Matt Christie's Comments on the Free-Spotter 8/16/09
(Matt was 2009 Alabama APF 242 Pro-Cash winner, 1978 lb total)
I have been using the Free Spotter from Shermworks for the last 8-10 months. The Free spotter has enabled me to train around my crazy schedule as a firefighter. With my schedule, it is often hard to find steady training partners. I wanted to improve my squat, like I knew I could, but I was having a tough time getting to where I wanted because I could not consistently train heavy squats. When I set up my garage gym I thought there should be some way to train heavy squats without driving 20-60 miles to the nearest power lifting gyms just to have spotters. Once I saw Sherman's web site and his Free Spotter, I knew I had to have one.
When I received the Free Spotter in the mail it only took 20 minutes to have it set up and ready to use. The Free Spotter has enabled me to increase my squat by 65 pounds so far this year! We have taken the weight on the bar up to 870 pounds with 40 pounds of chain. The set up never failed! I have also used over 500 pounds in bar weight with 270+ pounds of band tension. In the confines of my garage gym I use the Free Spotter in place of a mono-lift saving money and space. We just load the bar and set up under it like a mono. It works great!
For the first few months we used the Free Spotter only for squats. But after a few months in the garage gym we started looking for ways to switch up our sessions. We found we could use the Free Spotter for much more that squats. Now we use the Free Spotter for incline bench, declines and floor press. Just this month we have started using the Free Spotter for barbell shoulder press! We are able to utilize my accessory bench for all these movements, rather than sacrificing floor space to a bench for each individual movement. We are able to train heavy with just a few people and not sacrifice safety!
On top of the multiple uses of the Free Spotter, Sherman's customer service is second to none. I received my set up just days after I made the order. When I did have a small problem with the unit after much heavy use Sherman sent me the parts I needed to correct the problem right away, at no additional cost. Since Sherman’s improvement I have had no problem at all and the Free Spotter still works exceptionally after almost a year of use.
I highly recommend the Free Spotter to anyone who trains alone, with a small group or anyone who has limited space for extra equipment. The Free Spotter would be an asset to anyone looking for safety in the gym!