Teenager Killed Trying to Bench 240

Guess I need to learn things from time to time. Never again will I brag to a kid how many times I got weight stuck on my chest and had to roll it down in highschool. Then complain that they are not lifting hard enough.

If people continue to do this then his death was senseless. There is no need to die lifting weights. If even a little brother could have been there to call the hospital or clear the weight. Accidents do happen this is not about his strength levels. I hope everybody proceeds to lift carefully from now on, dead people do not get stronger.

Generally when some random person dies, I don’t care. People die every day. But I always feel bad when people die while trying to better themselves.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
Man, I’ve wiggled out of more weight after failed attempts. I got trapped under 275 and kind let the bar rest on my chest a bit and then heaved it over to the right side. Spotters are great for this I hear.[/quote]

Wow – You are hardcore. I bet you mixed some thumb tacks in with your morning oatmeal. That’s how hardcore you are.

I posted this thread in hopes of waking up some of the younger crowd that strut around these boards and assume they are invincible. It is teen bravado that makes them try to out do themselves to prove each other the lesser man. Whether this kid was trying to one up himself for later down the road, or just working through what could have been one of his regular sets it is tragic something like this could happen.

Unfortunately people will spin this scenario out of control and claim he was lifting to heavy, and well you know blah, blah, fucking blah.

In reality, it only takes about five pounds of pressure at the right point in your larynx to render you helpless, especially if you are just sitting around, can you imagine that with 240 on the bar and trying to push it up.

For the younger guys, work out with a partner, or at least a rack with safety catches.

Bullpup

I hope this thread wakes people up. In my opinion all benches should come with a warning describing this.

How many people just posted they did the same thing as kids? We are all idiots as kids. You just don’t expect these things to happen. But this stuff does happen.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
Man, I’ve wiggled out of more weight after failed attempts. I got trapped under 275 and kind let the bar rest on my chest a bit and then heaved it over to the right side. Spotters are great for this I hear.[/quote]

apparantly it landed on his neck, not his chest.

i would assume he didn’t tilt it to the side because he may have been in a smith machine where he had to push it up at that point.

if he couldn’t press it normally, he certainly wouldn’t be able to lift it at the angle needed to push it off his neck.

the amount of weight you have wiggled out of is really irrelevant.

he was stupid to go for it without a spotter though.

I’ve been pinned under a barbell before. It can be a pretty terrifying experience if you have some heavy weight on there especially. I think that it should be a good rule of thumb that one shouldn’t lift without a spotter.

The video had his weight bench in his room, which I don’t think is too great of an idea for a teenager.

[quote]Flow wrote:
I’ve been pinned under a barbell before. It can be a pretty terrifying experience if you have some heavy weight on there especially. I think that it should be a good rule of thumb that one shouldn’t lift without a spotter.

The video had his weight bench in his room, which I don’t think is too great of an idea for a teenager.[/quote]

eh, putting a weight bench in a bedroom isn’t any more dangerous than putting one in a garage or basement. 240 lbs is 240 lbs either way.

R.I.P.

I got pinned under a smith machine a couple years back. It was a super ghetto ass rusty old fuck that you could never fing the damned slots for to twist the hooks into because they faced away from you (the whole thing was designed super retarded and it was against a wall).

I got pinned and couldn’t find the damned slots so I had to do some sort of tantric sex ballerina move to actually bring my foot up to mid chest level and kick the weight off. Don’t know how I did it

[quote]CrewPierce wrote:
Why does it say I started this thread??[/quote]

lol

there is a japanese saying that goes, the only cure for stupidity is death.

when i was a little shit i had the same thing happen to me and thankfully there were other little shits to help me.

what a tragedy. if my son was so eager to lift so much, i’d have gotten him a power rack just to reduce the chances of crap like this from happening so i’d be more comfortable knowing that he is safter lifting by himself. his dad probably didn’t think this far and trusted a teen ager to use his judgment…and save some money at the same time. oh well.

hopefully, lesson learned for everyone else.

condolensces to the family.

f

Damn, thats terrible. If only he had been benching in a rack. :frowning:
Luckily I’ve never missed a bench without a power rack, but I’ve had a few close calls. I’ll certainly keep this in mind and be more careful in the future.

A bit off topic but still relevant- I’ve heard of people having terrible accidents where their organs/intestines/etc. drop out of their ass when lifting… I know its kind of gross, but does this happen often? Why does it happen and how in the world can we make sure it doesn’t happen to us?!
Thanks and sorry if that ruined your appetite… I just don’t wanna die!
-SS

[quote]Olesya Novik wrote:
I am waiting for the investigation on whether steroids were to blame.

[/quote]

No chance. If he were on steroids, he obviously:

A) Would have been able to get the bar off his chest, regardless of fatigue (I hear steroids, or creatine, which are basically the same thing, give you superhuman strength)

B) Would have gone on a homicidal rampage over the weekend and killed his entire family. I hear “roid rage” is an unstoppable force that lasts for 72 hours now.

C) Would be about to break Hank Aaron’s all-time home-run record in Major League Baseball. I hear steroids are solely responsible for that as well now.

Plus, the kid probably doesn’t have any track marks on his arm, which is obviously where you inject steroids.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Generally when some random person dies, I don’t care. People die every day. But I always feel bad when people die while trying to better themselves. [/quote]

Agreed.

RIP

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
analog_kid wrote:
Man, I’ve wiggled out of more weight after failed attempts. I got trapped under 275 and kind let the bar rest on my chest a bit and then heaved it over to the right side. Spotters are great for this I hear.

Wow – You are hardcore. I bet you mixed some thumb tacks in with your morning oatmeal. That’s how hardcore you are.[/quote]

Jesus fucking christ. I’m never going to be sarcastic again. (OT: Are you good at what you do?)

[quote]Airtruth wrote:
dead people do not get stronger.[/quote]

Not true, see picture.

-Gendou

In the kids defense maybe he had been doing 240 for reps, had been using a false “thumbless” grip, and after reaching exhaustion tried to rack the bar and had it fall on his trechia and incapacitate him rather quickly. I doubt many people could take 240 pounds falling onto their trachia.

I really hate singling people out, but honestly, when a young man is killed in a tragic accident, and people just want to chime in with responses about how 240 isn’t much, or how the other guys in the video don’t know how to clean/bench/whatever, it really flips me off.

I mean, honestly, even if you otherwise have a good point, these comments are as nonconstructive (starting with, chances of someone that needs to read this actually will read it are slim), as they are inappropriate.

I can be as sarcastic as the next guy, but sometimes you gotta take a step back from that.

The bench press isn’t a functional exercise. If he was crossfitting this would have never happened.