Public Service Announcement: PLEASE LEARN TO SPOT CORRECTLY

[Raleighwood]

Sorry... this is going to be a bit of a rant.

If you are in a gym and train around others, you should learn to spot correctly!

If the person requesting a spot tells you not to touch the bar unless he calls for it. DO NOT TOUCH THE BAR UNTIL HE CALLS FOR IT OR IS FAILING.

I had my bench workout today ruined because some trigger happy, spotting-newb would not keep his hands off the bar while i was benching. Completely ruined my rep cadence and tension.

Furthermore, while spotting for the bench press, its usually best to use a mixed grip. If the person under the bar completely fails, the mixed grip will allow you to hold on to the most amount of weight. Plus it allows for a stronger grip.

/rant

[lawndarts]

I concur. I had a spotter once who seemed like he was doing the lift and I was spotting him by the way he lifted the bar on every rep. WTF?

Now I lift by myself inside the power rack. I own that rack and I'll fight if anyone comes near it (I don't have any serious lifters near me, only people "exercising".)

[joey54]

This one falls under personal responsibility. You don't want a ****ty spotter, learn to pick one out better. None available, bench in a rack. You are responsible for your lifting and how it goes. No one else. No sympathy from me on this one. Gym goers aren't there to be spotters for you.

[Pure Water]

Ya I hate when I tell someone not to touch the bar but as soon as it starts coming up really slow, he jumps in and then in my head I go, "great! I only did 8 reps instead of 10!"

[stevelang]

Almost just as bad are spotters who don't pay attention. I recently had a guy spot me and when I got to failure I didn't get any help for a good 4-5 seconds while the guy scrolled through songs on his iPod. Thanks bro.

[Pure Water]

Almost just as bad are spotters who don't pay attention. I recently had a guy spot me and when I got to failure I didn't get any help for a good 4-5 seconds while the guy scrolled through songs on his iPod. Thanks bro.

Wow, what a guy!

[Magilla]

This one falls under personal responsibility. You don't want a ****ty spotter, learn to pick one out better. None available, bench in a rack. You are responsible for your lifting and how it goes. No one else. No sympathy from me on this one. Gym goers aren't there to be spotters for you.

Exactly.

Tell the spotter:
If you need help with the liftoff
How many reps
When they should touch the bar

Its your lift, take control of it. ..

[kmagnuss]

Exactly.

Tell the spotter:
If you need help with the liftoff
How many reps
When they should touch the bar

Its your lift, take control of it. ..

I've done this and the idiot with gloves on (I should have known better just by the gloves) did a upright row as soon as it came off my chest. Now I plan my PR days ahead of time and make sure my friend will be there.

[Raleighwood]

Exactly.

Tell the spotter:
If you need help with the liftoff
How many reps
When they should touch the bar

Its your lift, take control of it. ..

I've done this and the idiot with gloves on (I should have known better just by the gloves) did a upright row as soon as it came off my chest. Now I plan my PR days ahead of time and make sure my friend will be there.

This is what happened to me.

I told him that I am going for 3 reps and I should be fine. That I needed a lift off and not to touch it unless I call for it or obviously failing. The moment the bar left my chest/changed directions I couldn't feel any tension or feedback about how hard I was pushing due to his overzealous spotting.

I immediately racked it and said "WTF, I told you not to touch it. You screwed up my rhythm. " His reply was that he was scared I wasn't going to get it back up.

[Rugby Dad]

what gets me is when the spotter is so nervous and fearful, that too can make a spotter rush in to assist too quickly.

[f=ma]

when needed i will always say "dont touch the bar unless i call for it" verbatim

its never been an issue once

[snow]

Happened to me on more than a few occasions.

I was at the school gym the other day.

I had a good spotter the first time. Repped out 265 x 4 and tried for the last one, which he helped a bit on. The second spotter, I did the same thing, only he forced me to do 8 reps, even though I died at 5. The last rep was almost dropped on my face.

[Codeguru]

That's why I like those machines that have the bar on rails. Just lift the bar, unhook it from the notches, and go until you can't anymore. There's never a danger of anything but having to reset the bar. It's too bad they take away all the balance factor from each rep but at least you can power lift in peace...

Codeguru

[r2473]

............

[Alex.V]

Personally, I never use a spotter. I can deadlift much more than I can bench press. If I fail, no big deal. I just let the weight come down to my chest, roll it to my thighs, and then deadlift it back to the rack. It has never been a problem.

!!!????!!!

...how much weight are you using?

[r2473]

.........

[Behemoth]

when needed i will always say "dont touch the bar unless i call for it" verbatim

its never been an issue once

You're lucky. When I was incline pressing a year or so ago I would always firmly assert that I didn't want the bar touched unless it was actually coming back down. If I was at a stall I stated leave it alone for 10 seconds I may get it. Regularly though assfaces would get their back workout in while I was still moving it up, just slower than my first reps.

Just two days ago I was on the other side of this though, and felt really ****ty about it. I spotted a guy on incline with 335 on the bar who was repping it. He had 4 or 5 pretty solid and my hands were near the bar but not on it. Suddenly halfway up he went from cranking them to a dead stop, I kind of freaked jumped on it and probably gave him too much help. I can't really be blamed though because I had no clue he was going to fail in that manner. To get a good spot I think you really have to have somewhat of a repoir with your spotter so they know where you're going to be slow and how much to assist you with it at which point.

[tom183]

Personally, I never use a spotter. I can deadlift much more than I can bench press. If I fail, no big deal. I just let the weight come down to my chest, roll it to my thighs, and then deadlift it back to the rack. It has never been a problem.

Really?

[Crimea River]

.....Other people really want you to pretty much lift the weight for them. I see plenty of guys stack on say 50 lbs. more than they can hope to do by themselves. They bring it down and then the spotter helps bring it back up..

Some guy tried to pull this **** the other day. I really hate spotting people on incline anyway 'cause I feel like I'm too damn short and I can't get close enough w/out teabagging a MF'r.

Anyway, this guy's like "hey bro, you gimme a spot??" So I get up on the platform and he does a couple of good ones and then starts to slow down....then stop....and I don't remember if he told me to take it or if it was just obvious, but I helped him back up to the starting position and he grunts....."THREE MORE...." ROTFL

Needless to say, my friggin' fists were closed around the bar and I feel like I'm lifting 2/3's of the **** myself.

F'g kidding me...

That just deserved a good rant

[Gym.Rat]

Some guy tried to pull this **** the other day. I really hate spotting people on incline anyway 'cause I feel like I'm too damn short and I can't get close enough w/out teabagging a MF'r.

Anyway, this guy's like "hey bro, you gimme a spot??" So I get up on the platform and he does a couple of good ones and then starts to slow down....then stop....and I don't remember if he told me to take it or if it was just obvious, but I helped him back up to the starting position and he grunts....."THREE MORE...." ROTFL

Needless to say, my friggin' fists were closed around the bar and I feel like I'm lifting 2/3's of the **** myself.

F'g kidding me...

That just deserved a good rant

Hilarious! I am soooo following your posts. I'm 5'10" and feel the same about teabagging the bro when I spot on bench. Hate it when people ask me. I go as far as NOT to make eye contact with people.

[Dgro]

today i asked a guy to spot me and the first thing he says to me (besides "ok") is "i'm not gonna touch it until you call for it"

before i even said a damn thing to him

i wanted to buy him a beer, or something