What have been you're most wretched moments in the gym ?

[thor93]

Not necessarily embarrassing moments where you humiliate yourself goofing up or whatever but just "Oh wretched human body of mine" wise ?

For me,as far as relatively recently, About a month and a half ago or so, I was doing box squats in the smith machine and feeing pretty good overall,progressively and smoothly going up in weight set to set to set when suddenly upon taking on a mere 225 lbs(Providing the machine itself is 20 lbs) i went into the squat motion and upon bouncing my rear end off the bench beneath me,felt a sharp pain in my lower lumbar region ad immedietely racked the weight and felt a combination of scared,shaken,disgruntled,disgusted,and bewildered. I had just done several sets with 205 for 8-10 reps and handled that very commandingly,so why and how the hell could moving up a mere 20 lbs do this to my back ? "How could my Damn back do this to me ?!" I thought.

Anyway,i wound up just staying in the gym and doing an extra db curl workout for the week,followed by some cardio,then,around several days later,i was fine. I had been temporarily injured,obviously at a relatively minor level but it has stuck with me since and i dont feel like ever going on the smith machine to do squats anymore. I was doing regular barbell squats in the squat cage around a couple of weeks ago but i have decided to ditch them as well. I wa feeling excess strain in my right hip area with a mere 175 lbs. They didnt injure me per se,but i could tell if i keep doing them i WILL Likely get some sort of hip injury or maybe another lower lumbar mishap/betrayal of my wretched weaknesses/flaws. I've been sticking with the Squat machine and single legged legpresses for legs since. As far as the legpresses,i feel that single legged minimizes potential for injury on the legpress machine,as i dont need much weight on the thing,not enough weight to cause undue strain on the lower back or knees.

Finally,as far as relatively recently,I also concluded i cannot do overhead presses anymore,even if its really light weight. My rotator cuffs were really letting me have it for several days after a light db press/back superset workout. On a side note,i dont dare do wider than shoulder width grip for flat benching exercises,and absolutely NO Incline benching. Way too much strain on my damaged rotator cuffs. with my very wide shoulders and long arms,shoulder width grip on bench is Close Grip for me.

[IronCharles]

What have been you're most wretched moments in the gym ?

The day I went to the gym, and it was closed.

[Get-n-fit]

Back pain for me too! About a year ago I decided to start deadlifts, after a couple weeks, i was warming up with my normal 135 and something in my lower back tensed up and I was in immediate pain. I stopped DL, tried to do seated rows and just sitting was painful on my back. I went to the locker room and laid on a bench for 30 minutes. My back was sore for a good week, I quit Dl's for about a month, got back into them and never had the problem again. Never had back issues before, something just tweaked weird that day.

[ThatEvilGinger]

I tore my pericardium doing weighted dips.

I heard like a loud pop and I thought it was a rib moving weird or something. My chest area was a bit sore that day and I had some sharp pains while breathing. The next day I woke up and had intense chest pains and my left arm was kind of numb. I reluctantly went to the hospital thinking 'well guess I'm finally having a heart attack'.

This was the first time I've ever been at a hospital where they actually put me at the head of the line. They did an EKG and xrays. They found the tear and prescribed me some sort of steroid to help the wall heal properly. Also they put me on some kind of emergency list where if I had any issues I was supposed to be shot to the head of the line because the tear could let fluid into the heart causing a cardiac arrest.

It healed up fine but it hurt like a bitch for about a week or 2.

[m314]

June 4 last year. I went for a new deadlift PR of 500 pounds, and I got it. It felt great lifting 500 for the first time. 5 minutes later I switched grips so my left hand was supinated (right hand was supinated on the first try). I got about halfway up when I felt a rip and heard a sound like snapping a handful of celery stalks. I put the weight down, looked at my arm, and saw the detached biceps muscle start moving up towards my shoulder. I racked all the weights (didn't want to leave them on the floor) and drove myself to the ER.

9 months and 2 surgeries later, the arm still isn't the same. I should be on the path to a full recovery, but the arm will always look noticeably different. The range of motion will never be the same. I'll never be able to turn my palm facing up or facing down again without using the right hand to twist the left. I've mostly gotten used to that part. I'm just glad I can move my left hand again after some nerve damage from the second surgery.

[Brackneyc]

The day I went to the gym, and it was closed.

Nooooooooo.....Winner right here^^^

[Kodokan]

One time I was squatting in the cage and my boxers split right at the bottom of the squat. I totally lost it and bailed to the floor and the pins took the bar with a lot of noise. I was starting laughing because it was a really loud tear like a zipper...and I was laughing really loud and I know it was a small commotion...I'm sure I was as red as a tomato.

I've since converted to a home gym so now I do this kind of thing for my own personal amusement.

[tomsfish]

today!
still cant do pullups pain free,right shoulder and arm hurt after pullups day today.been like 3 weeks now and getting very impatient.

[Kodokan]

By the way OP...back injuries especially to discs could be like that. they're cumulative and the phrase 'the straw that broke the camels back' does apply. I talked to a guy who would squat 425 for 5 and he said his back went out when he turned around too fast to answer somebody...heaped to the floor.

[ThatEvilGinger]

June 4 last year. I went for a new deadlift PR of 500 pounds, and I got it. It felt great lifting 500 for the first time. 5 minutes later I switched grips so my left hand was supinated (right hand was supinated on the first try). I got about halfway up when I felt a rip and heard a sound like snapping a handful of celery stalks. I put the weight down, looked at my arm, and saw the detached biceps muscle start moving up towards my shoulder. I racked all the weights (didn't want to leave them on the floor) and drove myself to the ER.

9 months and 2 surgeries later, the arm still isn't the same. I should be on the path to a full recovery, but the arm will always look noticeably different. The range of motion will never be the same. I'll never be able to turn my palm facing up or facing down again without using the right hand to twist the left. I've mostly gotten used to that part. I'm just glad I can move my left hand again after some nerve damage from the second surgery.

any advice on how you would have prevented such an injury? would taking it slower have given the tendons more time to build up or is this just an unavoidable risk?

[Kodokan]

any advice on how you would have prevented such an injury? would taking it slower have given the tendons more time to build up or is this just an unavoidable risk?

not supinating the arm...using straps? of course that has it's own major drawbacks of course. this happened to a guy at my bjj gym lifting weights and it's pretty unnerving. he was a strong guy and to me didn't appear to be doing anything foolish.

[m314]

any advice on how you would have prevented such an injury? would taking it slower have given the tendons more time to build up or is this just an unavoidable risk?

Using a double overhand grip (with straps if needed) would have prevented the injury. A mixed grip puts a lot more strain on the biceps tendon on the underhand side.

[lunchbreak]

Pinning myself under a bar on the bench when no spotter was around. Missed a rep, stupidly tried to hit the lower j-hooks, missed and left arm gave out leaving me with my right trying to stop the bar crushing my neck while the other end was on the floor. Will never do that again.

[Junkers88]

Last week. Large guy on the leg press machine with ear buds in pushing a full stack while singing out loud. He must have farted three or four times and I think he'd been eating sulfur..... he never missed a press but I missed half an hour of gym time because of it. *hack* The AC system even picked it up and sent it into the yoga room. Talk about some pissed of ladies.

[m314]

Pinning myself under a bar on the bench when no spotter was around. Missed a rep, stupidly tried to hit the lower j-hooks, missed and left arm gave out leaving me with my right trying to stop the bar crushing my neck while the other end was on the floor. Will never do that again.

Were you going too heavy, or did you just try for one too many reps? That's scary either way. I've seen news stories about guys getting killed that way when no spotter was around.

[lunchbreak]

Were you going too heavy, or did you just try for one too many reps? That's scary either way. I've seen news stories about guys getting killed that way when no spotter was around.

One too many, thankfully it was back when I was a fair bit weaker so the weight involved, while heavy for me at the time, wasn't of the order that would instantly end things.

[Bando]

I felt a rip and heard a sound like snapping a handful of celery stalks. I put the weight down, looked at my arm, and saw the detached biceps muscle start moving up towards my shoulder. I racked all the weights (didn't want to leave them on the floor) and drove myself to the ER.

I hope I speak for the rest of us when I say that you did not need to rack your weights that Day Bro.

[Corbi]

Took the wifes car to the gym one weekend, get out and go up to the door and realized I didn't have my keyfob to get in the door...it's on the keyring for my work vehicle. 34 mile rd trip wasted.

[lemeseethem]

The day I went to the gym, and it was closed.

The worst is when you have already drank your pre workout and the gym is closed

[bodyhard]

I had a fight outside of the gym, well not a fight knocked the dude out (it started in the gym though) and thought I was going to be kicked out for good.

[djflex]

The day i got my hernia, felt it tear doing squats



Also the day someone stole my old belt sucked

[tacdgb]

Was doing 50 lb. squats...was all done went to lift the weight off my shoulders and knew I had tweeked my back. Muscle spasms are no fun.

[mal1ce]

I was doing box squats in the smith machine and feeing pretty good overall,progressively and smoothly going up in weight set to set to set when suddenly upon taking on a mere 225 lbs(Providing the machine itself is 20 lbs) i went into the squat motion and upon bouncing my rear end off the bench beneath me,felt a sharp pain in my lower lumbar region

Never ever ever ever ever ever bounce or plop down when doing box squats....ever. You will fcuk your back up. You should always "sit" on the box in a controlled manner, pause for a second, and then drive yourself back up.


As far as my wretched moments, pick any of the leg days where I'm throwing up in a trash can at the end of it.

[fittofattofit]

The day I was benching and heard my right RC tear ...... the sound was really loud like a sheet being ripped. It wasn't painful but it was a full thickness rupture of both infra-spinatus and supraspinatus. After 4 ops in 18 months it was: 'Fcuk .... here I go again'

[dungeonmistress]

It actually occurred today, when someone told me he heard from a reliable source that the owner of my gym may be removing the racks from the gym side and putting them in the crossfit pit. Why? Because someone has been complaining about "all the people dropping weights in the back of the gym." Hello??? it's a GYM not a monastery. people oly lift back there. we have rubber flooring at the rack for this purpose. So now I'm kind of scouting around for a new place to hang my straps so to speak.

[BalhamBeast]

Oh there's too many but I had an embarrassing moment just recently. I was sat on the Cybex plate loader leg extension in the free weights room, which is a little beaten up. I noticed the shin pad was a bit wobbly so I leaned forward to tighten it, lost my balance and somersaulted on to the floor. The other guy in the room was in stitches.

[michail71]

I passed out while squatting one time and came to in some horrible pain as I wasn't in a cage.

The other week I forgot I had a 2.5 lbs plate on the bar when I was pulling off a 45. It landed on my foot.

[Amstat]

When I first got back into lifting, about three months ago, I got stuck under a measly 165 on the bench press. Luckily there was one other guy in the room. Tried for that one last rep and failed. Needless to say it scared me and I am still highly aware of every rep.....as one should be.

[ThatEvilGinger]

Using a double overhand grip (with straps if needed) would have prevented the injury. A mixed grip puts a lot more strain on the biceps tendon on the underhand side.

thanks for letting me know!
I'll just stick with maxing with overhand grips and straps to be safe.
bicep tears scare the beejesus out of me

[ArchAngel'73]

I have 3

#1
I have a birthday squat tradition, every birthday since I was 24 I squatted 405.
The 37th birthday I racked the bar wrong (it was too high) and dislocated discs, pinched my scaitic nerve and have been dealing with this ever since.

#2
Getting pinned with 135 for bench when I was a gym newb and had to wheeze out my calls for help to 2 of the biggest mutherphuckers I've ever laid eyes on.
That at least started 2 friendships.

#3
I almost lost it on a guy and invited him outside. When he wouldn't walk out nor shut up I got up in his face and went loco, called him a chihuahua amongst other choice unflatteries.
Him and his buddy left while the mananger called me in to talk.
I was told if we woulda went out I woulda been kicked out...and that both him, his friend, and a few others I did not notice we members of the Edmonton Eskimos- a CFL (think Cdn. version of NFL) football team.
Yeah, that was the day I fought the law and I won.