Exercise Technique: Cueing, Spotting, and Safe Execution
Exercise Technique tests whether you can teach, cue, and safely supervise lifts. Items often show a common fault and ask for the safest correction or the correct spotting procedure.
Set-up and execution
- Establish a stable base, grip, and body position before loading. Cue from the largest fault to the smallest.
- Use a full, controlled range of motion; a spotter should not force range the lifter cannot control.
- Breathe: exhale through the sticking point. Brief Valsalva is reserved for experienced, normotensive lifters under heavy loads.
Spotting rules
- Barbell exercises with the bar over the face or shoulders, such as bench press and squat, require a spotter.
- For dumbbell exercises, spot at the wrists, not the elbows.
- Machines generally need no spotter, but check pins and settings.
- Power exercises such as the clean, snatch, and push press are not spotted; use a platform, bumper plates, and coached technique.
Worked example
A lifter fails near the bottom of a bench press. The spotter uses an alternated grip, keeps hands close to the bar without touching it, and applies upward force only when the bar stalls or descends. The spotter does not grab the bar during a controlled grind, because that removes the training stimulus and can unbalance the lifter. For dumbbell bench press, the same spotter moves to the wrists.
Traps
Spotting a power clean; grabbing the bar too early; allowing a thumbless grip on a barbell bench press; forcing excessive range; using Valsalva with a hypertensive client.