As someone who places a high value on safety in training, I often find myself repeatedly convincing people to use safety pins during their workouts, even those familiar with the Starting Strength method and barbell training. It seems so fundamentally obvious to me that taking basic safety precautions, especially when lifting heavy weights, should not be overlooked. Yet, it happens often enough that I feel the need to explain it over and over. In this article, I’ll make a strong case for using safeties in the bench press and the squat during every single session and explain how to do so easily.

Safety Pins and Barbell Training

Safety pins are adjustable bars that can be set at different heights in the rack to catch the barbell if you fail a lift. When set correctly, they provide a secure barrier, preventing the bar from pinning you down to the ground during a squat or to the bench during a bench press. No matter what happens during a set – whether the weight is too heavy, you pull a muscle, lose balance, or something else entirely – if the safeties are set correctly, the risk of injury is almost zero. You’re covered.

Barbell training is overall a very safe exercise regimen with a low risk of injury, despite what some people think or fear. When done correctly, it’s a precise, predictable activity with very few unexpected events, unlike other sports. Especially when compared to physical activities that involve other players, reactive movements, or imperfect terrain, barbell training is exceptionally safe. There’s so little you need to insist on in terms of safety apparatus to dramatically reduce even this low risk of injury, and the use of safety pins is the most fundamental way to achieve that goal.

You might wonder what else affects safety in training as much as safeties do. The other primary factors are using correct form and programming your training properly, both of which are covered in great detail in Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training, 3^rd edition. These are worth investing in, but that’s a topic for another article.

Why Use Safeties? Two Primary Reasons

There are two main reasons to use safeties. The first, more obvious reason, is to protect yourself from injury that may be caused in the case of an unexpectedly failing rep and not being able to get from under the barbell safely. Trust me, if you train long enough, unexpected things will inevitably happen. If you have the safeties set up beforehand, you’re covered. The second, less obvious reason is related to optimizing your strength gains by attempting reps you aren’t sure you can finish. Let’s explore this reasoning further.

Getting Stronger and Attempting Uncertain Reps

Strength training is about progressively increasing your force production by lifting heavier weights over time. This is the best – and essentially the only – way to increase physical capacity and build noticeable muscle mass. Since strength is defined as the ability to produce force against external resistance, our strength only increases if the weights we lift increase. As the weights get heavier, the effort required increases, producing the stress needed to drive strength adaptation. Eventually, you’ll face sets where you’re not entirely certain you can finish. Attempting these uncertain reps is crucial for continual progress in training.

Most often, you’ll find that your perception or fear of failure is unfounded, but occasionally, you might actually fail a rep. This is not only okay, but an integral part of training. If you think you can’t finish the next rep and choose to rack the bar instead of attempting it, you’re basically limiting yourself to a mediocre strength level. If the reason you didn’t attempt that rep was fear of injury due to the lack of safety pins, then you’re engaging in negligent malpractice.

You always want to set up the safeties because your progress depends on it. And you want to set them up every single session because you never know when you’ll truly need them.

Adjusting the Safeties Each Session

It’s easy to forget or neglect adjusting the safeties each session, especially when you’re in a hurry. However, it’s crucial to take the time to set them correctly every time you train – both for the squat and the bench press. Taking a few extra seconds to adjust the safeties before your first warmup can make the difference between a safe and a dangerous training session. It’s that simple.

When you start out in a new gym, find the correct height for the safeties and test the setup with the empty bar to ensure it's correct. After that, memorize the height or write it down, as we usually train in the same facility most of the time. Make it a personal rule to set the hooks and safeties at the correct height before you start your warmup. No additional steps are necessary.

Safeties for the Squat

There’s a maneuver some lifters use where they bail from under the bar during a failed rep, trying to throw it back. This is highly unrecommended because it requires you to get away from under the bar quickly enough to avoid it rolling down your spine. It’s not easy to do safely. Additionally, this means that during a very hard rep, instead of focusing solely on pushing hard and maintaining form, you’re also thinking about your exit strategy. A dropped barbell can damage the equipment, endanger those around you, and, most importantly, put you at serious risk.

Some people argue that since top weightlifters use this maneuver, it’s probably okay. However, just because elite athletes do something doesn’t make it a good idea. It’s tricky to differentiate between what makes them the best and what they succeed in spite of. Learn the good habits instead.

If you squat long enough, you may experience a rep where you lose balance and fall forward. Without safety pins, the consequences of that are serious. Safeties ensure that the barbell is contained and that your training environment remains safe for everyone.

To set the safety pins for the squat, adjust them to about a fist-width lower than the bar’s lowest point at the bottom of the squat. Make sure they’re low enough so you don’t hit them on the way down and that they’re still high enough to securely receive the bar when you take a knee at the bottom of the squat.

Safeties for the Bench Press

The bench press is the one lift that is truly dangerous and can cause severe injury. If you fail a rep, the bar can literally strangle you to death. Whether it crushes your chest, throat, or belly, being pinned down under a barbell is a life-threatening situation. While not using collars on the sleeves when benching alone might allow you to slide the plates off in an emergency, this doesn’t address the possibility of dropping the bar. Even with a competent spotter, they won’t be able to react quickly enough to catch a falling barbell.

Why might the bar drop? Accidents happen. Your wrists can fail, the bar can slip, or it can gather momentum in an uncontrollable direction. If a barbell drops on your sternum, ribs, head, or throat, it can be fatal – and that has happened before. All of these risks can be completely mitigated by using safeties. It’s a no-brainer when you’re bench pressing a barbell where you have no way to escape quickly from under it in case of an emergency.

Setting up safeties at the exact correct height for the bench press is a bit more challenging because the margin for error is minimal. However, it’s not impossible. Here’s what you should do:

Set the safeties at a height that is lower than your chest when it’s pushed up hard (i.e., in the correct setup for the bench press) but higher than your chest when you let it cave in. Thus, during the set the bar will only touch your chest which is held up high, but in the case of failure you just lower your thoracic arch so it gets lower than the safeties height. Some compression on the chest is acceptable as long the safeties carry the full weight of the bar which cannot go any lower.

Unfortunately, most bench press racks don’t have built-in safety pins, so you may need to bench press inside a squat rack that has safeties. Sometimes the spacing between available heights doesn’t allow for proper setup in your situation, in which case you’ll need to find a workaround. You can elevate the bench or place something sturdy on top of the safeties to achieve the correct height (make sure it’s immovable and safe enough when you improvise something). Think creatively, and you’ll find a solution. If you have your own setup at home, invest in proper equipment or ask a handyman friend to help you figure it out.

Using safety pins during the squat and bench press is a simple yet highly essential practice that can prevent serious injuries and allow you to train with confidence. By prioritizing safety and ensuring proper use of safeties, you can lift heavy weights, train hard, and see meaningful results without putting yourself at unnecessary risk. Safeties give you the confidence to push your limits without fear of injury. Knowing that the pins are there to catch the bar if you fail allows you to train harder and make consistent progress. It’s like an insurance policy that costs practically nothing, requires no extra effort, and is there exactly when you need it – even when you think you won’t.

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