[User23]

Powerlifting is probably the most dangerous weight lifting discipline, because of the bench press[1]. Almost all of these are due to lifting alone, without a spotter, and without proper safety mechanisms (like a rack with crossbars). This seems to be a downvote happy thread, but this needs to be said: Don't bench without a spotter or safety gear. Ever!

[1] https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2003/05001/U_S__...

[tomp]

I don't bench that often, but I do it without a spotter or safety gear. I use normal grip (not the thumbless "suicide" grip), never go to failure, do medium-low weight/medium-high reps (8-12), and most importantly, I don't lock the weights, so worst comes to worst, I can always just tilt the bar and drop the weights...

[timClicks]

If the worst comes to worst, push the bar down to your belly. You have saved your neck this way, giving yourself the chance to tilt the bar in a controlled manner after a breath. If you are already failing, tilting the bar might be too much without more O2

[tomp]

Sure, but "failure" isn't "dropping the bar on your throat"... that would be catastrophic failure that shouldn't really happen (and not even a spotter could save you). When I lift, "failure" is usually just "can't lift the bar to the top" so there's more than enough strength to lower it a bit to tilt it...

[busterarm]

I always had both of those things (and a coach).

My personal injury was a pinched sciatic nerve brought on by a session of improper deadlifting. I made the mistake of rushing through a workout near when I was lifting my heaviest. Took about 3 months for the pain to go away.