You don’t have to be an expert lifter to make your training partners better. You just have to always be actively watching and engaged in training. Here is how you can be an asset to your group — even as a newer lifter.

Not unlike with your spouse or significant other, the relationship between training partners depends on many things, but at the central core to this relationship is the quality of one’s honesty with their training partner.

Ideally, a good lifter should also be a good spotter. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Dave Tate will walk you through how to do a bench press lift-off — the proper way. This means you’re not putting your nuts in the lifter’s face and aren’t taking the majority of the lift.

In the world of strength training, you often see trust: between training partners, between lifters and their equipment, and between competitors and judges. But not all trust is created equal.

Are you ready when it counts?

To Adam, the answer hinges on perspective.