There are two basic reasons for a spotter:
First, a spotter helps prevent injury that could be possible if you are either caught with too much weight over you or forced to use really bad (dangerous) form to complete the last rep.
Second, a good spotter helps you get the most out of a set by giving you the smallest amount of assistance needed to complete your last rep without sacrificing form.
[Always remember – if you have to use crappy form to get that last rep, then don’t count that last rep! Ditto for using a spotter for your last rep – it doesn’t “count” – but it’s still a fantastic idea to use a spotter.]
But sometimes, you don’t have a spotter.
So what do you do?
Here are a few tips to either prevent injury or get one more “partial” rep out of your set, for each of The Big 7 exercises.
Squats
1) Use a squat rack, or a power rack the with horizontal catch bars set to be lower than your full decent position.
- If you fail, no worries, you’re fine. Of course, you’ll have to strip the weights to get the barbell back up to the starting position (smile).
2) Use dumbbells instead. While I don’t recommend this as your normal practice, it’s better than getting hurt, since you can just let go of the dumbbells if you are failing. This changes the exercise into more of a deadlift…
3) It’s ok to do a few half-squats AFTER you’ve done as many full squats as you can. Those half squats are not as effective for overall development but they are great for recruiting a few more fibers at the end of your set.
Deadlifts
I’ve not really even heard of spotting for the deadlift, because if you are failing you can just let go of the weight. But you should use bumper plates so the plates don’t crack.
Bench (Chest) Press
1) Do your bench inside a power rack with the horizontal catch bars at the right height. Use the shorter rack hooks for the starting position (what you rest the bar on to start the weight for a squat). You’ll want the catch bars to be low enough that you can bring the bar to your chest, but high enough that if you fail, it is the catch bars that catch the weight, not your chest. Downside: unless your physical dimensions are perfectly matched to the power rack pole positions, you might not get the full range of motion as you’d get from a regular bench press station.
2) Do incline bench. While you still might fail with a lot of weight on you, the potential damage is likely less because you can probably roll the bar down your chest to your hips and then can probably wiggle out of the bench at that point. Plus you’d be using less weight anyway. Still a bit dangerous though so don’t try maxing out or anything.
3) You can use dumbbells.
Chin-ups/Pull-ups
1) Little need for a spotter for injury prevention with pull-ups and chin-ups, as you can just let go of the bar when you fail.
2) Some gyms have the “assisted pull-up machine” – clever machines that you either stand on or kneel on when doing chins/pulls that let you use a semi-natural path of motion but make it easier. I just hate these.
3) To push yourself past the point of exhaustion, you can then do negatives: instead of pulling yourself up, jump up off the ground (after you’ve done as many regular chins/pullups as you can) so that your momentum gets your chin over the bar. Then just hold it there. Slowly – very slowly – lower yourself all the way down. Then repeat. For more ideas, click here.
Rows
There are many variations of rows, and each has a slightly different set of tricks to get your last rep done with proper form without a spotter, but I’ll list some here. Also, like deads and chins, you don’t need to worry about being caught under a ton of weight. If you get in danger, just let go. It might make a loud noise(!) but you aren’t likely to hurt yourself.
1) To get extra work, you can do partial reps. This just means going for as full a range of motion as you can, which will degrade with each added rep.
2) Improve grip. If you are failing because of your grip (rather than because of your lats), then after you fail, just hold it there in the fully extended position for as long as you can to teach your grip to hang on a little longer!
Standing Overhead/Military Press
1) Use a power rack. Like many exercises, using a power rack lets you adjust the height of the catch bars so that you can fail gracefully and safely.
2) Use dumbbells. Not my favorite recommendation, but the lack of a bar means you are less likely to have 150 pounds dropping on your head.
3) Use a little push-press for the last rep. Now, technically the push-press is a different exercise so you can’t count the last rep as completed, but at least you are pushing your body to work harder safely.
Dips
1) Not much need. Little danger to worry about here so no spotter replacement needed for safety.
2) The same “assisted pull-up” machine we talked about for chins/pulls also usually has a dip bar. And I equally hate this use.
3) Like chins/pullups, you can then do negatives. Jump up to the top position and slowly – very slowly – lower yourself to the bottom, being sure to go as far down as possible. Then jump up again and do another negative!
Do you have more suggestions? Share them here!
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August 21st, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I use dumbbells almost exclusively, since I do not ever have a spotter (it’s complicated). What I need to do is get a good set of them, the kind that you can change the plates on. (That’s not complicated – it’s expensive!) Using the same old weight over and over helps me maintain what muscle I have, but there is negligible growth.
I’ve been doing chin up negatives for a while now. I can even do one or two chin ups. But, I notice that it hurts my elbows, so I’ve been doing some exercises to try to strengthen my elbows some more.
Great advice here, Darrin. It’s practical stuff that a beginner can start using immediately, as well as things that more experienced people can learn from, I’m sure.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:11 am
another helpful article
September 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Just curious Darrin – why do you hate the assisted pullup / dip machine? I’ll admit that the real thing is better, but I’m still trying to get my reps above four. With just a little “help” from the machine, I can get in more reps. I also prefer this machine to the lat pulldown machine.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Hi Jeff – obviously “hate” is a bit strong of a term! But my reason is simple: effectiveness (or lack of it). I rarely see anyone advance in their “real” pull-ups, chins, or dips by using that machine. There may be exceptions of course. And I don’t know why it is. But people who can do “x number of reps” of the real exercise are almost always still only able to do “x” (or maybe x+1) reps after many weeks of using that machine. In contrast, I can get anyone who is currently doing less than 10 chinups to double their rep count within about 1 month without that machine.
Have you been able to increase your “real” reps since using that machine? How long have you been using it? Not trying to call you out or anything, I’m just curious if you are one of the people that it’s actually working for.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I have been able to improve my “real” pullups with that machine. Guess I’m one of the lucky ones. Whenever I could increase my reps on the machine, I’d use less weight (since less weight on that machine means less assistance). So I was able to see a progression. I do think using the machine feels like a real pullup; the only minor difference is that the platform on which you rest your knees adds some stability that you don’t get otherwise.
Having said all that, I’ll be using less of the machine now that I can consistently perform a couple sets of four (hopefully to increase).
I didn’t use that machine very consistently. I go to three different gyms (all run by my city’s parks & rec department) – where I go usually depends on the rest of the family’s schedule – and only two of them (the two I go to least frequently) have that machine. So I did more lat pulldowns than anything else.
I also have lost 15+ pounds over the past six months, so there is less of me to pull up (yeah, it was mostly gut). That surely has something to do with it too.
I do think you need to hit that machine really hard in order to benefit from it. You need to feel like you’re really pulling yourself up.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
BTW, that was still “Jeff” – I just changed how my name is displayed.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:51 am
@Jeff – that’s great news (especially about losing the fat you wanted to lose). Sure, that 15 less pounds will make a big difference in bodyweight exercises (and so, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where some of your pull-up gains came from). But whether I’m right about the machine or not, you believe it is working. And 90% of progress comes from believing you can make the progress. If you are getting where you want to go, at the speed you want to get there, then you deserve applause from all of us here! I can tell by the words you write that you are dedicated and that dedication will take you farther than all the tips I, or anyone else, can give you. Because you’ll keep focused on working hard and testing things for yourself until you make the progress you want. Keep it up!
September 9th, 2009 at 9:57 am
@ Darrin: You said it well! Dedication will take you places that no “secret” is ever going to get you!
Hand in hand with dedication comes inspiration, and I get a lot of that from your web site. And, from guys like Jeff/ Jeffrey that set a high standard.
Keep it up!
September 20th, 2009 at 7:51 am
This is a cool article, I had the same training partner for 5 years before he moved out of my area. I was forced to train by myself, and at first I found it very difficult to push myself as hard. Having a spotter gives you the extra confidence to go up in weight just a little more, or push out one, or two extra reps.
After a few months however, I learnt my limits and was a lot more confident in my ability.