Working around bench press anxiety

Hi guys

Yesterday at the gym I had a near miss on bench where I miss cued my last rep of my final back off set of 6 reps. It wasn’t super heavy but I was tired at the end of my 6th set so it was a close call. Fortunately someone was nearby to jump in and help me get the weight off (I didn’t have a spotter because covid and the bench at my gym doesn’t have safeties).

It’s the first time that’s happened to me in >2 years of training but it’s freaked me out a bit. I feel like it would be good for me to take a break from barbell bench press until I can either get a spotter or some safeties. I’m not a strength athlete and lift only for health and enjoyment. I’m thinking of replacing barbell benching movements with a mixture of DB bench, weighted dips and push up variations.

My question is whether you have any particular recommendations for implementing these kinds of substitutions in the context of your training templates? For instance, if I replace barbell bench with DB bench or weighted dips, would you say do the same reps & RPE for the selected replacement (e.g. 1@8, 6@9 followed by backoffs in the legacy GPP hypertrophy template). It feels like this might be difficult with some of the exercises (e.g. heavy dumbbells are hard to get set up with), in which case how would you suggest adjusting?

As always thanks so much for your help!

Alistair

Alistair,

Thanks for the post and glad you’re okay.

I think that bench pressing should be done with safeties and a spotter, when possible. If neither are possible for an extended period of time, I think the risk:benefit of benching is not great. Fortunately, there are many other exercises that would work as a plug and play.

If I were replacing a “priority” bench, e.g. the comp bench or maximal strength development slot (usually characterized by singles and/or lower rep work), I’d probably just do overhead press, as it’s well suited for this purpose. For supplemental lifts, I think you can plug and play other exercises directly.

-Jordan

Hi Jordan

Thank you for your response and your considerations.

Understood regarding benching risks - I had convinced myself that as long as I was capping my sets @8 it would be fine to continue without a spotter/safeties, but I have learned my lesson!

Thanks for the recommendations, I will modify accordingly until the policies at my gym change or equipment is no longer an issue.

All the best and keep up the great work!

Alistair