Reply With QuoteI think benching completely alone with no rack is about the stupidest thing you can do regardless of weight. Get a rack, or at least some dumbbells, or just give up benching.
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Bench Press using Press weight or Press twice a week?
Mr. Rippetoe:
I am a 59 year old male who enjoys weight training twice a week, Mon-Thu.
Mon - Squat, Press, Chin Ups
Thu - Deadlift, Bench, Pull Ups
My 'problem' is my home gym equipment does not include a rack or safety spotter arms. My bench weight is getting heavy and I am getting nervous using just a flat bench and squat stand. Until I remedy with the purchase of a rack, I was thinking of using my press weight when doing bench - always holding back for safety sake. Or, I could press twice a week until I get my rack.
What do you think?
Thank you.
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I think benching completely alone with no rack is about the stupidest thing you can do regardless of weight. Get a rack, or at least some dumbbells, or just give up benching.
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I agree with Mugaaz. I went for awhile with only a squat stand and benching out of that is mighty stupid. Either just press or get better equipment/get a gym membership.
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I can't really answer your question, but I have done a fair amount of bench pressing in my house by myself before SS and before I had a rack with safety arms on it.
The piece of advice I'll offer (and is the SS book too), should you decide to bench with challenging weights before you get proper equipment (and I'm not saying you should), is that you should at very least NOT use collars on the bar. If you can't complete a rep, you want to be able to unload the bar by lowering one side unevenly and having the plates slide off. It'll probably wreck nearby walls and then cause a crazy racket as it falls over back to the other side, but it beats taking 250 lbs in the face or crushing your throat.
I never had to do this, thankfully, but then again I was always careful not to attempt a rep if I wasn't mostly confident I'd complete it. I currently have a Titan T3 squat rack with spotter arms and feel a lot more confident when going for that extra rep. It was well under $400 including the arms. The peace of mind and ability to grind an extra rep even when I'm not sure about it easily offsets what I've paid for it.
Stay safe!
-Andrew
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Couple of saw horses should work for moderate weights
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This is what I've done when in the gym and no spotter around - the no collar thing. Glad I did because I did have one instance where I needed to let it slide. Ultimately no PR or progress is really worth getting seriously injured or worse. Even though the no collar solution worked, I'm more likely to just press in the future if that same situation arises.Originally Posted by adauria
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From: Barbell Safety | Matt Reynolds
Bench Pressing Alone. Bench pressing alone is the single most dangerous barbell movement you can perform, because a loaded barbell is moving and being lifted over the throat and face. Because of this, extra precautions must be taken in order to ensure safe lifting conditions.
Benching alone safely requires that the lifter bench presses inside a power rack utilizing safety pins set at a height slightly lower than the barbell would be when touching the chest. This is to prevent the weight from crushing the lifter in the case of a missed rep. It also still allows the lifter to bench using the full range of motion. Once the set is completed, the lifter rotates the bar back with locked elbows to the power rack uprights, and then slides the bar down into the J-hooks. As stated earlier, never just aim to land the bar into the J-hooks, because you can miss.
If the lifter happens to miss a rep, he can safely lower the bar down to the safety pins and scoot out from under the bench.
If a power rack is unavailable and a lifter is forced to lift alone on a regular bench press, it is crucial that collars not be used. Without collars, if the lifter gets pinned under the weight he can tilt the bar and slide the plates off, unloading first one side of the bar and then the other. This makes an immense amount of racket, but prevents injuring or even killing the lifter. The noise is a small price to pay for safety.
Better yet, if you don’t have a power rack, just don’t bench press alone. You don’t need to bench that badly.
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Titan T3 Squat Rack - Double chin up bars a problem?
Silentpadna - Regarding the Titan T3 squat rack, I see it has two chin up bars (fat/skinny) about 7 inches apart. Does that present difficulty with chin ups - e.g. do you hit your forehead on the top bar if you are using the bottom bar to chin or have difficulty grasping the top bar because the bottom bar is in the way?
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adauria - Regarding the Titan T3 squat rack, I see it has two chin up bars (fat/skinny) about 7 inches apart. Does that present difficulty with chin ups - e.g. do you hit your forehead on the top bar if you are using the bottom bar to chin or have difficulty grasping the top bar because the bottom bar is in the way?Silentpadna - Regarding the Titan T3 squat rack, I see it has two chin up bars (fat/skinny) about 7 inches apart. Does that present difficulty with chin ups - e.g. do you hit your forehead on the top bar if you are using the bottom bar to chin or have difficulty grasping the top bar because the bottom bar is in the way?
✓ Member
I started using safety arms a couple of months back. And I’m very pleased because it addresses the issue that might occur in the event of a failed rep. I’ve read in several places about the risks associated with bench pressing, the risks to the face and throat. This truly amazes me. Are there really people out there bench pressing weights that they have that little control over that they have to worry about hitting their face or throat? And if so, how is the safety arms going to help that? Bench pressing with safety arms is fairly easy to manage. You try for that final rep, find it’s not happening (DAMN IT) and slowly control the weight down to the safety arms. The only way I can envision the threat to the throat or neck would be at failing to re-rack the weight without paying attention to the fact that it was missed. Or in a situation where the person has a major event, like a heart attack.
Maybe the person isn’t using their thumbs, but that would be ridiculous.
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