Spotting Dumbbell Bench Press Correctly — At the Weight

I constantly see athletes spot dumbbell bench presses incorrectly.

Most people want to spot a dumbbell bench press at the elbows. This is flawed for a few reasons:

• If the weights get dropped from the up position, they can hit your arm, chest or head. This is not good.

• If a lifter is using heavy weights, and a spotter is pushing up at the elbows, the lifter who collapses at the arm risks breaking his/her elbow or the spotter's toe if the weight falls.

When we spot a barbell bench press, we spot at the weight. Why would it be different for dumbbells?

Lifting For Size: The Big Three

If you are one of those many people who are lifting for size and you are not doing one or all three of these exercises — deadlifts, bench press and/or squats — you are seriously missing the boat.

Adding muscle is the ability to train your body to lift more weight. Once we accomplish that goal, we can lift more weight in more varying exercises.

Take a look at how many muscle groups we use during:

• Deadlift: hamstrings, glutes, quads, erector spinae group, forearms, shoulders, abs (when done correctly), traps, rhomboids, posterior deltoid

• Bench Press: lats,bicep, tricep, pecs (major and minor) anterior deltoid, forearms, serratus anterior

• Squats: quads, hamstrings, hip flexors, abs, tibialis anterior, soleus, calfs, quadratus lumborum (lower back)

Because of all of these different muscle groups at work, we can lift more weight during these exercises. Once we get proficient at these, then soon we can add weight to the rest of our routine.
This will lead to the muscle mass you are looking for....

....assuming you are eating right, but that's a whole other blog.