Hi!I have started a strength training routine in the mornings. Unfortunately it is hard to find anyone I know to come with and spot me that early in the morning. So what is a good replacement exercise for the bench press to work the chest in case I have no one to spot me. I guess preferably something using a machine that I won't need that spotter for.I know that pushups with the hands out wide work the chest, but I have no idea if they are effective enough to replace the bench press. So anything that might work about as well as a bench press would be great!Thanks!
You can always just leave the collars off the bar. If you get stuck you can always allow the plates to just slide off. This may sound extreme but I've done this for a while and never had to take the violent course of action. The best alternative is shoulder pressing with a barbell. Do you have a squat rack? (If you don't you're doing it wrong any way) You could always power clean it to your shoulders, I suppose. Push-ups, chin-ups, pull-ups are alright but won't get you strong like barbell exercises. You may need to join a gym to get the results you want.
You basically are hitting every muscle in your body besides your abs. Maybe switch out those exercises but work with the same muscles. Like instead of bench, do curls and pushups, and instead of squats, do lunges and depth jumps. Trying doing a clean and jerk. Those are very good, they hit like every necessary muscle in life haha.
Well incline d/bell press, flat flyes, incline flyes ,pullovers decline d/bell press all done with dumbells. , follow each set with a set of pushups. If you dont have a spotter make the bench a rep day, go heavy on another day. You should change exercises and reps all the time anyway.
The bench press is the most effective chest exercise there is. I strongly recommend you stick to it. I do it without a spot. When you do the reps, on the rep where your upward momentum slows then this is the rep on which you stop. In my expereince for example, if I do five reps at roughly the same pace for each then on the way up on the sixth I slow down then I won't attempt a seventh.
