Worst Gym Accidents Ever!

[waldo]

Conversations in other threads got me thinking, 'What's the worst accident you've ever seen in a gym?'

a)At high school I watched this guy unload a bar on the squat rack...by taking all the weights off one side....the bar then catapulted up, swung around and sconed a young third former in the back of the head. 15 stitches required.

b)The ever present guy on the treadmill talking on cell phone while running, we all know what happens next.

c)A weightlifter's quadriceps tendon snap in the bottom of a clean. Not pretty!

[jono]

never seen any serious accidents myself. infact the only person ive seen get any sort of injury is me, just like .. cut hand etc from jamming it between weights etc.

[ExpensiveUrine]

Hahah, they still do it to this day. What's funny is that the guys who make it happen are somewhat physics educated.

I've seen it done with the squat rack, like Paul mentioned, bench rack and even while finishing the 'Jerk' (Clean 'n' Jerk), plates just went from one side. Hilarious. No one got hurt, so it's all good.

I've seen plenty of these accidents but can't recall them all.

I remember three from the top of my head. Two of the happend in the YouthTown gym, during a competition and one during training at Gillies Ave.

When I was in 3rd form, I went to see my first competition (Olympic Weightlifting) in youthtown, I was fairly interested in this whole weightlifting ordeal. So after about an hour of watching, I recognized this guy in the warm up room, he then proceeded to the stage. I saw him going up to a bar to perform his 'Clean'. He screams, pulls the weight and smacks himself on the chin. With that much adrenaline pumping he wouldn't have felt that much pain I'd imagine. But his chin was bleeding hardcore.

After about 3 years, I went to the same Youthtown gym to support my weightlifting team and help out with bar loading, ect, only because I was injured. I was the bar loader when it happened. A guy from our weightlifting team was attempting to Clean and Jerk, about 90 kgs, more or less. I think it was his P.B. Now if you have competed in Olympic Weightlifting, you'd know that you're faced with a buttload of pressure, from the crowd, judges, coach, teammates,competition ect. So obviously this guy needed this lift to stay in the game. He went up to the bar; set himself for the clean. When he caught the bar on his shoulders, or should I say the beginning of his neck. He forgot to re-set it and it cut his breathing off somewhat. So he stood there for about 3-4 seconds before collapsing like a sack of potatoes. He didn't fall with the bar, he sort of leaned backwards with the bar still on his neck. So my coach and I got the bar off his chest, he only got away with a broken rib.

Third one happened at Gillies Ave gym, with the same guy (broken rib guy). He was doing some Snatching and I was doing some Jerks of the blocks.

After I finished my set I sat down on the bench about 2.5 metres behind him. Now if you have seen *some* Olympic weightlifting, in Snatching if the bar goes behind your head and you can't stop it by looking down, you let it go back, but this guy caught a bar above his head in a sitting position, while it was still going backwards, and began to stand up and actually walking backwards to the bench I was sitting on. He dropped the bar, backwards, right on the place where I was sitting, while I of course ran for my life. I really don't know what happened there, maybe he got dizzy or just uncomfortable with the bar over his head, either way no one got hurt.

Keep safe people!

[foxybrown]

The only one I've seen was when I was a member at Clive Green in Newmarket. This is going back a few years. This old guy (would've been in his late 50s at least) was running on the treadmill at a normal speed - I think he got a bit excited and decided to increase his speed until he was sprinting. Next thing you know there was this big BANG - turned to look, and he was face down on the floor!! Not a good sight - his face was all RED as well...

[OB1KINOBIE]

ive seen an instructor unloading a bar off one side on a bench and getting the other end in the jaw :?

[Ash]

I've seen a few bars go end over end after people pulled all the weights off the one end but I've never seen anyone get hit by one.

Gyms must be pretty safe places if the worst injury I can think of was when my training partner got the tip of his finger caught under a falling weight stack on a cable crossover machine. Fortunately it was only 3 or 4 of the plates in the stack but he still did quite an interesting little dance with a hell of a lot of swearing

[deegee]

I have seen one guy have a heart attack in the gym if that counts as an accident. ambulance came and took him away so dont really know final outcome.

Am out of NZ again and in asia using the worlds slowest internet connection so will not be here much for the next 4 weeks mixture of business and holiday. training will be the big problem. Will be on just cardio and bodyweight excercise for at least 2 weeks and limited protien intake ---all bad. good thing is will strip away some fat. but I guess I will miss the gym bigtime.

[Growth]

Keep loggin on a often as you can mate, always good to hear from you.

I havent seen any real accidents,

I once was doing db presses and one of my arms reached failure before the other, i tried to push on my one arm gave and both dbs went across to the right of my torso and proceeded to yank my right off the bench onto the ground.

I saw an accident to be once were a really thin stick man loaded up about 5pps on a squat bar, got under it facing the opposite way everyone else does, procceded to struggle really badly to unrack it, he took about 1/8 granny steps and walked right out of the rack (its one of those open typre ones with the set safetys), a PT came running over and started pushing him back into the rack and help him rack it then blew his stack over how the guy was going to kill himself.

[CutTaBits]

back in january i was benchpressing 120kg. it was my last warm up set and it was at lunch time during a work day so i was rushing a bit. I bench with my thumb over the bar not wraped around if you no what i mean. any way mid set i got a bit keen and pushed up hard out and the bar rite at the top slipped out of my hands fell on to my chest. it landed between my pecs n abs. blew the wind out of me thats for sure. Lucky we had the cuffs on so my training buddy went around one side and lifted it off me. took me a few minutes to recover on the ground. thought i would have broken a rib or something but no. just winded. so i got up and loaded up 140kg and done 4 working sets of 8-6. Did not want it to beat me!!

Each time wiping the sweat of the bar and my hands.

I still get given shit for that. Because my training buddy kindly told everyone. :oops:

[Spitterkat]

what are cuffs? :grin:

[CutTaBits]

they slide on to the bar where you put the weight plates. they hold the plates from sliding along the bar.

[frogie2001]

IVE SEEN one guy load up the bar without any collars. tried to max out without a spot and got stuck. luckily tipped the bar to one side for rapid unloading

Have this guy who wears jandels to the gym and cut his toe open by dropping a 20kg on his foot(had to laugh at that one)

have seen someone get off a treadmill and leave it running while they went for a piss. someone came along and didn't notice it was still running and put one foot on the tread. went flying. no serious damage done though.

I tell ya the gym everything happens there