Where you stand when spotting someone can make the difference between being helpful and being useless in an emergency. The following list offers spotting tips for a variety of common exercises:
- Bench press: Stand behind the bench with your hands above or underneath the bar but not touching it. When the lifter needs you, lean in and get a quick grip on the bar.
- Chest fly and dumbbell chest press: For these dumbbell exercises (and versions performed on an incline bench) place your hands close to the person’s wrists, not close to the weights. (You may see people spot underneath the elbows, which isn’t a crime but not as safe, either.) When spotting flat-bench chest exercises, kneel on one knee behind the bench and follow the movement with your hands. For incline exercises, you may find it more comfortable to stand with your knees bent.
- Barbell squat: Stand behind your spottee, and be prepared to assist at the hips or underneath the arms. Your spottee may not want to be spotted at the hips unless you happen to be that person’s significant other. If you’re squatting with a particularly heavy weight, you may want two spotters, one standing on either side of the bar.
- Pull-up and dip: Stand behind your spottee and offer assistance by holding his or her shins or waist and guiding them upward.
- Machine exercises: Spot at the bar or lever of the machine. For example, if you’re spotting someone on the cable row, stand slightly behind and to the side of your spottee. Grasp one of the handles and gently assist it the rest of the way. Never spot machine exercises by placing your hand underneath the weight stack. That’s a good way to get a squashed hand!
For women looking to lose weight, get healthier or feel better about themselves -- both mentally and physically -- adding some weights to your workout routine may be the ticket.
Weights can be intimidating. How do we get started, and how do we avoid getting bigger instead of smaller?
First, strength training will not bulk you up.
“You would have to take testosterone or steroids to get bulky,” said Melissa Rife, a personal trainer. “Actually, the opposite occurs since the muscles get tighter and leaner.”
What weight training will do, she said, is make your body burn more calories, even at rest.
“It increases your metabolism. There’s a better carryover, which means the muscles keep burning calories after you’re done,” she said.
That’s great if you’re trying to lose weight, but there’s even more advantages to adding strength to your routine.
Strong muscles mean better posture, and weight training helps fight osteoporosis by promoting bone growth.
It’s best for beginners to start with very light weights, like one, three, or five pounds, in order to work on proper form.
“One of the biggest mistakes women make is with their form,” said Kim Wagler, who owns a fitness center with her husband, Chad. “They won’t get the benefit (of the weights) because of poor form.”
Rife recommends that beginners start with these basic exercises: Bicep curls, rows, push-ups, squats, lunges, crunches, a tricep exercise, leg raises, calf raises, and shoulder raises.
Start with one or two sets of eight to 10 repetitions, with a minute rest between each set. Work your way up to three sets. If it is too easy, add reps or weight.
“The last couple of reps should feel challenging,” Rife said. “If you’re starting out struggling at the third or fourth rep, that’s when you’ll get hurt.”
Beginners will probably notice muscle soreness the next day or two. Rife said the pain should be gone before you work those muscles again.
“When you start, three times a week is good. The other days, do cardio. Don’t overdo it or you’ll get hurt,” Rife said. “Also, ‘No pain, no gain’ is not the way to approach exercise. Pain is a flag that something is wrong and that activity should be stopped.”
One more important thing to know before you start: You can’t “spot reduce.”
That means, said Wagler, “You have to do a total workout. People think they can do 100 exercises for abs and get flat abs.”
Both recommend that beginners get professional instruction before staring a routine. If that’s not possible, several Web sites offer instruction on exercises.
“The Web site I like to use is www.about.com,” recommends Rife. “Put in strength training in the search block. It has good info and it has pictures of the various exercises. People can also use it to look up other info on various forms of exercise and health. “
Strength-training tips
- Reduce your body fat, increase your lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently.
- Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis. If you already have osteoporosis, strength training can lessen its impact.
- Control your body fat. As you lose muscle, your body burns calories less efficiently, which can result in weight gain. The more toned your muscles, the easier it is to control your weight.
- Reduce your risk of injury. Building muscle protects your joints from injury. It also helps you maintain flexibility and balance -- and remain independent as you age.
- Boost your stamina. As you grow stronger, you won’t fatigue as easily.
- Improve your sense of well-being. Strength training can boost your self-confidence, improve your body image and reduce the risk of depression.
- Get a better night's sleep. People who strength-train regularly are less likely to struggle with insomnia.
Source: MayoClinic.com
Is it better to start your workouts with cardio or weight training?
It depends on what you're trying to achieve.
Starting with cardio first will prepare the body and warm it up for resistance-training activities. If our primary goal is to work on the cardiovascular system, we can really emphasize that if we start with cardio first.
If we start with weights first, we may have some premature fatigue.
When we start with weight training, the primary benefit is that there is usually some skill component with resistance training. We need to be sharp and ready to handle it, and we will be, if we do resistance training first.
For the average person, after they have appropriately warmed up, probably the best choice would be to do their resistance training first because it involves a skill component. Then follow with an aerobic workout.
Can they do that -- cardio and resistance training combined -- three times a week? Yes, but neither cardio nor resistance training is optimized with concurrent training. It's difficult to do two things well at the same time.
Splitting them up would be more effective. Do cardiovascular training every other day and resistance training on the days in between, if you have the time. But not everybody has five, six or seven days a week to work out.
That's why, looking at the big picture, in our time-strapped, sedentary society, it's probably best to put cardiovascular training first, because we have such a high risk for heart disease in North America.
Cardio helps with that, along with burning calories and fat reduction.
But again, depending on the person, doing cardio first may be less important. Of course, building muscle mass raises your metabolism, so you're continually burning more calories throughout the day.
© The Calgary Herald 2008
When the time comes that you’re in the gym and someone calls on you to help them with a few exercises, remember the do’s and don’ts of being a responsible spotter.
- Don’t impose a lift-or-die mentality upon your lifting partner. Just because he may have planned to complete five reps doesn’t mean that you should withhold assistance if he starts struggling after three.
- Don’t offer too much help too soon. This eagerness defeats the purpose of spotting, because the person only needs a spotter because they’re trying to test the edge of their limits. If you prevent that person from testing that edge, you’ll annoy the heck out of the person being spotted.
- Don’t lean so close to your spottee that you impede or distract his movement. Bench-pressing isn’t enjoyable when someone’s face is directly over yours, and you can see up the person’s nose.
- Be a cheerleader! Now put your pom-poms away. You don’t have to jump up and do the splits, but people appreciate support — and may even lift more weight — if you offer enthusiastic encouragement: “You’re almost there!” or “It’s all you! You’ve got it!”
When people recruit you as a spotter, you have a big responsibility to perform your job correctly. Be realistic. If you weigh 90 pounds soaking wet, don’t attempt to spot someone doing a 350-pound bench press. If you have any doubt you can pull it off, don’t take on the assignment. The moment that the lifter’s arms give out isn’t the moment to realize you’re out of your league. If you do accept the job, pay close attention so you’re ready at the precise moment your partner needs help. Step in to help on these situations:
- The weight stops moving for more than a split second and it’s immediately apparent that the person is no longer in control of the movement.
- The weight begins traveling in the wrong direction.
- The lifter screams, “HELP!”
- Your partner can’t complete a rep.
Your spotter can be your friend or a training partner that you meet at the gym. If you don’t know anyone, you can usually ask a staff person who is working on the weight-training floor. If you work with a personal trainer, she’ll spot you. Regardless of who you choose, prepare your spotter for the mission ahead:
- Explain how many repetitions you’re aiming to complete. Think about how many reps you think that you can do before you’ll need the spotter’s assistance. Be honest! If you think that you may need a spot on the sixth repetition, say so. This way, your spotter can start paying extra close attention around the fourth rep.
- Make it clear to your spotter whether you need help lifting the bar off the rack or getting the dumbbells into position.
- Set up a specific plan. Will the spotter help you on the count of three or after the count of three? Tiny misunderstandings can lead to big injuries.
- Offer your gratitude both before and after your set. Don’t forget to tell your spotter thank you. An attitude of gratitude makes you a reputable person in the gym.
A spotter is someone who stands close by you when you’re lifting weights. This person is ready to grab your weights in case your muscles give out. The spotter can be your lifting partner that you go to the gym with or a stranger in the gym that you enlist for one or two exercises. Going to the gym with a friend is a good way to hold each other accountable. You can spot each other during lifting, and while you rest in between repetitions, your partner can perform the same exercise. Friends can encourage you in the last few reps, and keep you motivated. Your well-known lifting buddy also knows what you’re capable of and when you’ve had enough. If you’re in the gym lifting weights alone, you may not need a spotter hovering over you for every free weight exercise because you may feel smothered, as if your mom is chaperoning you on a date. But do call on a spotter when you’re alone and doing the following:
- Trying an exercise for the first time. Even if you’re not lifting significant weight, the weights may wobble when you perform a new movement. A spotter gently guides you through the motion until you have the confidence and the muscle memory to do it yourself.
- Attempting a heavier weight than usual. If you’ve never bench-pressed 100 pounds, try the exercise first in the presence of a spotter. The moment the bar comes crashing down on your chest isn’t a good time to find out you weren’t ready for the lift (or the time to try gasping for air to yell for help). Lifting heavy weights without a spotter is a lot like a trapeze artist working without a safety net. You may be fine the first nine times, but the tenth time. . . .
- Wanting to eke out extra reps. Sometimes you’re just not sure whether you have one more repetition in you. If you have a spotter, the repetition is worth trying (there’s no danger in trying). A spotter also can help you with machine exercises and assist you, for instance, on the last few inches of a heavy leg curl or arm curl.
