Dont Spot the Squat!

Strictly speaking this could go into Trussmans 'Gym Gripes' section but it's a big issue so I thought I'd give it a new thread.

This has to be one of my biggest gym gripes...

People that spot each other when squatting by doing some kind of homoerotic bear hug from behind.

This is useless but also dangerous and I personally think there should be a law against it. If you have a heavy weight on your shoulders the last thing you need is someone grabbing you around the waist....it completely messes with your technique, making you more likely to fail the rep. I've actually had a stranger jump in the rack and grab me whilst mid squat before now... suffice to say I was less than happy about it and almost ended up in a wreck as a result.

Some advocate spotting the bar, again this isn't much better and in the event of a true failed rep you're not going to be able to do much with an underhand bench press style spot.

For me you have 2 options for a safe squat.

1. Squat out of the rack with bumper plates and shrug the bar off if you fail the rep (this can be a little scary if you're not used to it)

2. Squat in the rack with safety pins set about an inch below the bottom of your rep .. then if you fail you know you're not going to get flattened into the floor

How do you Squat safely close to your max?

I shrug the bar off if I can't make it out of the bottom off a squat ( although this probably happens maybe once or twice a year, usually whilst getting back into my stride after a holiday ) it's a bummer because the bar ends up on the floor and you've got to unload it to re-rack it, I train on my own and honestly if someone was to come and bear hug me from behind during one of my reps I'd probably shrug the bar off.

I think thats the way forward. If they want to participate they can catch the bar when I shrug it off. Good Luck!

Absolutely..... I don't know why they do it you can't get into a position to really help them....

If you can't lift it..you can't lift it..

Always make sure I have the two bars parallel to the squat rack ..so if I can't get the last one up I can rest the bar there and roll out...eases the mind..

Otherwise I'm too intimidated to risk that last squeeze through complete failure......

good thread......see it quite a bit..

For a proper squat spot with any kind of decent weight you'd need at least 4 strong people 2 at each side. So the idea of one guy standing behind someone with a good weight on their back is nonsense. Good way to hurt them and you. If you get into trouble with a back squat it's better to just dump it.
That's why it's better to train with bumper plates. But better to damage a floor than a person.
Generally obviously you don't want to be training with weights you might fail. But when your doing heavy doubles and triples a failure can happen due to fatigue. Never dumped a back squat as I've always been conservative with the weight but I've dumped a front squat and that was bad enough.
There was a well known French bodybuilder who was showing off to some magazine he was doing piece for and got into to trouble with 675 pounds and it properly did his knee caps in. Look it up it's horrible.

The bodybuilders name was Jean Pierre Fux

Done my squats yesterday, 8 sets, probably took best part of an hour to get through them all, nobody got close to spotting me though, must be my aftershave.

8 sets??????

I only do two sets to failure on anything.......

More of a heavy duty guy..

If I went to the gym thinking I had 8 sets of squats in front of me i'd get a rope and jump off a bridge..

Have to admitre you kid...

What can I say Truss, don't forget though that once I've done my squats that's it on legs for me, no leg extensions/presses etc. And I know you rep high with a decent weight so 2 sets is probably just right for you.