Lifted
While bench pressing yesterday, I dropped 205 pounds on my sternum. It wasn’t an “uh oh, I can’t push the weight up anymore”, instead my left wrist unexpectedly rolled forward, and the grip has completely worn off my right glove, so I had nothing to stop the bar from rolling forward. After leaving my left palm, the bar’s downward trajectory was slowed by scraping along the inside of my left forearm (I don’t actually remember any of this, but I was able to trace the abrasions later… I originally thought my right wrist was the one that rolled), and then the bar ran into my chest, totally pinning me between the left side of the bench and the bar.
Luckily, I always take certain precautions on the bench to avoid extreme injuries:
- Never clip the weights onto the bar. If they can never slide off the end, you may never get out from under the bar.
- Never put your feet on the ground. Feet should be either at the level of your back (resting on the flat part of the bench) or held above the level of your back.
These precautions saved me from permanent injury. The weights had already begin to slide off the bar when someone came to help me (I never even saw their face, I was so full of embarrassment and adrenaline). Foot position helped, too: because my feet were elevated, the uncontrolled weight bar could drag my entire body along its path, instead of my feet unconsciously trying to counteract the dragging force. If my feet had been planted on the ground, they would’ve tried to brace against the framework of the bench, placing an incredible force on my spine. Instead, my spine was completely fine, as it was just dragged rather than torqued.
The thrill of escaping relatively unharmed from a potentially deadly event is what adrenaline junkies thrive on. It isn’t the utter loss of self during the inability to think of anything but the moment (though I’m sure that’s nice), but it’s the feeling afterwards of it could’ve been so much worse. I’m not the sort to pursue that feeling, but experiencing it inadvertently, I recognize it.