Starting/ending the lying triceps extension at the bottom.

[zft]

In the older LTE video, Rippetoe says "Never finish this thing at the bottom unless you want to tear something up." at 11:59.

Why not? I use bumpers when I do LTEs and, serendipitously, this puts the bar at almost the exact height of the bottom of my LTE ROM. So--to start--I just line up the bar with the end of the bench on the floor, do a somewhat hard rep to get it up since it's from a dead stop, and do my reps. When I'm done, I lower as if doing another rep and at the bottom of the ROM I simply let go.

Am I'm going to "tear something up" like this? I harbor a great distrust of spotters and am unwilling to recruit a random gym-goer and immediately endow him/her with the privilege of protecting me from injury (or death), so I'm unwilling to do it with the assistance of a spotter. Besides, it seems as if the primary danger of the LTE is dropping it on your face--and I doubt that there are many spotters of sufficient caliber to actually protect against this, let alone some random curl bro. Maybe I should just say fuck it and use a cable machine.

[chrisza]

I do my LTE's like this as well. Much easier to set up as the weight gets heavy. I use the 25lb bumpers and add weight with smaller diameter plates from there.

[Mark E. Hurling]

Hmm, interesting concept. I also am doing LTE's just now and don't start them that way. But in essence, you guys are also performing most of a hoary old lift called a bent arm pullover. Which also has some benefits for the lats, chest, and abdominal area. At least that's how the muscle groups were described as being used in days of yore in the old Hoffman publications.

Thanks for the idea. I'll try this too and see how it goes.

[Nubygaines]

I am curious about alternate techniques as well as I work out at the local YMCA and spotters are hard to come by as they only wanna tell ya what all you should be doing instead and are prone to getting distracted when you need them.
Has anyone just sucked it up and used the straight bar for them? I could use the safety rails to assist me then.

[chrisza]

I am curious about alternate techniques as well as I work out at the local YMCA and spotters are hard to come by as they only wanna tell ya what all you should be doing instead and are prone to getting distracted when you need them.
Has anyone just sucked it up and used the straight bar for them? I could use the safety rails to assist me then.

While not quite as comfortable, you can do them with a straight bar.