T Nation

What is Your Worst Lifting Injury?

#1

Im curious about injury stories - what is the worst injury you’ve had while weightlifting?

Mine is about the deadlift. I was working up to a set of 315. During my warm up set when I hit 275lbs I felt a liquid pop/crack sound in my lower back. The feeling afterwords was unexplainable. I calmly said out loud “I think I should put this down”. I set the weight down slowly and within 1 minute my entire back felt like it was swollen. I was in extreme pain and could barely walk but kept my cool. I never went to the doctor (I probably should have), but I was unable to lift for about 2 months and I couldn’t get out of bed for a week. The first two nights were terrible as I had muscle spasms that woke me up.

Edit:
To this day (2 years later) I still have chronic lower back pain.

#2

So I’ve mentioned my torn ACL/lateral meniscus and broken patella from the yoke walk pretty frequently as of recently. I’ll talk a few other ones.

I’ve dislocated my right shoulder 6 different times, with dozens of subluxations. Only once was from lifting (4 were from combat sports, 1 was from rolling over in my sleep). It was on the eccentric of an overhead press, which was super awesome, because it meant suddenly a barbell was flying from arm’s length down toward my skull. I had to dodge first and assess later.

Had a similar back injury, although mine was from squatting. Back in 2008, was doing squats to pins, hit the pin, felt my back spasm, managed to get out of the gym, lay down on the couch, and then I couldn’t get up. Wife had to dress me for a week since I couldn’t bend down, and to this day I still get an occasional twinge around the back/glute.

#3

Have had both shoulders repaired for torn rotator cuff, i have a ruptured bicep tendon, and i tore a quad muscle when squatting

#4

Broken dong.

Not really.

Fucked my back up a thousand times and messed up my rotator cuff on both sides. Neither one was something I couldn’t come back from but they’re responsible for a lifetime of inconvenience.

Last time my back was really bad in order to get off the sofa I had to roll off so I landed face down on the floor. From here I could very slowly get on my hands and knees, crawl over to the door, grab the door handle and pull myself up to a standing position. Wasn’t fun.

#5

mine was during odd object lifting
girl about 130 lbs.
bar parking lot
lift cradle style kind of like a log lift
planted her on my face
she bailed
hit me with her purse
big bottle was in the purse
my head hurt for days

#6

had an experience where my arms were stuck at right angles for 4-5 days…could not straighten without sharp, shooting pain.

#7

Broken 1st and 2nd metatarsal with a 1 inch laceration on my left foot from dropping a bb loaded with 75lbs from shoulder height while I was standing on a platform.

My reaction was very similar to yours OP - I watched it bounce off my foot and said quite calmly “That’s not good”. I tried to walk it off and continued to lift then I noticed the blood.

Drove myself to the emergency room and got a few stitches and an air cast. The worst part was, even when taking antibiotics due to the open wound, I got a nasty case of cellulitis and had to go back to the emergency room about a week later for IV antibiotics and a stronger prescription. The cellulitis was waaaaay more painful than the actual break.

It felt like my foot was an expanding balloon about to pop every time I lowered it below parallel. Kept me out of commission for about 3 months.

#8

I was going heavy on deadlifts, but I didn’t properly brace my midsection. I felt something slip in my lower back, but there was no initial pain. I stopped lifting, walked down to the locker room, and collapsed when the pain hit. I felt like I was ripping in half and couldn’t move.

The problem was I lift early in the AM, and nobody else was in the gym. I had to lay on the floor for about 20 minutes before someone walked in.

“Are you OK?”

No I just like laying on a filthy locker room floor at 7:30 AM.

I had ruptured a disc in my back. I have had back issues for years, but those deads pushed it over the limit. 2 steroid injections and lots of physical therapy took care of the problem, but I’m super paranoid about my back these days.

#9

Completely detached my left pectoral muscle from my shoulder about 3 years ago. Surgically repaired, and now back to 100%, and trying to work my way up to a 315# bench.

#10

Crushed my pinky tip re-racking a 405 squat. Howled like a banshee.