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Hi Guys

What do you guys think of partials? I don′t have a training partner, so on certain exercises (namely the bench press), I cannot go to negative failure, cos I don′t have anyone to help me rack the weight back up when the bar gets stuck on my chest.

So I figure the next best thing would be to go to strong range failure. I would stop one rep short of failing at the bottom of the movement (with judgement you can usually tell when this is), and grind out some partial reps until I could no longer budge the bar in my strong range?

What do you think? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Full range of motion is prefered, what you suggest is alright. But what does it take to go and ask someone if they could spot you.

I use to do it all the time and one time i managed to forge a good partnership with one guy i asked to spot me and we trained pretty hard for about 8 months before i had to leave for uni.

Otherwise i would bench in the power-rack using the side bars as a safety precaution

Skip the partial reps and do a static hold instead

Hey pizza, welcome to the forum.
Could you list your routine? Exercises, sets, reps, cadence and all that?

When you bench:
If you get stuck under the bench, because you didn′t ask for a spot, then one thing you might be able to do is roll it to your belly, lock your legs around the legs of the bench and sit up. It′s not something I recommend, but then again, neither is working without a spotter. I don′t like the idea of dumping weights off each side because it throws the bar at a very fast and dangerous speed. I saw it happen. The guy was benching like 3-4 plates on each side and he decided to "dump them" so when a guy ran over to help him the empty side of the bar just barely caught his chin and he went flying backwards.Don′t screw around. One set to complete positive failure and don′t worry about increasing intensity until you are at your genetic limit.
Best of luck!
jim

Hola Pizza

I agree with hardgainer, use a power rack.

Now for the issue of giveing up one rep before failuer. I think thats very hard. Sometimes when Im doing my my set to failure. I think im about too reach it and then I do 2 or somethimes even three. Its important that you reach failure on all your excersices. No guessing, so that you can keep accurate records. Becuase even one rep gain is important. I dont have a training partner. But lucky for me Mike suggest using mostly machines. Machines make reaching failure very safe.