Spotters
briebear77
Posts: 253 Member
This may be a dumb question but there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable folks in here that can possibly answer it for me!
I lift 3 days a week with my gym buddy who happens to be male. He and I ran into one of our friends (another male) at the gym tonight. They ended up doing their thing and I went and swam since it was an active rest day for me. After I was done I came back and jokingly said to my gym buddy "Hey, is he a better workout buddy than me?" My friend's response was "Well...he can at least spot me on my lifts!"
I was slightly offended. I feel like he thinks I can't spot him because I'm not as strong as him. However, from my understanding, your spotter doesn't have to be able to lift the full amount of weight given the fact that you should at least be lifting SOME of it. I wasn't sure, so I asked one of the gym employees his thoughts. He said he wouldn't let somebody spot him who couldn't lift the entire weight, either. I honestly thought the trainer would side with me.
So, my question: Do you have to be able to lift the full amount that the person you are spotting is lifting? I think not, but opinions are welcome. Plus I really want to tell my friend I told you so...
I lift 3 days a week with my gym buddy who happens to be male. He and I ran into one of our friends (another male) at the gym tonight. They ended up doing their thing and I went and swam since it was an active rest day for me. After I was done I came back and jokingly said to my gym buddy "Hey, is he a better workout buddy than me?" My friend's response was "Well...he can at least spot me on my lifts!"
I was slightly offended. I feel like he thinks I can't spot him because I'm not as strong as him. However, from my understanding, your spotter doesn't have to be able to lift the full amount of weight given the fact that you should at least be lifting SOME of it. I wasn't sure, so I asked one of the gym employees his thoughts. He said he wouldn't let somebody spot him who couldn't lift the entire weight, either. I honestly thought the trainer would side with me.
So, my question: Do you have to be able to lift the full amount that the person you are spotting is lifting? I think not, but opinions are welcome. Plus I really want to tell my friend I told you so...
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Replies
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My wife spots for me, and I spot for her...was your buddy joking?0
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Nope he was not sadly! He was surprised I was so offended.0
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Maybe ask why he feels you can't spot him, it can be tricky sometimes( helping too much, not enough, ect......)0
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I did ask him. He told me I can't lift the weight in order to spot him properly :sad:0
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I told him my new goal is to bench more than him haha. And/Or deadlift and squat since he does NONE of those things in his workouts anyway. Shouldn't be too much of a stretch ha.0
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I told him my new goal is to bench more than him haha. And/Or deadlift and squat since he does NONE of those things in his workouts anyway. Shouldn't be too much of a stretch ha.
Sounds like a perfect plan.:drinker:0 -
Agreed but I still am wondering about my initial question for sure!0
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Its better to have someone spot for you who can lift the entire weight - particularly on bench because you're in an awkward position vis a vis the bar. I've allowed my wife to spot for me many times as I will mostly just need a nudge on the last couple of reps. That said, (1) optimally I want to rep out to the point where I can barely do the last rep thereby putting a lot on the spotter, and (2) if something goes wrong (a muscle tear on a PR for example) I want someone who can get the bar off of me.0
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Sorry, I agree with the trainer. When I spot for guys I don't feel comfortable if I wouldn't be able to keep the bar from hitting them if they were going to drop it. And if I didn't think my spotter would be able to save me, I would only use weight that I'm pretty confident I don't need a spotter for.
Ideally the spotter is just givin you a nudge if you need it, but I want to know that if something went wrong I would be fine!
Since we are discussing spotters, I had a squat spotter last time I did it and I was surprised how much more confident I felt knowing that he was there and could lift me an the bar up if need be. Made me bury the depth because I knew it would be okay if I couldn't get up lol0 -
It's all a matter of personal opinion. Personally, as a spotter, I provide the least amount of help possible and always remind my workout partner to keep breathing. For whatever reason people tend to forget about breathing on their last rep or two. But as a lifter, I should know when I need to re-rack the weights or if I can keep going. I agree that the spotter doesn't need to be capable of lifting 100% of the weight but they should be able to help enough when you're struggling.0
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how much do you bench, deadlift etc...?
my guess is that its probably not enough to make most males who lift any kind of normal weight to feel comfortable with you spotting. you may be needed to lift more than just a small fraction of the weight.0 -
Well thanks for the responses everyone! Not necessarily what I wanted to hear, but what everyone is saying makes total sense. Award30, I think I'm going to have to start using him to spot me on my squats because I am definitely not getting low enough.0
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It's weird to have a squat spotter to me, today I got a PR/1RM and tried for the second rep and failed and didn't know how to drop the bar properly because I never go too close to failure because I don't have a spotter. My spotter then lectured me that I didn't drop the bar properly
But I hit 205, so riding that high. 0 -
Uhm freaking amazing job!0
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For safety reasons, I can see why he would prefer someone who can lift the entire weight.
In an ideal situation, if he got stuck, he'd still be pushing and could assist in the re-rack. But if a muscle tears, he passes out, gets out of his groove/ loses balance, etc then you have to be capable of lifting the entire weight off of him...
So if I'm benching 225 if my spotter cant at least hold that weight at their waist in the event of an accident, they aren't spotting me.0 -
It's weird to have a squat spotter to me, today I got a PR/1RM and tried for the second rep and failed and didn't know how to drop the bar properly because I never go too close to failure because I don't have a spotter. My spotter then lectured me that I didn't drop the bar properly But I hit 205, so riding that high.
If you had a spotter you should NOT have dropped the bar. thats a great way to get a spotter injured. They should have helped you stand back up.0
