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Comment by joncrocks | Hacker News Reader

Depending in the lift this may or may not be possible.

I don't know which lift the author was performing (and would ask you not to repeat it if you do know), but of the popular lifts which could cause a problem if you fail:

1) Bench press. Have a spotter or don't use clips (the things that hold the weights on the bar). Some benches will have safety bars which can help as well. If you don't have clips you can tip to one side and dump the weight off the end of one bar, then the bar should roll of you (albeit painfully/noisily). People have died benching alone in a gym, don't get caught out.

2) Squat. Have spotters and/or squat in a cage/safety rack (with parallel bars either side of you). It can be dangerous if you fail, have no spotters and aren't in a safety rack. i.e. you can dump it, but this can be dangerous to you and those around you.

Stay safe everyone.

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I went to a personal trainer once, the program was effectively 30 minutes of personal training on one day, 30-60 mins of 'on my own' the other, and the trainer gave me an exact schedule to follow. On the days with the trainer, we could rack up the weights and he'd be there all the time. On my own days, I had to go for much safer exercises - dumbbell bench presses instead of the bar - and at a lower weight.

If you want to just train, go for the safe options and a bit more reps. If you want to really break your limits, never not have a spotter. They will allow you to be a bit less safe on the one hand (e.g. bars with max weights) and provide you with motivation on the other. I never pushed past my limits before I had a spotter.

Good advices. And we should repeat this: there's no need for putting extreme weight on bars. Repetitions, series and rest time are golden here. You can do wonders with 50-80kg deadlifts (not when starting weight lifting), no need to go after 150/200kg. Same goes, for example, for bench press: failing alone (which should not happen) under 30/50kg is very manageable, but the same under 150kg can cost your life.

I would agree with you, up to a point. I agree that one doesn't need to put oneself under undue strain every time in the gym, and you can get a good workout from doing lots of reps for light weights.

But naturally by virtue of not increasing the weight on the bar one will reach a point where one ceases to get stronger (measured by the amount of force you can produce). There are limits to what more reps will do for you.

So don't deadlift your 1RM every time you go to the gym, just slowly increase how much you lift in a safe and structured manner.

This so much. I switched away cca year ago from trying to lift as much as possible during every session simply because it's stupid. I was walking on the edge of serious injury for no good enough reason. Anyway most people I know don't go to gym for bodybuilding, but rather getting/keeping in shape and looking good.

So unless you are a professional (then you already know about this more than I do), lower the weight and stick rather with 15-20 reps. If you feel that given excercise is too easy during set, just another 5 reps and try to do perfect movements. YOu can get the same famous 'burn' in the muscles. This also builds stamina, which is much more beneficial in real life compared to pure power for few seconds.

Needless to say, since I switched, i didn't have a single injury, not even minor stretches. Even if I am totally exhausted, I can handle the loads I use to put them down/to the rack safely.

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