Hey-

A couple years ago I invited a group of the kids that I was working with on the football team to come lift weights with me at the high school in the evenings. I was coaching football, baseball and wrestling at that time and had a few followers and keys to the weight room. So, soon a small group of beginners were meeting regularly to lift and be initiated into the informal "Church of the Hardcore Athlete".  

Then one night a janitor came in and asked me "Hey, what the hell are all these kids doing running in the hallways?" I quickly said, "There ain't no kids run'n in the hall!" Anyway, it went back and forth for a few minutes and accomplished nothing but raising my blood pressure and pissing everyone off. Then when he complained to the school admin, the Athletic Director felt the need to talk to me about being nice to janitors cause "they're just looking out for the school"... hum!

Well, Monday night after 3 hours of wrestling practices I decided to lift in the school weight room instead of at home in my garage. Its been sorta cold in the garage and school weight room was warm and inviting. So, I racked up four bars (power rack, flat bench, inclined bench and floor) and rotated thru a few sets on each by myself. It was a little after 8pm when an old janitor came in and said, "So, who's making all the noise in here?" I smiled and laughed and said, "Ooh, its just me!"

He wasn't laugh'n when he said, "Where's your spotter?" I thought, ... Damn, he's right! But by chance, I was doing power cleans and presses at the time that he came in ... so, quick on my feet, I said, "Ooh, you don't use a spotter when doing olympic lifts!" and pointed to the bar on the floor. He came back with, "I thought everyone was suppose to have a spotter when they were lifting in here." I stuck with my story and tried to muster my poker face. I convinced him that I know what I'm doing.

He left and I finished my final sets, but as I drove home in the cold dark that night I told myself that he was right this time. I'm old enough to know how much weight to use when I'm lifting by myself, but I can't help from feeling bad about teaching the kids to lift with a spotter and then getting caught without one. I'm often lifting by myself early in the mornings or late late at night and I tend to use 70, 80 or sometimes 90 percent of my 1repmax when I'm by myself.

Anyway, I expect that I'll have to explain myself to the AD again. I guess that I'll stick with my story on the oly lifts at the school and try harder to be nice to the janitors.  

Good luck in your training,

-DeulDetention

Good advice.

I never use spotters. There just aren't any around here. Unless you count Bruce, my Gordon Setter. Or Reilly, my Irish terrier. Or any one of my six cats, or four horses.

One of my favorite Monty Python skits was about a Welsh amateur athlete named Ron Obvious, whose manager convinced him he could jump the English channel while carrying two bags of bricks from his sponsor, the local brick company.

When asked by the interviewer how he was going to accomplish the jump, Obvious said, "When you get out over the water, there is a very great impetus to stay up."

When I squat max or nearly so (now, I admit, my max is warmup for most of you studs) at home in my little frosty gym, I know there is no one around to help.

This becomes a very great impetus to get up.

rgds

Billb - thought I was the only one - had read a Coach Mac post about doing lighter snatches and seeing how high you could throw the bar....well, did 'em on the grass out beside the house ...and yes ,it does rain in Texas sometimes.....I now call it the snatch toss and shovel....my own invention,yep.....RUN AWAY!!! Bruce-o -about a week ago my 11 year old daughter was howling upstairs at some show about a Grail....now we all RUN AWAY!!!! Don't hurt yourself .

When your garage gym workout starts to look like an episode of Viva La Bam, then you have gone too far!

"You must cut down a tree with a herring!"

Ancient Hooligan,

I guess that School of Hard Rocks is full of hard asses out there.  I think that they are just intimadated or jealous of you so they razz ya.  You should have told the janitor he was just in time to give you a spot.

If you really are worried about it though you could just switch your bench press to a floor press and switch your incline press to a jerk or military press.  Or you could just do them with dumbbells.  Not the exact same but similar enough. 

At least you weren't sent to the principle's office.

-Teacher's Kid

Kid-

Aye, that's a good one! 

I should have asked him to spot for me. I din't think of that.

I felt like telling him to turn around and dont let the door hit him in the ass when he left, ... but ya know - I'm working on my people skills.

Hope things are going well with the family. Did ya see the Iowa v LSU game on New Year's Day? That was my kid with the Hawkeye hat and a seat on the 50-yard line - Big Ten side. Ya know, that big strong handsome kid in the middle of all the crazy college kids cheering for the Hawks. 

Good luck in your training,

-Hooligan

Back when I was powerlifting, I found myself on a holiday in the gym with only one other guy there who was not what I would call a "strength athlete".  I was going to hit 565 for a set of 5 on the squat and usually had my training partner to spot.  I called over and asked him to "spot me" and he came over and looked at me, looked at the weight, and said, "All I can do is call 911 if that thing falls on you".  Another time, I was doing close grips recently in my home gym in my basement and I told my wife, who was upstairs watching that damn trading spaces show (that show has cost me more weekends, "oh, honey, let's paint the living room, I got this great idea off Trading Spaces"...but I digress.)  Ok, so I get pinned and yell for her.....nothing.  So I roll this thing on my lap (like I did a million times then I was a kid and felt it necessary to max out every single workout....boy was I stupid...but I digress again).  So the next time I tell her to come down and watch me and I get pinned again (ironically, the only two times I've gotten pinned in a long time) and I say, "OK, take it".....nothing...."OK, I TAKE IT" a little louder....nothing....(by now I could have rolled it off)....finally, "TAKE THIS MOTHER F*&%ER OFF ME"....to which she runs around and starts pulling plates off one end instead of helping me up with it.... then yells at me for cussing at her, stomps up stairs, and is PO'ed at me the rest of the night.  From now on, I'll use the power rack, stick to overheads, or just die.