Spotting
If you have been to a real-life gym, you will have heard of the term “Spotting”. It’s when a trained weightlifter, or one of the staff, oversees and gives a little help to other weightlifters who are trying to lift weights that are technically outside of their lifting range. There is a very similar system in SML for the lower level (350 Str and under white equipment) and more especially the higher level (350 Str or over dark grey Power equipment) equipment, and it works in a very similar fashion to spotters in RL gyms.
Certain pieces of SML equipment have Spotter Stations as part of the standing area on the equipment object. Let’s have a look at them…
For the lower level equipment, only two workout objects have a position for a Spotter. Both the benches, the preacher and the bench press allow one spotter to assist you in working out.
As you can see, the Power Lifting equipment has a bigger range of stuff that you can do spotting on. The Power Crossover spotting system, though technically it isn’t true spotting, is using avatars to basically add weight to the weight trays, they even sit on them for added effect in some gyms.
The way that the spotting system works in SML is simple. A quarter of the spotters’ baseline strength is essentially added to your overall strength. This has the effect of increasing your strength enough to work out at 1 whole weight class above what you are normally capable of, therefore gaining you slightly extra green bar level experience, and a slightly quicker strength bar levelling up. Not only that, but the spotter as well gains a little bit of experience and strength from helping you out.
Before we head into the two spotting types (manual and spotter “orb”) you are probably thinking to yourself “Well, hold on a minute, how the heck do I figure out what a quarter of my spotters’ weight is added to my own?!” Luckily enough… there’s a HUD for that too!
The SML Compendium HUD
The SML Compendium HUD was made by the owners of The Fitness Factory, it is an all-in-one calculator for not only the beginner level equipment, but also the Power equipment and even covers the Power Crossover and sitters. You are looking for this vendor…
Once you have it, right click and “add” and the HUD should show up on the right hand side…it’ll look something like this…
The HUD calculates what the best equipment is for you to work at, it also calculates what Spotter strength is needed to work one weight class above what you can currently work on, and gives you the exercise to use as well. Left click on whatever Calculator at the top you want to work with. “Normal Equipment” is the white equipment generally used if you are below 350 in strength. “Power Equipment” is the larger equipment’s used if you are above 350 in strength. When you click on eithe rbutton, input your strength number, the HUD will then spit out what you are able to work on!
Fenny’s base strength is 119, she inputted that into the HUD and it gave her this info back…
TOP 3 SOLO WORKOUTS
- SeatedRow W5: WorkLeft (119)
- SeatedRow W5: WorkRight (119)
- Crossover W5: CableCrunch (119)
NEXT TOP SOLO WORKOUT CHANGE
At strength 120
Bench: PressW8
Req:120
SPOTTER OPTIONS
Preacher: BarbellC_W6
Minimum Spotter Strength: 16
Bench: PressW8
Minimum Spotter Strength: 4
NEXT SPOTTER LEADER CHANGE
At strength 120
Bench: PressW9
Req:145 Missing:25 Spotter:100
The top block for “Solo” workouts are for workouts if you have no spotter around. Below that is a list of the next top of the list workout, and that strength you need to be at to make the switch. Below that is the spotters options, and at the bottom is the next spotter option available for the next “top” position.
The video below will show you Fenny working out at her baseline strength on the crossover bar, then we will switch to me spotting on the Preacher Bench with Fenny working out at Barbellcurl Weight 6, which is 1 above what she is able to do with no spotter. Pay attention to the difference in the level numbers gained on the HUD!
You’ll notice on the crossover bar on Fennys base workout (no spotting), she was gaining 10 Exp points. However, when she switched to the preacher bench, working out 1 weight class above with me spotting, she was getting slightly more than 10 points. These increases rise a little bit more the higher your baseline strength gets, especially when we go into the “Power Lifting” area, which is generally above Strength 350. What you saw in the video above is the “Manual” type of spotting, where you basically get a friend to spot for you. What you are going to see in the next video is the “Automatic” spotting, and to record that, we need to go to the one gym which almost always has AFK spotters sitting around…Samsons Gym.
Samsons, like the Fitness Factory, is using the AFK/Automatic Spotting system. The difference is, Samsons has a lot of high-strength AFK SML users hanging around during most times of the day, so if you don’t see a spotter at The Fitness Factory using this system and sitting around AFK in the central chillout area, pop on over to Samsons. The automatic system is simple. Next to each piece of equipment that can take a spotter, you will see a label…
The following video is me at Maelstrom. My base strength is 453. Here is what the calculator HUD is saying about my strength level…
TOP 3 SOLO WORKOUTS
- PowerBarbellRow: BarRow_W3 (445)
- PowerSquat: Squat_W3 (445)
- PowerDeadLift: DeadLift_W3 (430)
NEXT TOP SOLO WORKOUT
At strength 465 (+12)
PowerShoulderPress: ShoulderW3
Req:465
TOP 3 SPOTTER OPTIONS
Highest required helper strength first.
- PowerSquat: Squat_W4 Req:500 Spotter:188
- PowerLegPress: LegPressW4 Req:480 Spotter:162
- PowerPreacher: BarbellC_W4 Req:480 Spotter:108
NEXT SPOTTER LEADER CHANGE
At strength 465
PowerBench: Press_W4
Req:520 Missing:55 Spotter:220
No valid PCO matches
Due to my strength level, I need to use the Power equipment. For my base strength (with no spotting), I would need to go to the top paragraph, which is saying my best workout would be the Barbell Row using BarRow Weight 3…however, it’s at -8. This is something you will run into a LOT with the Power Equipment. Some of the time there won’t be a workout which will exactly match your weight, so you will need ot workout at a strength level below…and this is when the spotting system comes into its own.
The following video shows me working out at my base strength. I then use the automatic spotter system for the P.Squat: 500 – Squat_W4, which requires a spotter strength of 188 (top of the middle paragraph on the above HUD. Once again, look closely at the Exp gained for both exercises!
As you see, at the baseline workout, I was getting 22 experience (green bar). With the spotter, I was getting the baseline, but also an added bonus as well! To use the automatic spotter, i checked what the label was on the Power Squatter…clicked on the glowing diamond above an AFK spotter and then chose the matching button to the label, and the spotter moved to that equipment.
…and there you have it! The benefits of the spotting system not only make levelling up as a beginner that little bit quicker, but it also fills in the gaps for the Power Equipment!
Parts 1 to 5, which you have read through, has covered the foundation of how SML works. What happens, though, when you combine everything? When you use the consumables, the spotting system and the daily board farming? Well, this leads you on to Part 6: The Ultimate Way To Level Up
