Posted on 11/18/2022 9:51:34 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
A gym fanatic was left trapped under weights for 33 minutes while he waited for emergency services to free him.
The man, aged between 25 and 35, was working out at Snap Fitness in Spring Hill, Brisbane, Australia at 5:47 am on Thursday when he got into trouble.
Firefighters did not arrive until 6:20 am to rescue him, with paramedics arriving shortly afterward. It took six minutes to extract the man from under the weights.
By this point, the man was unconscious and required CPR.
He was taken to Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in critical condition.
There were no staff at the 24-hour gym at the time and the man had to be helped by bystanders.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
So this guy bypassed the first rule of thumb for weight lifting. Idiot!
Yes - spotter is good.
For my home gym I have a safety cable set-up hung from the floor joist’s when doing presses.
My friend leaves the collar locks off and if he gets in trouble just tilts the bar and drop the plates on one side, then the bar tilts to the other side and drops those plates.
I’ve never tried that...
That’s what full cage power racks were invented for.
“I do not understand how you could have serious trouble with this.”
Agreed. There isn’t any real life threatening exercise danger with this machine. It is designed that if you stay under the lifting line, it can’t get to your throat and the bar falling down the front of your body if you lost it would land on your midriff and legs. Might bruise you but low chance of death possibility.
About the only way to be in a life threatening situation with this machine would be if you put a bench in front of it and tried to do inclined bench presses because if you missed getting the bar back on a resting peg you might come short and the pegs are behind your head. Then if you lost it the bar would be coming forward onto your head and neck. But using this machine for that when I’m sure at that time of day a reclined bench press would be available and sacrificing safety for laziness ain’t real bright.
wy69
I would assume he was at an angle, doing a bit of an incline press.
I never put the collars or clips on when I bench. Of course I don’t bench nearly what I used to (205 on last set, progressive sets) and I haven’t tipped weights off the side of a bar since I was an awkward teen in jr.high school
But I have on a few occasions got stuck at the bottom of a rep without a spotter. I carefully rolled the bar down my to my belly and lap and sat up, then rocked into a standing position. Suffered no injuries although I was a little sore in the mid-section.
I would never be a strength coach. I don’t do safety by the book. Oddly enough, I have never injured myself badly while lifting.
What I have a hard time with is, with a smith machine, you just have to lift the weight about 3 inches until you find a resting notch.
I fully understand that he could lift to failure and then he might not be able to lift it a further 3 inches. And if he’s doing an overhead press with — what? — 300 pounds? maybe I can see it — but what kind of idiot handles that kind of weight to absolutely beyond failure?
But there were bystanders. A human can lift a very heavy thing 3 inches, for one emergency moment. It seems odd to me that the people just couldn’t budge it even a little. Even just levering it — hey, let’s just get that right-hand side levered up to the notch! Then we’ll see about the left-hand side! How hard is that?
Further, if there were others there why couldn’t they just take the plates off the bar?
The machines in gyms get heavy use and break all the time. Really dumb to trust them when injury/death is possible.
Indeed. Whatever happened to having a spotter EVERYTIME you want to do weight training? Seems like a no brainer. So I guess...
None of the three dumbbells pictured is pink.
Lol
None of the three dumbbells pictured is pink.
~~~
Obama? You mad bro?
Doesn't appear to be true.
Seated Smith Machine Shoulder Press: Muscles Worked & Technique
https://www.strengthlog.com/seated-smith-machine-shoulder-press/
Sounds like a toxic iron overdose
I just retired as a NASM fitness trainer after sixteen years. I am a female and I would only train men to a certain point because I could not spot them as they progressed. A spotter at ANY gym should be an absolute must.
Pretty worthless machine.
My gym has something similar, but it has a safety block which you can set to prevent the weight from lowering past a given point.
My friend leaves the collar locks off and if he gets in trouble just tilts the bar and drop the plates on one side, then the bar tilts to the other side and drops those plates.
___
A colleague was doing squats with two plates (135 lbs) when one plate started to slide off. He warned everybody in the gym and we stood back. When the plate slid off, the bar (45 lbs) flew about 15 feet and crashed on the floor. Nobody was hurt and we just went on with our workout. Newton’s third law in action.
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