Barbell Collars

[quote]doc_man_101 wrote:

I’m still interested to know if anyone has ever tried dumping the plates during a throat-crushing bench press, or seen it happen. Or whether it’s just a kind of urban myth.

[/quote]

I did once when I tried my brothers bench set. It was one of those weider sets with the crappy 10lbs(?) bar, and 25lbs on each side. I was alone in the basement and it didn’t seem so heavy at the top, but I got stapled. The plate falling off put a nice dent in the wall too.

I would never try that now, I imaging dumping plates off one side is a good way to mess up a pec or something.

There was a young kid benching with his MOM spotting, and he was absolutely tiny. He threw 185 on the bench, hit his chest and it didn’t move. His mom couldn’t get it off him, he ended up dumping the plates in the struggle. Funniest shit Ive ever seen.

I use springs/collars on squats, overhead presses and cleans every time. My gym has fewer sets of collars than barbells, so sometimes you have to do deadlifts and bent-over rows and such without, but those aren’t as big a deal to me.

In high school and college, the rule in the weight room was collars on barbells or you get the boot, so it’s kind of habit at this point.