Like many, I think the Squat Rack Curl thread is the funniest thing going on T-Nation. But I think it’s time for all of us “experts” to own up to the dumbest things WE have done in a gym or in other training. I’ll start.
When I was fifteen (think Man on the Moon era), I was just getting into bodybuilding and lifting. I was inspired by the Weider mags and Iron Man. I was really impressed with the broad shoulders of Jim Haislop, and there was an article about how you could increase your shoulder width and rib cage depth with doing iron cross like stretching with deep breathing. So I went outside to my Dad’s rock garden, where there were two big palm trees ten feet apart. I took some rope, and tied one piece to one tree twenty feet up, another piece to the other. I then got on a ladder and got into the “Iron Cross” position. It practically ripped my shoulders out of socket, and I couldn’t hold it, and I fell down into the rock garden right into the cactus spikes. I was severely bruised, banged up, and covered in blood from head to toe. And my shoulders weren’t any wider. Doc
Ever get so pumped you can’t think?
I was going to do some snatches (with a snatch grip, obviously), got so hyped in those last couple seconds before the lift that I forgot I was snatching and tried to clean with a snatch grip, nearly broke my damn arm. I didn’t know my elbows could bend that far sideways.
[quote]Melvin Smiley wrote:
Ever get so pumped you can’t think?
I was going to do some snatches (with a snatch grip, obviously), got so hyped in those last couple seconds before the lift that I forgot I was snatching and tried to clean with a snatch grip, nearly broke my damn arm. I didn’t know my elbows could bend that far sideways.[/quote]
That hurts to think about.
When I was fifteen my then basketball coach had me doing plyometrics with jumpsoles (do people remember does?) on asfalt 
My knees loved that alot 
I sucessfully managed to jack myself in the chin doing push press, hard enough to go down. The weight was light so it had some pop on it, and it really frazzled my mind for a second and instead of just dropping the bar, I held it in a semi-locked out position as I rode it backwards onto the platform. Luckily, so one saw me and there were bumpers on the bar. I almost bit my tongue off during the whole incident as well.
The first time I went to the gym, I got stapled to the bench . . . by the bar (thankfully not on the first rep). And then a woman ran over to help me. To a high school male, that was a huge kick in the ego.
Years ago we used to do cleans to warm up for deadlifts. One day we were having a little war as two good training partners will do.
We kept piling on the weight and eventually I got to the point where my grip failed which being double overhand led to the weight slipping out of my hands and landing on my thighs with my knees bent, basically about halfway through the process of standing up and yanking the bar.
Not only did it hurt like hell leaving some nice bruises but there were a lot of people at the gym watching so I felt like a goon. That coupled with the fact that my training partner proceeding to smoke the weight made for a long day.
I once did the cliched idiot thing of taking all the weight off one side of the barbell at once while it was on the bench, when I was 15 or 16. It flew up and almost smashed my face off and I came off my feet. My glasses were bent out of shape, I must have looked like a right moron.
Fortunately I couldn’t lift much at the time, so there wasn’t too much on the bar.
I’ve done the whack yourself in the face while doing military presses trick also.
[quote]Plim wrote:
I once did the cliched idiot thing of taking all the weight off one side of the barbell at once while it was on the bench, when I was 15 or 16. It flew up and almost smashed my face off and I came off my feet. [/quote]
What a buffoon, how could you be so foolish?
Just kidding, I once unloaded all of the plates off one side of the Leg Press machine. Then I went over to the other side and tried to unload two at a time. The machine tipped onto it’s side, and the foot plate smashed me square on top of the head. I was laying on the ground, dazed, with two plates lying on my chest. Luckily one of my buddies stopped laughing long enough to tip the machine upright again.
One of the many:
Picture this - in the gym with a training buddy, doing pullups. I have already got the muscle-ups, so the ego is pushing me to find an excuse to show some. So I ask my friend how much he think one can propel himself up in the air from dead hang (you are starting to laugh at that point, aren’t you) and decide to give it a try myself.
I grip the bar, close my eyes for a second, take a deep breath and pull myself with all my might. A little detail - the bar is under the upper frame of a crossover machine (like that http://www.pro-fitness.com/photos/cable_crossover_machine.jpg - see the small thing in the middle), so I realise on the halfway up, I’m gonna hack myself on the frame of the machine. So I try to twist my torso a little, so that I won’t knock myself out.
I twist like some electrocuted monkey, ram into the upper frame at which point my legs go up, I immediately start falling (g is not 9,8 m/s2, I swear it is at least 20) and crash on my ass in L-sit position.
You know how these crossover machines are usually in the middle of the gym, with all that mirrors around them, so you can look on your spinal erectors while doing crossover?
I don’t think there was a guy or a girl who didn’t see my pathetic emergency landing.
Got some hard time after that:
“Bro, you are my hero. Use straps next time, though.”
[quote]mldj wrote:
One of the many:
Picture this - in the gym with a training buddy, doing pullups. I have already got the muscle-ups, so the ego is pushing me to find an excuse to show some. So I ask my friend how much he think one can propel himself up in the air from dead hang (you are starting to laugh at that point, aren’t you) and decide to give it a try myself.
I grip the bar, close my eyes for a second, take a deep breath and pull myself with all my might. A little detail - the bar is under the upper frame of a crossover machine (like that http://www.pro-fitness.com/photos/cable_crossover_machine.jpg - see the small thing in the middle), so I realise on the halfway up, I’m gonna hack myself on the frame of the machine. So I try to twist my torso a little, so that I won’t knock myself out.
I twist like some electrocuted monkey, ram into the upper frame at which point my legs go up, I immediately start falling (g is not 9,8 m/s2, I swear it is at least 20) and crash on my ass in L-sit position.
You know how these crossover machines are usually in the middle of the gym, with all that mirrors around them, so you can look on your spinal erectors while doing crossover?
I don’t think there was a guy or a girl who didn’t see my pathetic emergency landing.
Got some hard time after that:
“Bro, you are my hero. Use straps next time, though.”[/quote]
Oh, dude. That’s some laugh out loud shit there. “I twist like some electrocuted monkey.” Outfuckingstanding.
This isn’t dumb, just embarrassing.
Once I was doing weighted pullups and the damn leather part of the belt broke.
Another time I was doing weighted dips and the same thing happened.
One time I was doing power snatches and I dropped the bar on my head.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
I sucessfully managed to jack myself in the chin doing push press, hard enough to go down. The weight was light so it had some pop on it, and it really frazzled my mind for a second and instead of just dropping the bar, I held it in a semi-locked out position as I rode it backwards onto the platform. Luckily, so one saw me and there were bumpers on the bar. I almost bit my tongue off during the whole incident as well.[/quote]
Nice work. I do that all the time. During a Power clean test last night I nailed my self in the chin with the bar on the way up. Obviously I could have made the lift but I was to surprised and laughing. Ever smoke your head on the way up on a behind the neck push press? that’s funny too. Makes punches seem less hard too.
-chris
[quote]apwsearch wrote:
mldj wrote:
One of the many:
Picture this - in the gym with a training buddy, doing pullups. I have already got the muscle-ups, so the ego is pushing me to find an excuse to show some. So I ask my friend how much he think one can propel himself up in the air from dead hang (you are starting to laugh at that point, aren’t you) and decide to give it a try myself.
I grip the bar, close my eyes for a second, take a deep breath and pull myself with all my might. A little detail - the bar is under the upper frame of a crossover machine (like that http://www.pro-fitness.com/photos/cable_crossover_machine.jpg - see the small thing in the middle), so I realise on the halfway up, I’m gonna hack myself on the frame of the machine. So I try to twist my torso a little, so that I won’t knock myself out.
I twist like some electrocuted monkey, ram into the upper frame at which point my legs go up, I immediately start falling (g is not 9,8 m/s2, I swear it is at least 20) and crash on my ass in L-sit position.
You know how these crossover machines are usually in the middle of the gym, with all that mirrors around them, so you can look on your spinal erectors while doing crossover?
I don’t think there was a guy or a girl who didn’t see my pathetic emergency landing.
Got some hard time after that:
“Bro, you are my hero. Use straps next time, though.”
Oh, dude. That’s some laugh out loud shit there. “I twist like some electrocuted monkey.” Outfuckingstanding.
[/quote]
Perfect. Elecromonkey. That is almost the same as I did one time when doing muscle ups on a pull up bar. So here I am doing some chins with my TPers and I say “hmm, you reckon I can do a muscle up on this shit?” “sure” says my buddy. He mustn’t have known what it was.
Now I don’t have my glasses on and so therefore have a skewed perception of depth. I don’t really think about how much room there is between the bar and the roof. So I get up on the bar and and rip up past the “transition” and press my self upwards, away from the bar… Right through the ceiling tiles.
A cloud of dust goes right up my nose and I just barely make it down to the floor without letting go of the bar and crashing. I proceed to sneeze like hell and laugh at the same time.
Shit.
Then there was the time I did curls in the squat rack. It was so awesome I think i came.
-chris
I was demonstrating clean technique for a very cute coed who had asked for help. I only had the bar with no weight so when I went to get under the bar it snapped back so fast that I lost my grip. The bar snacked me right in the face. Any chances I had of looking cool or even half way intelligent flew right out the gym window.
This is good shit, guys. Keep it coming. I think after a certain period of time, we could vote for the Best Dumb Weight Training Act, and the winner could get a free maxipad for squatting.
So far, imo, its a close call between the muscle up resulting in "electrocuted monkey" and the muscle up resulting in a close encounter with celing tiles. lol Doc
One time I set the pins a little too low. I bomb the squat attempt. Thinking that the pins were in a good place, I just lower myself to ground. So low in fact I was pinned between the bar and ground and I couldn’t wiggle myself out. Think wide stance with my ass almost on the ground and my face in between my knees. Luckily my friend was there to get me unpinned.
I used to do drop sets on all my sets for about 4 months when I just started training. I also smashed my chin doing power jerks. Still, nothing beats doing 20-rep box squats on a Smith Machine.
Hmm…I was doing snatches once and when I was sitting in the hole, my arm unlocked and I dropped a 175lb barbell on my head, it kind of came off so it wasn’t dead on. I was on my ass and everyone had seen it.
Another one I was doing box jumps. It was my first time doing them in a while and the only place to set it up was kind of off to the edge of the room. For some reason, and I hadn’t noticed at the time, the ceiling was lower, so low that if I got on the box on my knees my head could almost touch. So I jump into the air and almost immediately my head slams into the ceiling and I crash into the box with my torso coming down and collapsing off to the side. Good god did I feel retarded…
On occasion, I get so pscyched to bench I sometimes forget to put the same amount of plates on both sides of the barbell. Talk about a surprise when you unrack it! I must have looked like such a moron. At least I havent dropped one yet.