How Not To Kill Yourself Benchpressing
When doing bench presses at home many people make a big safety mistake, turning the entire exercise into something much more dangerous than it needs to be.
Clamps, Collars, Locks
Whatever you call the little things keeping plates in place on a barbell, you have to know when and how to use them.
When doing barbell biceps curls, put them on. If you do deadlifts, yes, please, put them on. But leave them off when you do bench presses without safety equipment, especially when you train at home:
Important At Home And The Gym!
This is of very much importance for those of you training at home, but in my opinion it won’t hurt to do the same at a gym. Even if you have a spotter, rare is the one that can catch a 200 lbs barbell without it impacting on your chest or neck.
Don’t worry if leaving them off for benchpresses will sometimes garner you a belittling “dude, you didn’t put the locks on” from someone thinking of himself as a “pro”. The misuse of locks and collars is so very much widespread, that someone using them correctly is the exception and not the norm.
8 Comments
It’s actually required to use collars at my college’s gym, regardless of the movements. It’s heavily supervised by an older man with back problems and a 90lb kid though, so I guess that makes it safe.
LOL! I suppose the people at your gym care more about their floors than the safety of their members.
congrats on your subscriber milestone!!!
Thanks, CG! Hope you are still making great progress 🙂
oh ya!!! Progress is moving quite well. Had a wee bit too much to eat over the holidays but i’m working t off now.
Well, what would life be if we did all this and never indulged in some of its spoils? 😉
Hi evil,
Thank you for the information that you provided.
cheers!
dmitry
Dmitry, hope you are doing great! 🙂