The headline, something about a Bali Fitness Influencer dying doing a “squat press” by a 450 lb barbell falling on his neck, caught my eye as I scrolled some news articles today. I didn’t know what was meant by a squat press, and it turns out to be just a back squat. Some of the quotes stuck out to me:
“one of the most dangerous exercises that done properly, which it seldom is, a barbell squat need not be all that dangerous…done properly, a barbell squat is capable of producing degrees of muscle mass increase that cannot be produced by any other exercise…it’s dangerous as hell.”
I’ve never considered the back squat an especially dangerous lift, and I find it surprising that an experienced lifter would die from it, especially with spotters present. I assume he bent heavily at the waist and toppled forward, with the weight smashing down on his neck/head area.
Squatting is obviously inherently dangerous. I prefer front squats and zerchers as you tend to fall forward and can drop the weight safely more easily. Not everyone needs to back squat. One could also slip or be startled squatting and die with a submaximal load too. Don’t like back squat style step ups either for that reason.
Going for 1 rep Maxs’ is even more dangerous.
We see this stuff time and time again. It just pisses me of because it was totally preventable.
Pick your weight properly, not with your ego.
Use a safety rack/cage/straps.
If you don’t have a cage, get two people to spot.
If you only have one person, make sure that person actually knows how to spot a squat.
If all else fails and you must bail on a squat, dump it backwards. This is still not a real option but considering stupidity is rampant it does happen.
I’ve squatted alone for 10 years with stands and no spotter. Ive never bailed on a squat. There’s no point missing weights in the gym, those attempts are for the platform.
We all know this stuff, but it’s sad it keeps happening.
Blaming an otherwise as-intended 100% inanimate object instead of the person using it always seemed dumb to me. You’d blame the drivers, not the fully-functional cars. You’d blame the person wielding the knife, not the knife itself. Why an article would focus on the equipment rather than the folly of the trainee is foolish. His experience is irrelevant. The best deep divers, the world-class lion tamers… as humans, we are always capable of mistakes - egos and oversights are our own faults.
It’s a lesson to be smart, not to lesson to not use an exercise.
Very sad this young fella lost his life, this is basically why I’ve pretty much done ALL of my heavy bb work from safety pins or with pins only set slightly lower than one might call the ‘danger point’, just in case…shit goes super-pear shaped!
If the proper equipment is available, you are being negligent not using it for any lift that you might miss, for whatever the reason, be it weakness, breakdown in form, being off balance, slip, etc.
How dumb was that?!
What is the spotter doing holding the bar?
Not to mention, the lifter “dropped” into the hole when the negative passed the sticking point. (He didn’t even do a reasonable negative.) He didn’t seem near strong enough to attempt that much weight. Just another soul attempting a max single which builds very little muscle, but does add a little excitement of cheating death.
A good spotter would have noted when the bar was getting too far in front of the lifter’s center of gravity, or his hips were rising faster than his shoulders. But what percent of the gym members would remotely qualify as good spotters?
A good single spotter from the back is essentially doing a Zercher squat if the lifter needs some assistance.
These Spot from behind squats are always so weird. You see it a lot from football players. A spotter just humps you from behind to help you get the weight up, I pretty much disregard the lift if I see that. It’s way safer to just bail it behind you if you don’t have safeties and the spotter blocked the bailout but also didn’t give him the power hump to get the weight back up. His positioning was super awkward. Really sad to see how preventable this death was if you just remove that spotter from the equation.
Honestly this video made me not want to spot folks anymore. If it’s my bodyweight or less, sure. Otherwise - I’m gonna pass from here on out.
I usually tell folks “i cant save you from it, but i can guide it to the safeties” if it’s too much for me to lift. I’m not sure i even want to do that anymore.
Exactly. Even with all that plenty would walk away so it’s a freak accident on top of checking off the worst form, spotter, safety equip etc. I’ve gotten stapled plenty of times attempting to climb to 500+ before I ever hit it. With safety pins I ne r once hurt myself.
I’m curious, does anyone know if he died right there on the spot or if he had succumb to the injuries at the hospital?
It’s crazy seeing how far forward that bar was getting pushed, especially like @SkyzykS mentioned, the dude came in and just rolled it over his head. The spotters seem so incompetent and must have no idea how a bailout is performed. Obviously, the lifter himself should’ve been better aware of what weight he can handle and made a very poor decision, but the spotters quite literally sealed his fate.
That is equal parts tragic and equal parts a Darwin award winner. What the heck was the spotter ever going to do from that position, you can see him trying to reverse curl over 400lbs at one point. Totally ridiculous and avoidable accident that has nothing to d with the exercise being inherently dangerous.
I hear you there. I don’t understand why he wouldn’t have squatted with the safeties or in the rack ? Other than use the hug and hump technique there is no way anyone is going to get you back up with that sort of weight. Even with that type of spot the spotter would have to be seriously strong to get you back up. A spotter here is only appropriate if you know you can lift it and just might need a little assistance or help steadying the bar to re-rack it. This guy really had no business even attempting this lift.
Come on man, that’s absolutely ridiculous. You can’t blame a “Tom Platz mentality”, at the very least because he’s in one of his instagram videos. Tom Platz who once said something along the lines of “Forget about the weight, just squat correctly”.
When you look through that Instagram there are several videos of the same dude spotting him with the exact same method. This looks less like a freak incident, but more like an accident waiting to happen.
He was never going to provide aid to help the lift like that, and if the plan was to drag the bar away to aid the lifter in bailing, then his stance needed to be staggered. It’s just stupidity all around. What makes it so sad is how avoidable it was.
Incomparable. Lee Moran had 5 likely very experienced spotters around him and something freak happened. This was foolishness in a gym setting where the lack of safety conditions created something that was totally avoidable. This shouldn’t be dismissed as a freak accident, but as a reference point for what not to do, and a chance to learn from others’ mistakes.
