Are spotters useful or useless?

[Tweakle]

Will this help increase mass and strength easier than just going to natural failure?

probably not.

for me, now I'm doing DC I'm finding I have switched to almost all machine exercises out of sheer fustration at the fckutardedness of spotters, the concept of 3 rest pause 'mini sets' is almost impossible to explain the the average gym-tool

 

[Cynical Simian]

One question about people that bench in the power rack. How do you geta full range of motion if you have the safety bars set up around the chest area? You just don't bench right ot your chest?

The key is "around the chest area", not above it. In other words, the bars are slightly lower than where your chest (or to be more specific, if you're not flaring your elbows, the "pocket" between nipple level and the beginning of your abs) is. I've never had any trouble getting a full ROM (i.e. touching my chest, as defined above) or getting out from under a failed rep. I'm not doing anything stupid like attempting a 100-lb 1RM PR that would just plummet straight down, so when I can't lock out a rep I'm always able to control the bar down to above my abs, lose my arch, do a bit of a vacuum and rest the bar on the pins.

 

[Jayhawk21]

ne question about people that bench in the power rack. How do you geta full range of motion if you have the safety bars set up around the chest area? You just don't bench right ot your chest?

I put the bar just low enough that I can put the failed rep towards my neck (between my chin and shirtline, and just barely crawl out. I usually don't have to worry about it, but when training heavy every now and then I have to do it. I've had no problems, I just test it before I put weight on to make sure the bar doesn't go low enough to hit my adams apple.