Spotting the Squat

[Greg Ruhl]

In the book, it outlines the safe method for spotting the squat where your elbow catches the end of the bar and your hands grab the plate. However, when lifting a heavier load using wider plates (bumpers, etc.) the exposed end of the bar is not large enough to land on the elbow while having the hand on that arm grab the edge of the outer plate. Perhaps it would be big enough if the spotter stood behind the bar (facing the same direction as the lifter) but then the spotter would have very poor leverages to assist.

Is there a good method for spotting in these circumstances? Use both hands to grab the end of the bar or ???

[Michael Wolf]

That's a good point - makes a strong case for a gym that caters to strong lifters being stocked with metal plates, doesn't it? While still possible for the same situation to occur with a sufficiently strong lifter, the # of people squatting enough for that to be an issue with standard width 45 lb plates is minuscule and extremely unlikely to come up at a given gym. I haven't actually loaded it up to see, but I think you'd need 9 plates on each side of standard metal plate thickness before you'd run out of room to spot. Maybe 8, but even if so, how many people are squatting 765?

In the meantime, I don't know that I'd trust spotters' hands to hold on to heavy weight like that - the videos of the 2016 IPF worlds spotting still give me nightmares. Is lifting inside the rack and setting it down on the safeties, under control, an option here?

[KangaJoo]

I think if you're so strong that there's no room left on the bar you just need to wear one of these shirts and dump the bar instead of using spotters if necessary.

[Greg Ruhl]

That's a good point - makes a strong case for a gym that caters to strong lifters being stocked with metal plates, doesn't it? While still possible for the same situation to occur with a sufficiently strong lifter, the # of people squatting enough for that to be an issue with standard width 45 lb plates is minuscule and extremely unlikely to come up at a given gym. I haven't actually loaded it up to see, but I think you'd need 9 plates on each side of standard metal plate thickness before you'd run out of room to spot. Maybe 8, but even if so, how many people are squatting 765?

In the meantime, I don't know that I'd trust spotters' hands to hold on to heavy weight like that - the videos of the 2016 IPF worlds spotting still give me nightmares. Is lifting inside the rack and setting it down on the safeties, under control, an option here?

This was a casual lifting get together. I went to spot something in the low 500s (using comp. bumpers) and it seemed really dicey. I ended up with one hand on the bar end and my other arm under the plates (like carrying a baby). I was just wondering if there was a better way (short of using iron plates).

[Michael Wolf]

I must admit I haven't thought a lot about a solution to this problem, since it's so avoidable with proper equipment. Off the top of my head, nothing strikes me. Maybe someone else who has dealt with issue regularly will see this and chime in.