Bench Presses are for the chest not the face!!

As many of you know my work requires me to spend time at remote of mine sites on a regular basis. The mining industry places a premium  on risk management, hazard awareness and overall safety to ensure their stated goal of zero harm is achieved.

Unfortunately this level of safety awareness is absent in many trainees approach to the gym.  Open another tab in your browser right now and Google "barbell accident", then spend ten minutes cringing at what you see. Granted some of the videos occur in competition but a significant number are of recreational lifters like you and me.

Performing even a cursory analysis of these incidents it's evident most were completely avoidable if the potential hazards were considered prior to lifting. I'm not advocating we do a formal risk assessment every-time we lift but being safety aware and implementing common sense precautions costs nothing and ensures a safe lifting environment.

Now what follows is my list for keeping it safe when you lift. It assumes like me you don't lift in one of the those gyms that provide great instruction/equipment etc, rather its for all of us that have to make do in shitty gyms with owners more interested in the colour of our money than the safety of the environment.

1. First, safety starts with you. That means get your head in the game and think about your environment prior to lifting, spot potential hazards and clear that shit up before you get under the bar!
2. Never bench alone. This is the single greatest cause of accidents, particularly if you have a home gym set up. It doesn't matter if you are only moving moderate weight as 60kgs landing on your neck can still mess you up permanently. Ideally where possible always bench in a power cage with the safety catch bars set at an appropriate level. 
3. If you are not in a cage, always use a spotter. This introduces a second complexity in that in many average gyms there is a huge disparity in spotting experience. It can be to quick a hand off (dangerous if you are not set), the one arm lift out (nothing like an uneven bar handed to you!) or your spotter looking at the fitness girls ass instead of you slowly going backwards with 3 plates! If you ask for a spot make sure you give the guy decent instruction before you let him near the bar.
4. Don't use a false grip (thumbless), there is a reason this is called the suicide grip. 
5. Check the floor. I am not sure about your gym but where I train every halfwit leaves shit in the most inappropriate location, ends of barbells sticking out from racks, loose small plates strewn everywhere.  In an environment like this moving your favorite bar from one rack to the next can be hazardous.
6. Check your equipment. It never fails to amaze me how many tradesmen check their equipment (don't say it you know what I am talking about!) before work each day but think its fine to trust the rusty bent bar in the corner power cage without so much as a glance. I recently had  the sleeves of one bar drop off when I picked it up, the retaining screw had come off. Nice to find out when I was checking it rather than when I was squatting!
7. The golden rule...DON'T DO DUMB SHIT like the those below. You are just inviting trouble

Till next time stay strong
Thomo