How the fuck do i improve on my bench press when i am lifting alone?

It's all in the mind.
Ive always lifted alone so I've failed a rep a few times.
Firstly, NEVER put clips on. Secondly, don't bench in the smith machine, because if you fail to rack it, which can happen, you are as good as dead.

So the first time I failed a rep I panicked, and kept trying to push it up and rack it, which resulted in me being trapped under the bar, and some guys had to run over and lift it off me.
Now the key issue here was that in spite of me failing I kept trying to push it up and rack it.
The key to not necking yourself when failing a rep is to remain calm, and decide "OK I'm failing the rep" and consciously lower the bar slowly onto your chest, which you should still have the strength to do. At that point you can either roll of shame or tilt the bar til the weights fall off.
So to summarize, if you fail a rep then don't try to rack it, just take control and let it down slowly.

Just increase volume/weight on working sets and then max when you have a spotter.

Alternatively, slow decent+roll of shame

Lift sub-maximal weights for 5-8 reps. Leave at least one clean (as in good form / bar speed) rep in the tank.

Save up some money and buy a bench with spotter arms, or some plyo boxes you can dump the weight on, figure out something that'll keep you from dying.

either or something like pic related

I habe a variant of this, and it's saved me a few times. I have a home gym and always lift alone, so the usefulness of these things outweighs the minor annoyance of hitting them from time to time.

Add floor press, use the sm*th machine, ask someone for a spot

>tilt the bar til the weights fall off

I used to do this but some faggots always ran to help me and fucked it up. Nowadays I either do the roll of shame or use the bench that has safety pins if it's available

How long will it take me to fix my bench path? Should I deload? I have been lifting for 4 months or so, just hit lmao2pl8. I am hoping to hit 3pl8+ by summer so I need all the help I can get.

>Secondly, don't bench in the smith machine, because if you fail to rack it, which can happen, you are as good as dead.
I use the smith machine as little as possible, but the smiths in my gym have adjustable safety stoppers.

I refuse to ever use smith, can cause muscle imbalances and is basically an isolation machine, which you don't want for compounds.

Don't go above @9.
Don't use clips.

learn how to lower your bar to your waist, sit up and drop it to the floor like a functional, non-autistic adult person

you don't have to go near failure to get stronger

most powerlifting programs don't have you in danger of failing reps during training

After barbell use drop set with dumbell
Or ask for a spot

roll of shame holy shit where’d all these pussies come from

If I'm alone at the gym I tilt the weights off, if I'm not I just ask the closest person to spot me

I lift at home, alone, & I've failed reps.

You just roll the bar down to your hip crease and stand up.

If for some weird reason you're failing and the bar is over your neck then stop pushing on one side and let the bar drop to the floor and keep pushing on the other side and scoot out but if you're doing this stop lifting and fucking die in a fire.

Don't be a pussy boi I've been increasing my bench alone forever. My max is 295. First of all the bar should never be over your head and neck at all only when you unrack and rerack. Second if your about to decapitate yourself you have no business lifting that weight anyway and it's natural selection. You should be lifting weight that's challenging, but you have confidence that you can lift this isn't powerlifting and if you are you definetly need a spotter. If you do fail a rep just do the roll of shame unless you're in the 300s, but I doubt it.

Is your masculinity so fragile that you resort to inflicting unnecessary pain on yourself to feel tough? I do the roll of shame when I have to but spotter bars are infinitely better.

Did candito linear strength/control , spoto press on control days did wonder.
Add in 3x8-12 light incline to get out of the lock and it's all good brah.

What the fuck is this? Should I be lowering the bar to my chest and pressing it over my neck?

Lower bar to your chest, and then on the ascent start pushing it towards your face. It should be directly above your shoulders for the latter half of the lift.

That's sounds retarded. The whole point of setting up an arch in the bench is so that you don't press over your shoulders/neck, and be safe in case you miss a rep. Also, isn't the straight line always the most efficient way to more an object from point A to point B?

>The whole point of setting up an arch in the bench is so that you don't press over your shoulders/neck

no it isn't, who told you that?

>Also, isn't the straight line always the most efficient way to more an object from point A to point B?

no, it's the least distance

you want to make the moment arm between the bar and your shoulders as small as possible as soon as possible for greatest mechanical efficiency

if memory serves rigtht the pic was supposed to show that there are some very strong pros who deviate further from the theoretically optimal bar path than the regular newbe and still set prs.
forgot which article the pic is from.

Pretty sure that setting up an arch is so that you use lower pecs more. Ever noticed how decline bench is easier?

>lower pecs
Decline is easier because it's less ROM

No, the pic is from an article that shows you how to improve your bench. It showed the difference between a novice lifter, and the pros. It also showed that pro lifters that didn't slowly adapt their bench path improved at a slower rate.

strongerbyscience.com/bench-press-bar-path/

no, the mechanically optimal barpath is the one that minimizes the shoulder-bar moment arm as soon as possible

Volume days.

why dont you place some rubber of fabric on them so it wouldnt make a sound when it hits?

what makes you think the sound is the issue? bouncing the bar off something you don't expect to be there fucks your entire rep up

Drop weight, do negatives.

I did 18 sets in the smith machine yesterday. (9 different angles for bench press.)
I'm unbalanced now and I'm not going to make it? :(

beat me to it. just looked it up again. was going to do some samefagging.

How can people not kill their lumbar with this - she is pressing into her arch with her legs full force. That shit hurts, even if the bench weight isn't on it.

as long as the arch is distributed over all vertebrae it's fine. when there's a kink in the arch it hurts like hell.

So whats better
>lifting without clips on and just pushing the bar to one side when failing so all the weight drops
or
>Roll of shame

Whats your prefered method of not dying

Why? And I meant imbalance in left/right side. When the bar is fixed like that it lets you compensate with your stronger side. Aldo, ehy bother doing standard flat bench in a smith?

Hm, I see that many people actually have that - where they don't actually have the mobility to arch as much as they do and their lumber has a very sharp tilt near the hip

no clips, the whole gym is going to notice you failing anyways so you better fail loudly with plates falling everywhere

>still using spotters in 2017
ngmi

First rule is don't attempt reps you don't think you can hit. This sucks for AMRAP sets and the like, but it's a good rule that will keep you out of hairy situations.

Second rule is as other have said, slow descent, then roll out of it somehow.

But really, get safeties if you are lifting alone. The bench is the only lift in the gym that can kill you, and people DO die performing it. Be safe.

This is always good to have in the back of the mind.

There's always the risk of tearing a muscle in the middle of a rep, in which case you just scream and someone helps you. Don't bench if the gym is empty.

I bench without a spotter, but there's 30 people around me, so I know I won't DIE. But I never rep to failure. I rack it if I feel like I could squeeze out 1 or 2 reps.

I don't go super heavy, either, I keep it in the 8-12 rep range. I used to lift in the 3-5 rep range, and then I realized lifting heavier would risk failure too much.

Just pay attention during the reps, rack it early, and then burn out with dumbells or a machine. I usually go from the classic bench to an incline dumbell press.

Gr8 b8 m8 8/8

i train bench in the 8-12 rep range so failure isnt really something that comes up

i used to fail when i did 5 rep sets, i actually make better progress on higher reps though which is why i switched

>When the bar is fixed like that it lets you compensate with your stronger side
Good point. I'm going to switch to dumbbells to fix my imbalance.
Smith machine was comfortable because it let me ignore it, thinking it will catch up eventually as it had more room for progress.

The Dump.

the bar only drops on you if you panic.
dont panic, rack the bar slowly and properly.

b8, the moment of racking the bar after heavy ass set of 5 reps of bench is the worst and hardest

Those safeties are the same height as bench

Uh oh

if you dont let go before you rack it, it doesnt drop.

>safeties are the same height as bench

They obviously there to protect the cushion on the expensive bench and not the soyboy lifter.