Every day in the gym I see at least one person attempting to “spot” someone else. Regardless of if you wear workout gloves or not, everyone needs a bit of help sometimes.  Being a good swolemate is admirable.  However if you don’t know proper spotting technique you may not be much help. 

Proper Spotting Technique For Weight Lifting Workout

A common misconception is that the person spotting must be stronger that the person weight lifting.  This is about as wrong as those guys who wear gardening workout gloves for training.  Proper spotting technique is just that.  Technique.  Whomever is assisting you needs to understand the exercise you’re attempting.  Knowing where and when one may encounter muscle failure is key.

Proper Spotting Technique Depends on the Exercise

When you are weight lifting at the gym, your goal should be to workout the muscle group to failure.  What does muscle failure mean? It’s when you can’t possible do another rep.  Your muscles effectively lock up because they’re out of juice.  If you are weight lifting for chest, a basic Chest Press is a great exercise.  At some point during your set the chest, shoulders and triceps are going to fatigue.  Eventually they’ll want to give out.  If you’re in the middle of pressing the barbell you may just drop it on yourself.  For this reason having someone to spot you is key.

The person assisting you does not need to be strong enough to move the weight themselves.  Theoretically they won’t even be able to.  Pressing 200 lbs up from the bench is much different than trying to grasp it while standing bent over.  This is where most people fail proper spotting technique.
 
Assuming you already know how to do the exercise and you have a good pair of workout gloves ready to go, you’re set. Whomever is going to assist you should position themselves behind you.  Their purpose is NOT to be able to catch the weight if you fail.  Rather it is to help YOU continue to move the weight through the full range of motion.  Your personal trainer or coach should have their hands positioned so that should you get stuck, they can give you the push you need to finish. 

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