Why Did I Drop It?

Training Bodybuilding
1

For the first time in 2.5 years, the weights dropped on me, quite literally. And I don’t know why.

Let me explain what happened.

I was doing decline barbell bench with a load I am quite capable of repping. As usual, I lifted off and started lowering. Suddenly, my left wrist gave out. The barbell fell from that hand and consequently from my right hand. The weights hit my chest pretty hard, but being the ninja that I am, I grab the weights and finished the set.

I got up from the bench totally shocked. I stood there for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what just happened. My wrist didn’t hurt, but for whatever reason it “gave out.”

What the hell does “gave out” mean? I am not sure, and that’s why I am asking this forum if you know what happened to me. This is my guess: the rotating sleeves of the barbell were able to rotate too freely; that, combined with the load and my grip allowed the weights to suddenly slip and fall.

2

Same shit happened to me while doing flat bench. Never had a problem before just my wrist gave out. I focus a lot more now when I bench.

3

[quote]daleskim wrote:
For the first time in 2.5 years, the weights dropped on me, quite literally. And I don’t know why.

Let me explain what happened.

I was doing decline barbell bench with a load I am quite capable of repping. As usual, I lifted off and started lowering. Suddenly, my left wrist gave out. The barbell fell from that hand and consequently from my right hand. The weights hit my chest pretty hard, but being the ninja that I am, I grab the weights and finished the set.

I got up from the bench totally shocked. I stood there for a good 5 minutes trying to figure out what just happened. My wrist didn’t hurt, but for whatever reason it “gave out.”

What the hell does “gave out” mean? I am not sure, and that’s why I am asking this forum if you know what happened to me. This is my guess: the rotating sleeves of the barbell were able to rotate too freely; that, combined with the load and my grip allowed the weights to suddenly slip and fall.

[/quote]

I noticed you opened your thread with “For the first time in 2.5 years,” and after reading your post the first thing that jumps to my mind is that you feel so routine or comfortable in what you are doing, you didn’t pay the proper attention and the weight slipped. It happens bro.

Police officers that have become routine in their daily traffic stops have made rudimentary mistakes they would not have made if they had not become so routine in their performance.

Although I have never dropped a weight on myself, I have been pinned under a bar and had to ask my fat aunt (350+ pounds) to remove it from my chest. Yea, that didn’t go so well. Then there is the time I was removing plates after squatting, I didnt set the bar right for what I was doing, and ended up dumping 2 - 45 pounds plates on the floor with the barbell sticking strait up. What a crash that was. Duh “think before removing plates.”

I attribute these incidents I have had to becoming routine in what I was doing and not focusing properly.

Anyhow, it sounds to me you became routine in lifting and didnt pay the proper attention. You may have been focusing on the lift, but were you really thinking about the possibility you may loose the weight from your grip? Lifting heavy weight is dangerous. Even weights that you consider heavy, but others consider light. One slight error, one slight movement and its too late, catastrophe is at hand.

Thats my take on it bro.

4

Same happened to me when doing lockouts with a load greater than my flatbench max.

My wrist just snapped down and the bar fell. No prior indication that it would slip, and the weight dropped faster than I would have thought.

I would have DEFINITELY been going to the hospital if the pins weren’t there, and it’s one of the reasons I do just about all of my bench pressing in a power rack with pins.

Even flat bench because I can set the pins so I can still touch my chest with the bar, and also set the bar on the pins if I can’t get another rep.

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Wrist Wraps if it becomes an issue. I use them often for really heavy loads, far more loose than comp wrist wraps but support is nice.

6

http://www.break.com/index/guy_drops_benchpress_bar_on_chest.html

Check out this video of a guy dropping a bar on his chest. This happened to me as well, (as I previously posted) the day after Thanksgiving. I was doing a flat bench press, 340 lbs, and my left wrist seemingly snapped out of position, or gave out. I beleive that the angle of ascent went too many degrees towards my toes, and when I crossed the balance point, the weight instantly slipped out of my control and landed on my chest. I cracked my left thumb and bruised some ribs. But it happened so fast I am not really sure what was the cause.

A couple of weeks later, I returned to my gym, and spoke to the powerlift trainer about it. He told me he has seen this happen a few times, most notably when his top student dropped 650 lbs on his chest during a competition.

I am benching again, but I stay extremely focused on my grip and technique.

7

[quote]Ghost22 wrote:
Wrist Wraps if it becomes an issue. I use them often for really heavy loads, far more loose than comp wrist wraps but support is nice.[/quote]

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. My left wrist is screwy and has poor stability sometimes (been jammed or sprained a bunch of times in rugby, never thought much of it, just taped it up for games, but now it’s starting to bother me). I’ve worn wrist wraps on a few occasions, and they seem to help, but I can’t help but feel the same way about them as I do straps when deadlifting. Wouldn’t I be better off not using them and building up the strength and stability in the joint? Or, maybe reserve them for heavy overhead work where my wrist giving out may mean dropping the bar on my head? Any thoughts or experiences?

Jay