Benching safely alone in SS

[Aikislacker]

Coach Rip- I am a few weeks into SS and lift by myself mostly at home. My cage lets me set pins for safety basically at the level of the bottom of the bench press or 3-4 inches higher than where the bar would touch my shirt.

I got to 100lbs today (I'm a chick) and reps 4&5 were tough, to the point that 2/3 of the way up I wasn't sure I'd finish.

I've been moving up 5lbs on the BP since starting and was wondering what is a safe way to proceed from here. Like I said, I usually lift at home by myself. Is there a safe way to continue this or do I need to look at lifting somewhere else and trying to educate a spotter? And is it now time to move up in smaller increments (I keep thinking I'll fail at sqauts, but I didn't yet).

Thanks a lot.

[Mark Rippetoe]

If the pins are 3-4" higher than your shirt, the bench press is not full ROM. Maybe this is not what you meant.

[bgates1654]

I bench without a spotter all the time. I set the bars in my rack so that when I loosen my back (lose the arch) it rests on the bars. When my back is arched properly it contacts my chest first. Its kinda nice because I can tell if I am uneven or if my back isnt arched properly. It gives me a form reminder with a sharp ping.
I have failed before without any problems. I have to imagine that if I simply drop the bar and dont have time to flatten my back I could still hurt myself, but then again if I did that with a spotter I would probably hurt them as well as myself anyway. If you are incrementing properly you are not going to have a catastrophic failure anyway.

[SkinnyWimp]

Sounds to me like the pins can either be too low (at the level of the bench) or too high (3" above your shirt). In other words, you can't set the pins at a good height because the spacing between the pin holes is too large?

Maybe get a new bench that is a better height for your pin heights. Or put your bench on 4" blocks.

[Tom Campitelli]

While not ideal, don't put any clamps on the end of the bar. If you get stuck, you can unload bar by dipping one side down and letting the plates slide off. The other side will soon follow. If you have a lot of weight on the bar, this can potentially injure you. However, at or near 100 lbs, you will probably be okay. You might want to put a few pieces of carpeting scraps on the floor to protect the iron and the flooring. For all of these reasons, bench is best done with a spotter.

[Notorious]

I think she's saying that there is no good height where the pins would safely catch the weight if she didn't make the rep, other than way above her chest.

When I bench alone (which is most of the time) and miss a rep, I can usually put the bar down much lower on the pins, by my legs, without it actually touching me. Also, if you are not already, arching your back can make it so the bar still touches your chest but can safely rack lower on the pins.