Object Lesson in Benching

Lol

Lol

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It's amazing what you can stumble across on YouTube. I was looking for some max press-up attempts for my lad when I came across this. Funny, we were only talking about grip for benching here the other day and whilst I have tried thumbs on either side of the bar at different times, I am now sticking to a natural grip with thumbs opposing fingers. I bet the guy in the vid now wishes he did too.

Warning - this is not for the faint of heart!

Benching vid
 
What a @#$%&!
I use a thumbless grip, but I wear leather lifting gloves and use the heel of my hand as a stop. That was the stupidest grip I have ever seen. I always lift, lock out and then press.
Good find though, that guy definitely must be @#$%ed up after that! Poor guy.
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He's lucky it was only 295. Yeah, a thumbless grip is dangerous, there are those that "used" it (fell on them) & those that it has not fallen on yet. I might use it for warm ups at 135, but thats all. I have seen others on Youtube, where paramedics were needed & where it looked like the guy was nearly cut in half (only looked that way though).
The owner of my gym had it happen with 225, it hit his chest & bounced..... he actually caught on the bounce up & put it back in the rack. Lucky it wasn't on his neck!!!!!
 
Personally, I don't understand why anyone would bench using a thumbless grip, and also outside of a power rack (unless it's a competition).  I wish I could bench in a power rack during competitions.  I hate having spotters.  No matter how much weight is on the bar, you can always manage to move the weight or your body where the spotter bars catch it if you fail.  Anyway, the only way to prevent a tragic circumstance like that is to change your grip.  Certainly wasn't the spotter's fault.
 
It occurs to me from what Steve said that a bench could be built with a built-in safety stop - either coming up from below, under your armpits to level with your chest, or from the floor itself. For at-home gyms, a couple of wooden pillars to catch either end of the bar would suffice.
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Now I'm staring at my welder...
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on the odd occasion ive used it for incline bench but not when getting serious.i also use it(when i do them)for cgb.
 
That was just sick.

Look, I know it's his fault for benching that much without even knowing how to secure the grip, but... I'm sorry, but what kind of sick gay bastard would post that crap on YouTube? Dude, the guy definitely got serious injuries there at the very least, like a few broken ribs or something. He almost died there. Geezus.

When I was starting out, 127 lbs was so heavy. And it happened that on the failure rep (not yet on HST), I couldn't lift it up anymore. Dude, even just 127 hurts on the ribs. 270+ pounds on that guy's chest did major damage. What kind of sick bastard would post that crap? Did he think that was funny? (I mean the guy who uploaded that on YouTube, not Lol, just so we're clear)
 
Years ago I was doing partials on bench, had the bar twist out of one hand...fortunately it landed on the upright, with no more damage than just scaring the bejeezus out of me. I also remember reading years ago about a guy whose kid found him with a 360 pound barbell sitting on his neck. So I now have a healthy respect for proper setup and grip. I love benches and feel very comfortable with them, but a little fear is a good thing.

Failure doesn't scare me...I train alone and really try to stay avoid missing a rep in bench, but in my less prudent days I've had to get out from under as much as 280 lbs the hard way. It tends to leave bruises and be very annoying and I really try hard to avoid it now. Haven't had it happen in quite some time.

DROPPING the bar is a whole 'nother thing...VERY scary, and thinking of dropping a bar on your neck is really frightening. I'm glad that I touch on my lower chest (about sternum level), and pay real attention to setup and grip.

That video is a sick thing to watch, but if that's what it takes to scare a few people into being safer maybe it has a good purpose. Kind of like those horrible driver's ed films that they make kids watch.
 
I agree with steve about benching. I really don't think it's a good idea to bench unless you have a power rack with safety bars, or a bench that has a safety catch. Most decent benches have these. I use a power rack now and it's far superior. With a spotter, you have to depend on that person reacting fast enough, and you have to hope that they can stop the weight. When you are going real heavy, who knows if they can catch it.
 
I keep a pair of saw horses parallel to my bench. They are just the right height.
 
I always bench in a power-rack, also same for squats. So far the safety bars have never been needed thankfully. I ALWAYS set up the safety bars before doing either of these exercises, just in case. I don't have a spotter, the safety bars are my spotter.
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(jvroig @ Oct. 17 2006,15:52)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">What kind of sick bastard would post that crap? Did he think that was funny?</div>
I think the idea of posting such a vid was to show just what can happen. Seeing is believing, to a point. Apparently, this guy was OK but others have come off worse. It certainly made me sit-up and take notice.

We sometimes forget that we are lifting some pretty serious iron that could easily cause us some serious damage if we didn't treat it with respect. The guy in the vid was just far too casual and blasé about the load he was trying to shift. He could have been killed but he wasn't so he lives to fight again. It's a valuable lesson that no-one should have to repeat.
 
i hope that guy is ok...that's the problem with vids like these, they're so graphic and never tell you the eventual outcome.

Either way, I've dropped 315 on my chest when I was younger (using a standard grip with tiny, sweaty hands
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) and my spotter caught it on the bounce. Thank goodness I was completely fine, though my spotter was understandably upset. I got it for reps after a brief rest and some serious chalking...
 
Wow I hope that guy is OK. That was a good wake up call, safety first.
 
Last week I was doing my normal routine parallel squats with 242 lb.s (120 kg) and I was doing max-stim 20 reps, on the 18th rep I suddenly felt fatigued, and dropped too low, couldn't get back up, I dropped the oly bar on the safety bars in my power rack. That is exactly why I always use the safety bars for squatting and benching, if I hadn't set the safety bars, I may have been injured dropping the bar behind me.
 
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