Scary Moment! Bench Injury

So I was at a meet yesterday and this beast lays down for his second attempt at a 500lb bench, this guy only weighed in at 241 so this was going to be pretty impressive so I thought I’d video it to post on here. Well things did not go well. Video after the break…

Same shit happened at a meet to me. Went for 500 (shirted), couldn’t touch, dumped the bar in my face. I magicked some sort of magical Matrix shit and the bar brushed my face and landed the bench. Spotters didn’t do shit. Of course the MC goes on and thanks the spotters for doing such a great job. I wanted to tell them to go fuck themselves.

Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?[/quote]

I think its more the guy in the blue fucking up then the other. Guy in the blue wasn’t even tracking the bar… other guy caught it etc…

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?[/quote]

It’s 250lbs a side. The situation should never arise where the bar has significant downward velocity. If the spotters keep their hands under the bar where they’re supposed to and take it the moment it starts to move down, it’s not a problem. Never in my gym, with people wearing shirts (much more likely to dump) and more weight, does this kind of stuff happen.

Was he okay?

Dude in red pretty much saved his butt. Is he ok?

[quote]johnnytang24 wrote:

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?[/quote]

It’s 250lbs a side.[/quote]

Not even that. I imagine the lifter not just thinking “oh I’m not gonna make it, so I’ll just relax and let these guys lift it”. It’s probably more like 150 pounds per side.

I’ve seen spotters asleep for bench far too many times. If it weren’t for the safeties on the side, there would be a lot more of us with injuries due to that sort of inattention.

He thought he tore his pec but hung out for the rest of the meet, I got his email address and sent him this video, the guy in the blue should have been on it since this guy had just missed the same weight on his previous attempt. Scared everyone.

Why not have some kind of saftey bars that come out horizontally from the posts where the bar sits? They can be adjustable for each individual.

Also, everytime I get someone to spot me I make sure its someone I trust. Often being a big guy in the gym. Even so I tell them how I want to be spotted. The guy in the blue looked like he could suffer a hernia just looking at that weight.

That dude in red was right the fuck on it!

Blue dude was probably too busy daydreaming about that bucket of chicken he’s going to have for lunch.

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?[/quote]

No, but the damage can be greatly lessened by slowing it.

[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
Why not have some kind of saftey bars that come out horizontally from the posts where the bar sits? They can be adjustable for each individual.[/quote]

They do have them, at least in the meets I’ve competed in. This is my friend, you can see the bar gets over her face and she dumps it, it was caught by the safety bars, not the spotters.

[quote]Fuzzyapple wrote:
Why not have some kind of saftey bars that come out horizontally from the posts where the bar sits? They can be adjustable for each individual.[/quote]

Check out Dave Tate’s bench press video. Some of the EliteFTS benches have safety bars for the head region.

That doesn’t mean that every power lifting meet in the country will have those, though.

Oh and btw I CAN make a 300+lbs pound object stop accelerating instantly. Especially when I hit said object low enough (mid-thigh level).

I have spotted and loaded at plenty of meets and caught 500+ lbs on a missed bench. One reason is the level of seriousness we instill in all of our lifters.
Also, as a coach/lifter I am constantly watching the spotters. If I feel at any time that my, or any lifters may be in danger, I bring it up to the judges and in a few cases I have gotten spotters removed from the platform.

At Collegiates in Denver in '08, I was coaching with LSU, and we had to pull a spotter off the platform because he was undersized and didnt know what he was doing. I then spotted the rest of the squats for that flight.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

No, but the damage can be greatly lessened by slowing it.
[/quote]

nono, of course.

but having that human element in there makes it unsurprising that things like this happen occasionally

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:

[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Damn.

What the fuck is the point of having spotters if they’re not going to do their jobs?[/quote]

can you make a 500lb object instantly stop acceleration?[/quote]

Yes, if both spotters are attentive this can be prevented. Accidents like this are the reasons for my comments in that Johnson bench press accident thread. Anyway, there is no good reason for not squatting OR benching in the cage - even during a competition.