How to Bench Press Safely Without a Spotter (7 Simple Tips)

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if you want to avoid being one of those
bench press fail videos on YouTube then
you need to watch this video
hey everyone its Anandfrom underdog
strength account and in this video I'm
going through seven ways have you can
bench press safely without a spotter now
as a coach I recommend that most people
should be using a spotter but not always
and this is because the quality of
spotters differs from person to person
in fact if you go to commercial gyms
you'll only find bad quality spotters
you know people you might have seen them
that even though you tell them not to
touch the bar they're still gonna start
touching the bar or assisting you when
you're just slowing down a little bit
since that's the case you're probably
better off not using a spotter at all in
fact that's one of the reasons why I
don't use a spotter because most of the
times these days I'm training alone by
myself you know it's mostly like late
night waiting so they usually aren't
other difference around and even if
there's someone around there they really
don't know how to spot you so for the
sake of consistency whether I'm training
or in competition I don't use part of
most of the time so here are the seven
things you can do to benchpress safely
and effectively without a spotter the
first thing you can do if you have the
right equipment is to use a squat rack
or a power cage and Bend benchpress
inside of that now again I understand a
lot of you might be training at
commercial gyms where they might not
even have a proper squat rack and if you
if you have a squat rack they usually
have only like a one squat rack which is
usually occupied and if this is the case
then you definitely have to respect
whoever wants to squat inside the squat
rack because you know that's the
ultimate purpose of it but if it's free
then you can go ahead and use it this is
because a squat rack or pockets usually
has safeties on the side that are
adjustable and the best thing about this
is if you want to fail or if you were to
drop the weight then the weights gonna
drop on the safeties and not on your
body but the key thing to keep in mind
is that you have to keep the safety
height at the correct level because if
you set it up too high then you not
gonna be able to bring it down all the
way to your chest and if it's too low
then it's not going to catch the weight
in case you fail so the correct height
possible is probably about an inch or so
above your chest and that is like the
perfect level there in case you were to
fail you can still rest the barbell on
on the safeties and get out of there if
you want to also keep in mind that if
you use in adjust your rack make sure
that the actual rack height is set to
the correct level you don't want the
rack height to be so high that you have
to strung do it just in order to unwrap
the bar and at the same time the black
height shouldn't be so low that you have
to bench press the weight just to unwrap
the bar because both of these will
actually put your shoulders in a
slightly dangerous position in case
you're not able to run rack or even rack
the bar again properly it's just gonna
fall on you and you want to avoid this
at all costs the second thing you can do
is to bench press with an arch and you
may have seen power lifters using this
technique and you don't have to have an
extreme arch but just for the sake of
shoulder safety I recommend everyone to
slightly arch the back when the bench
pressing because especially when you're
using a rat have it safeties with when
you arching you can keep your chest a
little bit higher then you would if you
were just matching like flat back and
what this would allow you to do is it's
gonna allow you to adjust your your
chest height based on your safety height
and if you wanna film all you have to do
is just collapse an arch you know just
flatten your back and the weight will
then rest on the safeties so benching
with an arch is not only safer for your
shoulders and will allow you to lift
more weight but it can also be safer
especially if you mention with a power
rack with safeties on the side because
if you feel all you have to do is
collapse at arts just flatten your back
and the weight will be resting on the
safeties if you set it up correctly the
third thing you can do to benchpress
safely without a spotter is to not use
weight collars now usually people
recommend that you use collars to
prevent the weights from sliding around
and this is FA a true but if you're
benching by itself and for the sake of
safety it's probably not a good idea to
have collars because in case you get
stuck and you have no
help you the weight will also be stuck
on the barbell and there's no way you
can remove it quickly whereas if you
were not using any collars and it in
case you failed all you have to do is
dump the weight to one side and then
whichever side you dump it the actual
weight plates will start sliding off
your barbell and then this is gonna make
it easier for you get out of it so don't
use any weight collars if your
bench-pressing alone the fourth thing
you can do is to use wrist wraps and if
you have no idea about wrist straps or
how to use them then I just recently
made a video on this and I'll leave a
link to that in the description below or
you can click over here to check it out
but what wrist wraps do is first of all
they protect your wrist and they help
you bench press in a straight line the
other thing that they do is they
especially if you put on the wrist strap
with a closed fist it's gonna make it
very hard for you for your fist to open
up because it's gonna tighten and
prevent those muscles in your forearms
that actually help with opening a fist
so your your grip itself is going to be
very secure but the other thing is
especially if there's a lot of movement
and you're unwrapping the bar and in
case you know your your wrist starts to
move there's a chance that that the
weight is gonna fall on you because you
know your restaurant that's stable but
with a wrist strap you're gonna be able
to keep your wrist solid straight and
stable so at least your wrist won't
failed and that won't be the reason why
you feel the bench press so use wrist
straps whenever possible the fifth thing
you should do is use a proper full grip
on the barbell and what I mean by that
is you want to avoid using a false grip
at all cost a false grip is simply also
known as a thumbless script but you're
not actually gripping the bar you just
dressing the bar on your palms and this
is known as a suicide grip for a reason
and this is extremely dangerous and if
if you unless you use a squat rack you
definitely don't want to attempt this
because there's been so many cases where
even the most advanced people can have
this half the weight slip on them and
even if you use them the best spotter
again I would not advise you to use this
technique because even a supporter will
not be able to save you because the
weights is gonna freefall onto your
chest so avoid using a false grip and
make sure that you're putting your
thumbs around the bar and using a proper
grip the sixth thing you can do is you
wanna unwrap the bar when the barbell is
about eye level and what I mean by that
is when you lay on the bench and when
you're before even before you unwrap the
bar you want to make sure that the
barbell is directly over your your your
vision or your eyes and because if you
unpack tomorrow and if it's too high up
above its gonna make it very dangerous
and you have to put in a lot of effort
to just bring it down and at the same
time if it's too low below your eye
level it's it's probably gonna interfere
when you're trying to bench because when
you try to bench press back up you're
gonna head end up hitting the the the
racks and you definitely want don't want
that so make sure that the barbell is
aligned to your eye level before you
unwrap it the seventh thing that I like
to do all the time is you want to unpack
the bar with your butt off the bench and
primarily if you're gonna arch your body
is in contact with the bench at two
separate spots the first spot is your
upper back which is resting on the bench
and then also your butt and according to
the rules of powerlifting you have to
have your butt resting on the bench at
all the time but if you want to unwrap
the bar then you can unpack the bar with
your butt off the bench and the reason
why I recommend this is as you can see
in this video I'm unpacking with my butt
off the bench but when I'm bringing the
weight back forward to my starting
position I'm not moving it with my hands
or my arms you see when when I unwrap it
with my butt off the bench
I'm simply then bringing my butt to the
bench and along with that my entire body
including my upper body and my arms are
coming down together and this actually
keeps our shoulders in a really safe
position and will prevent any
unnecessary strain or movement in your
upper arms
and a lot of advanced power lifters also
like to use this technique when their
bench pressing alone so simply raise
your butt off the bench and racket while
keeping an arch and your shoulders back
so this means that the scapula is going
to be retracted keep that position and
then simply just bring your butt down
along with the rest of your body and
this should put you in a really solid
position to bench press so these are the
seven movies but some additional tips
that I am give you is first of all
unless you're gonna compete in
powerlifting you don't really have to
bench press and if you're really
concerned about your own safety then I
recommend that you stay away from the
barbell bench press and because there's
so many different exercises you can do
that you can do dumbbell bench press
machine bench press you can do flies
just like so many different variations
that are equally or if not more
effective in terms of building your
chest muscles so you know you can
definitely use those because you know
with dumbbells if you feel you can just
drop the dumbbells so don't be compared
to use the bench press if you don't have
to and worst case scenario let's say
you're benching by yourself without any
safeties and then you also put on
collars and you you miss the weight
right if you fail what do you do next
well it's it's it's gonna be extremely
hard for you to get out of it but
there's something called the roll of
shame that is known and end up in the
powerlifting community where when you
feel and as long as the weight is not
too heavy you can actually start rolling
the weight down down your chest bring it
to about your belly level and then this
would give you more leverage that you
can actually stand up and get out of it
instead of pushing it up you definitely
do not want to push it up towards your
neck because that's really gonna choke
you so definitely do not roll the bar up
up your neck instead roll it down until
you have enough leverage to stand up and
get out of it
so to quickly recap here are the seven
things you can do to bench press alone
without a spotter the first thing is to
use a rack or a power cage where the you
can adjust the safety heights to about
one inch over your chest and you can
adjust the rack height to a level that
is neither too high nor too low the
second thing is to not use any sort of
collars on your weights when you bench
press alone because in case you get
stuck you can slide the weights to one
side and get out of it the third thing
you can do is to use wrist wraps because
it's gonna reduce the chances of your
wrist feeling or the barbell moving
around unnecessarily the fourth thing is
to use a proper full grip with the
thumbs around the bar and to not use a
thumbless grip or a false grip the first
thing you can do is to use an arch when
you bench press because especially if
you use in our power rack with safeties
you can actually raise your chest a
little bit to match the level of the
safeties and then when you fail you can
just collapse the arch and the weight
will just come down along with your
chest
I will ultimately rest on the safeties
the sixth thing you can do is to unwrap
the bar with your butt off the bench
keep your shoulders or a scapula
retracted and then simply bring your
butt down to the bench along with the
rest of your body and the seventh thing
you can do is to unwrap the barbell with
the barbell directly over your eye level
and you don't want it to be too high
where it's going to be a dangerous
position not only to unwrap it but also
to bracket again and at the same time we
don't want to be too long when you're
pressing you're gonna hate the safeties
and it's kind of cause unnecessary
movement in your bar path so there you
have it guys
I hope this was informative if you like
this video don't forget to hit the
subscribe button down below and I want
to know from you whether you bench press
with a spotter or without a spotter make
sure to leave a comment down below thank
you so much for watching
and stay strong

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How to Bench Press Safely Without a Spotter (7 Simple Tips)

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