to lift. If you lift alone, you have to worry about not completing heavy lifts. This will lead to more conservative sets for your own personal safety. When spotting for someone else, you want to make sure to only give enough assist for the presser to lift the bar back up. This is unless the presser is in danger. In that case pull up with everything you have.