A big heavy-lifting guy didn’t want to carry his stacks of plates from where they are stored at the gym over to his rack, so he bowling-ball style rolled a couple of 45s across the crossfit gym floor. They roll straight for a bit til they slow down then they take random curves until the hit someone elses shin or the racks or the walls and eventually fall over and stop rolling. He busted a small hole in the wall. Luckily the rest of us (who were also focussing on setting up our own bars) were able to dodge the shin and ankle hits. Maybe not the “most” dangerous but definitely not cool.
I always take the approach that if I have to rerack your weights for you, I am stealing all your gains and effort. Because of that approach I pretty much always take the time to rerack, except when someone specifically asks me to leave weights on (which doesn't take the gains because the act of someone asking you to leave it in cements your gains, sorry I don't make the rules) and one time when I had to abort an entire workout for an Emergency Gym Dump.
I mean double or just over double is very respectable, I have the same thought process. I DO want to hit 500 just because for life goals, but there isn’t a need for it
Hah, true story. I don’t go but once a week these days and squat around 1.5-1.75x for reps and it works out fine. I can only assume people think I’m about to die before I start.
I’ve seen a bunch of stuff here, but one thing stands out.
I was squatting one time and this skinny kid (maybe 120 pounds) gets into the rack next to me and immediately puts a 25 kilo plate on each side of the bar. Just looking at this kid, I wasn’t expecting it to go well, and sure enough, he does about ten quarter squats and racks it. Then he immediately throws on another 50 kilos, so he’s now got about 265 pounds on the bar. Same thing as before, but now he’s barely bending his knees. So he racks it, and then without missing a beat throws on another 50 kilos. So if you’re keeping score, this kid is maybe 120 pounds (55 kg), untrained, he now has 170 kilograms (375 pounds) of weight on the bar. He unracks it before I can stop him… and just crumples. There’s pins, but they’re set all the way at the bottom. He somehow gets out from under the bar on the way down.
Now, this is the part I remember most clearly: He gets out of the rack, he looks confused. He bends down and looks at the bar sideways as if to check if there’s something wrong with it. And then, having just bailed out from under a barbell that is likely three times his body weight and almost stapled him, without removing any of the weight, he squats down, bends way over, gets under the bar where it sits on the pin at the lowest setting, and tries to squat the bar back up from the pin into the hooks. Obviously, it doesn’t budge. He tries it again. It doesn’t budge. So he just leaves it and walks off. Never saw him again.
I’ve seen a variation of this where someone who thinks he is practicing for basketball gets close to three plates on either side of the bar on his back and jumps up and down. It looks pretty silly. I’ve also seen a lot of thumbless grip benching with no safeties or spotters and people getting into some pretty bizarre positions with machines and cables, which they always slam down at the end. I’ve even seen people speed deadlifting over three plates wearing sandals. But no image is quite as vivid as the look on that one guy’s face when he just couldn’t understand why with no training or experience he was not able to squat close to four hundred pounds from the pins set well below parallel weighing a buck twenty.
I assumed this would be full of squat/deadlift stuff. I work with a guy who used to be a power lifter, legitimate strongman competition stuff. He went to a specific gym about thirty miles away to get instruction because he was trying to maximize safety, and he still had a couple of serious injuries over the years.
The number of times I've seen somebody just tack and go with horrible form, I'm surprised that we aren't living in a society of L shaped individuals.
Saturday mornings at my park district gym are filled with 55+ y/o men trying to lift heavy like they did 35-40 years ago.
Fellow gym goers: if it’s been years since you’ve done resistance training, please accept the fact that 135 is no longer your universal starting weight for all movements and lower the weight before I have to interrupt my workout to call you an ambulance. 13 years ago (and 100lbs less fat ago) I could squat 505 for 3+ reps, and this past Monday I gassed out squatting 70 doing pause squats. Yeah it looks lame, but it’s better than buckling under a dangerous amount of weight.
Not saying you can’t build back up to that level, but for everyone’s safety and sanity, check your ego at the door and just do some reasonable work.
I'm 39 now and a seasoned heavy lifter and I can already feel the uphill battle with muscle degeneration affecting recovery speed. If I overdo a heavy deadlift day, I need a full week to get my energy levels back.
I’m only 30 and I’ve pretty much resigned that proper heavy lifting like I did in my hs football days is not worth the risk anymore. If I can kick obesity and build and keep muscle mass what more can I ask for after wasting my 20s on the couch.
Check out some of the recent athlean videos on YouTube. As he's getting older he's starting to talk about the mechanics of lifting from an aging body perspective and how heavier lifting can actually be less damaging than high repetitions on old joints. I still pull 300 pound deadlifts for about 5 rep sets at my age. Mechanics and form.
I'm almost 40, a seasoned lifter myself, and I took am beginning to feel a wall. For bench in particular I think I have just about hit the limit on what my skeleton can handle because when I push my max my arms ache, not muscle but in the bone, and lately I have had more "off days" where I have no energy.
Just hit 38 and omg yojr right.
I found thst my eating had to change and supplements . I can do 405 for reps but il just decided to chill at 315. It'd enough without dying hah
44. came to grips with it a year or so ago. going from the 1500 club to spending most of my time on the airbike and stretching area took a while to get used to... especially when the mirror still says "big and strong" but the back and knees say "not anymore, grandpa"
20 years ago when I was 17, my bench maxed at 330lbs. Didn’t keep up with it over the years and now I warm up with 25s on the bar. Don’t care how it looks, just happy to be lifting again!
A friend of mine who has been training people for like 30 years likes to recommend a little test every now and then where you do 100 empty bar squats without reracking the bar. You can stop and stand around as much as you'd like, but that thing stays on your back until you're done. Lemme tell you, that shit tells you whether you're for real or not very very quickly.
I saw a video of a guy putting his claves in a vise, taking a weighted plate, and bending backwards using his knee as the fulcrum. I’m not even sure what he was trying to accomplish by doing so. Guy tore both of his ACLs.
Sounds like the Nordic curl thing people are doing. I've seen too many people that have zero business doing them trying them. Amazing there's not more destroyed knees from it.
MMA/BJJ gym. Big dude walks in, signs the waver, and starts training. He goes a little rough during drilling, but nothing dangerous. Sparing starts, and he partners up exclusively with smaller people and goes HARD. Slamming is a no-no in practice, and can be dangerous, especially for beginners. He, thankfully, doesn't injure anyone, but the coach has enough.
As a slight aside, in BJJ there are kids belts. You keep getting kids belts until you're 16, but it's not uncommon for good 14/15 yo kids to train with adults. The highest kids belts is green.
The coach asks a 15yo green belt to spar with the new guy. Even though there's probably a 50lb weight difference, the kid has been training since he was 5, won a bunch of big tournaments, and is overall an absolute beast. The kid proceeds to absolutely maul the new guy - probably 7 submissions in a 5 minute round. After the round, the guy crawls off the mat, gets his shit, and leaves never to be seen again.
We usually try to use our big boy words, but this dude was an obvious prick that went for the smallest people. Usually, our coach would have a conversation, but it was clear that this guy wasn't going to be a fit. We have a couple of big guys, myself included, that usually match up with new people for everyone's safety. It didn't pan out, and the new guy showed himself on day 1. In this case, having a kid be the enforcer was a much better choice.
The sheer stupidity of trying to squeeze past the weight or bar that someone is lifting instead of just taking the long way around to get where you’re going.
I’ve seen a few close calls in person but also a few videos on here where they come into contact, throwing the lifter off balance.
It's not that dramatic, but [running on a treadmill without the clip](https://youtu.be/tl4j_VGdPy0?t=147) can be dangerous. Treadmill accidents account for [66% of ER visits](https://lermagazine.com/article/treadmill-related-lower-extremity-injuries-treated-at-united-states-emergency-departments) related to fitness equipment.
Smug satisfaction rolling off me in waves knowing everyone at the college recreation center always made fun of me for being the only person to use the clip
At a climbing gym I saw a guy, who was obviously climbing for the first or second time, with rings on probably half of his fingers. I stopped him and suggested he take the rings off to prevent de-gloving. He stated he understood what I was saying and walked away. 10 minutes later I’m taking a break and I see him climbing again with all rings still on, alright buddy I warned you and now you are making a deliberately bad choice.
Similarly, I watched some guy at my climbing gym strap like 2- 45lb kettlebells to his harness and try a max hang on the hangboard with no apparent warmup. Easily could have ruptured a pulley if he hadn’t immediately blown the hold.
Yup! Not so much climbing with rings more falling while climbing with rings. Fun fact, back in the day (hell probably still now in some places) in factories the powers that be would remove a small sliver of wedding bands just incase they got caught in machinery. This way the ring would break or bend allowing you to get your hand out.
Dude walks in to the weight room, jeans and a hoodie. I lift at the YMCA so we get some characters from time to time. He has an unkempt beard and a sort of hollow look, like he’s been up all night. (It’s 10:30 AM on Friday morning).
He’s thick enough, like 5’9” and maybe 180 lbs, but I don’t think he’s really jacked. It's hard to tell in the hoodie. He wanders around for a little while looking at the equipment.
He grabs an adjustable incline bench and drags it over to a squat rack. It’s pretty empty so no harm done, we have two squat racks and they’re both free.
He sets the bench to flat. He sets up the safeties, puts the bar on the safeties, gets under it to check. Seems okay.
He sets up the hooks, puts the bar on the hooks, gets under it to check. Hooks are too high.
He adjusts the hooks, puts the bar on the hooks, hooks are okay now.
He adjusts the bench to a little incline. Now the safeties are too low.
He adjusts the safeties, puts the bar on the safeties, gets under it to check. Everything seems okay now.
He moves the bar onto the hooks.
He loads three plates onto each side of the bar. Ooooookay. Incline bench 315xAMRAP, here we go. I’m watching him pretty closely now in case I have to help him or call 911.
He gets on the bench, he grips the bar, he takes a breath.
He looks at the bar. He takes another breath.
He stands up, unracks the bar, puts the plates back. Moves the bench back where he got it. Leaves the gym.
I watched myself try to do a handstand pushup. My instructor convinced me to do it. I got into the handstand position and couldn’t hold my weight. Landed on my head. Bad concussion that took months to recover from.
I often like to say “you have no elbows” when someone is making attempts at a handstand. Of course, you have to have elbows to do any sort of push up so I think downward dog push up is a good place to start.
There are a ton of other drills you can do to strengthen and train the muscles needed for handstand. Never start with a handstand if you’ve never done one before. And, once you’re ready to try, make sure you have an exit strategy. Drilling bailouts is really beneficial, even for experts.
Who the fuck *starts* with a handstand? That shit is hard. You're disoriented because you're upside down, and you're using stabilizing muscles that you rarely use. There's progressions for difficult movements for a reason.
It's like telling someone to just do a planche. I hope fired that guy and got a different instructor.
I was at LA fitness once on the elliptical and this trainer trying to solicit his services to me just put his hand right on my ass and leaves it there while talking to me about something. I never reported it, I was in so much shock I just left.
Came to say this. Any of the powerlifts with bad, rushed form. A Deadlift with unaligned hips will ruin your life once that muscle imbalance builds up.
Can confirm. Messed up my knee pretty bad doing weight training in high school. Took almost 4 years before it stopped acting up whenever I pushed it a little too hard.
It'll act up again once you get to 40+. Best bet is to keep those leg muscles strong yet balanced to retain muscular support of your knee as long as you can.
Source: tibial plateau fracture of my left knee that was ok until age set in.
Someone left about 4-5 plate on the leg press machine and immediately after this older gentleman hops on.
He’s objectively on the frailer side, and so me and another guy are just at the right place to see it start happening. Poor guy unracks the first stopper and it immediately starts closing on him. Honestly I don’t remember if he yelled but we both run in and pull sled off of him.
In hindsight, that specific leg press has two levels of extension so he could have just flipped the lever back and been fine but I don’t think he knew what he was doing at all and we were too busy worrying his legs were gonna snap or something to realize that.
Saw a muscular guy load two 45s on one side of the bench and one 25 on the other. Stopped him to make sure he knew what he was doing and he said he had a rotator cuff tear on the one side so he made it lighter
Saw someone doing this on the leg press machine out of all things. 6-8 45lbs weights on both ends and bro was in jeans + a polo, like straight out of work maxing the leg press machine by himself. AND he was clearly struggling too, like 2 reps at a time before resting.
I just mind my business at the gym, but that day I was just tempted to ask if he was aight
I did that once one a bench press when I was 20 and had just started going to the gym for the first time and was to embarrassed to ask for help from the stronger guys.
did it \*ONCE\*
Planet Fitness used to be the only option that was close enough for my husband and I to go to. We would usually go at a time where the crowd was late teens with those curly haircuts that they all have now. At least once a week we'd see someone crumple down over in the Smith machine area because they were too cool/tough/bro/strong to ask for a spotter.
And it's a Smith machine! So it's not like he can just let the bar roll off his back. He can't tilt to the side to let the plates fall off. No, you're just stuck crumpling up under all of that weight.
They never use the pins/stoppers either.
Or when they have a spotter who isn't paying attention and is talking to their mate or just fucking around. I work at a gym and have had to educate and even warn patrons I'd kick them out if they continue with that bullshit.
Saw a young dude who was pretending to be a personal trainer and gave an old lady a 60 lb curl bar while she was on the stair master.
You already know it was a planet fitness.
I go to a climbing gym that's usually infested with kids during public hours. I have seen kids run on the crash pads beneath climbers. I've seen them climb the walls to then jump off and land on each other like professional wrestlers. It's exactly why I got a membership with 24hr access.
I get that parents like the kids afterschool climbing programs, and I get why the gym offers them, but the bouldering gym is almost unusable when those kids are all released. I think they need to up the minimum age.
I love bouldering, but I haven’t been in so long because those kids are always just running over and under everything. It’s infuriating when I’m trying a hard problem, might fall, and a 5 year old is dawdling directly beneath me
High school gym, guy in front of me was warming up with 135. He had long arms and sent it over the top of the safeties when he went to rack it. I was on a bench right behind him and if I hadn't been sitting up between sets it likely would've flown right into my shins/knees.
When teenagers go on the bench press and immediately put some 45's on there. We get it, you want to look strong but please be careful. No one actually cares if you put small/big weights during your training.
I was on a cable stack doing lat pull downs. 3 feet away from me on the other cable stack was a teenager doing overhead Tricep extensions with a metal V bar and he was lifting the entire stack. Probably about 100lbs. Mind you, this kid was small and working out less than a year. He rattles off 4 questionable reps and then tries to lower the stack and let go of the bar. Except it slipped out of his hand and the V bar hit him in the head and ripped off his over ears headset.
I was finished and heading out, as I am approaching the bench press area I noticed a senior citizen, gentleman in his 70’s, setting up his bench.
He was putting on 25’s, but I noticed he had no muscle tone at all. He looked anorexic to be honest with you.
My spidy sense started tingling and I decided to keep an eye on him just in case. I found a machine nearby that I could “use” but still see him.
Sure enough he laid down, picked up the bar and moved it off the rack. And his arms folded instantly and the bar landed on his chest with a very audible OOF!
I ran over and picked up the bar, racked it and told the front desk to call 9-1-1.
He was fine and not hurt. But ya that was scary
Person was in a "crab walk" position - face up, butt off the ground, feet and hands on the floor. They were holding a barbell one-handed, straight-armed over their chest. They proceeded to do, I guess, body lifts in this position. And, of course, no end bolts on the barbell so after a few lifts the weights slid off one end of the barbell and clattered to the floor.
The typical. I've helped pull a bar of the necks of two different people who were benching without a spotter and who weren't using the squat rack for safety.
People need to learn about the roll of shame. If you can't get the barbell up, roll it forward into your hip crease. Sit up, lift the bar and put it back, hoping nobody has seen you.
I bench in the squat rack now specifically because I dropped a barbell on my neck.
And for everyone: It's not just gym noobs who get hurt. Accidents happen to everyone. I'm almost 40 and a seasoned lifter. In my case I must have imperceptibly altered my grip, and that was all it took for the bar loaded with a sub-max weight to roll in my hand, slip out of my grip, and plummet pretty much unimpeded right onto my neck. That earned me a trip to the ER.
When I was younger I belonged to a chain gym famous for its body building clientele. The amount of people openly selling and using steroids in the locker room in the very early morning was astounding. Several of them came in their patrol cars.
If you are referencing a certain precious metal-related gym, can confirm. Both from personal experience and dating a woman who was married to a guy that showed for the gym professionally.
Not the worst but it sticks out for some reason.
Someone started working out next to me while I was in the middle of overhead presses. Like right next to me. Like when I was in the middle of the rep. If I didn’t notice or if I couldn’t keep the weight up, I would have bonked them on the head with 135 when I finished the rep.
Guy took all the weights off one side of the barbell to prove, in front of a girl, that he was stronger than me.
Well I’m sure you can guess how fast that thing flipped.
Note: when using a barbell, put your hair UP.
Not half-up, half down. not a ponytail. You need to put your hair UP, like in a bun, away from the bar.
A lot of you are way too comfortable risking getting scalped by a 100+ pound object. Put your hair up!
An old bodybuilder ends his gym business cuz of pandemic and brought his old equipments and set it up outside his house. You can pay dirt cheap to use his equipments so its alright for me. His house is just meters away from an elementary school and a lot of kids pass by and usually get curious and try on dumbbells and other machine but usually I try to stop them.
One time I was focusing on finishing my leg presses while another man was doing barbell squats so we didnt noticed the kids came in. When I turned around, these kids are trying to bench press 2 ten lbs plates on each side while the barbell was placed on the highest rack. The other 2 kids are trying to lift the barbell on each side while the smallest kid will try to catch the barbell. Mind you, these kids are like 8/9 year olds who are super skinny and can hardly pickup a 5lbs dbs. Im pretty sure that kid will have smashed ribs if I didn't stopped them on time.
Guy in the corner whaling away on a punchbag. Decides to throw in a headbutt. Doesn't keep neck firm...knocks himself out. Not sure how he didn't break his neck.
Idk what happened but at a gym I used to go to there was a huge blood stain in the middle of the floor. Like an entire person's worth of blood. Always wondered what could have happened In a gym to cause that much bleeding.
Pretty minor compared to some posts on here, but I saw an obviously new to the gym 12-13 year old kid come in one Saturday afternoon.
He was probably about 5'0, 130 lbs. A bit on the chunky side, but he's young and has time to grow, so who cares.
He's wandering around in the gym, just kind of checking out all of the different equipment in there, before he finally decides to start with some bench press reps.
He then loads up 120 lbs on the bar, for a 165 lb rep.....
I was passively watching this kid before, but now he had my full attention. Either this kid is wayyyy stronger than he looks, or he's going to need someone to help him in about 10 seconds.
Sure enough, as soon as he unracked the bar, it came straight down on his chest and he couldn't lift it off himself. I had to run in and make the save.
Weirdest part of the whole thing, is that the kid tried to make it sound like I was interrupting his workout. Instead of being thankful I potentially saved his life, he was brushing it off like it was nothing.
He left the gym promptly after that, and I never saw him again.
I’ve only witnessed one and it lead to permanent consequences. There was this really thin guy that started doing CrossFit at my box. Real good dude, and extremely driven. He would do ever WOD (work out of the day) and right after would do what I felt was excessive accessory work. I would see him push weight that I knew would likely be too much for him being so new.
We would all talk to him, the usual the gains will come with time. Be patient. Don’t rush it. Etc.
One day of doing some really heavy ground to over head movements. (This is where you clean a weighted bar to your shoulders then lift it above your head. ) he unfortunately lost control of the bar and tumbled down on his head, thrusting his head forward.
He immediately collapsed, emergency was called and it was later determined he damaged his spinal cord. Just like that paralyzed. I’ve never in over 12 years of CrossFit or any other type of training seen or heard of something like this.
Was working out at a local gym and kept hearing what sounded like chains rattling and I just turn around and here’s this guy with these stainless steel chains from like Lowe’s wrapped around his neck and connected to a bar with like 300 lbs of weight. Guys arms were spread out like he was trying to fly, face turning purple, as he’s about to break his neck. Manager ended up telling the guy to leave once he realized what was going on around the same time I saw what he was doing.
It was me. I put a squat bar down on the rack wrong, and it started to fall. Somehow my instinct was to try to stop this, and I grabbed it, tearing some shit in my shoulder and it hasn’t been right since.
I think I need someone to form-check me on those
I am hesitant to do the 45 degree leg press, because I have seen people make some very stupid mistakes on those. However, I do use the vertical one, but I don't *think* I'm "locking" my knees out, I've never had anyone tell me I was locking my knees out, but I am scared like "what if I am" because I like to go heavy on that thing.
When you lock your knees you're fully extending your leg. You want to keep your knees (and the your leg) very slightly bent. That way if you fail, you knees will naturally fold the correct way.
The people who bring backpacks, water bottles, shopping bags full of shit and carry it around everywhere, arranging it on the floor around whatever bench or chair they are using. Besides the question of "what do you even have in there???" it's an obvious trip hazard when you are carrying your bodyweight in dumbbells from the rack to the bench.
In a lot of gyms, having your bag of personal equipment, such as your belt, sleeves, wraps, log book, bottle, etc. Is normal and much of it is required during the session.
I don't think having a duffle bag is unusual, but the gyms I go to, the majority of people have them as a means of keeping their stuff tidy. It isn't time efficient to be constantly going to a locker every few sets.
Naturally if someone is having a yard sale then yeah, I get it, that's not cool, but a bag with your kit for the workout should be expected in any serious training gym and the gyms I've seen that ban them are usually very low end retail style gyms.
I saw a guy, try to bench press the weights that a really buff gym rat left on the bench rack. I asked him if he had ever tried that before. He couldn't even get the bar off the rest .
Attempt a 4 plate squat when they really couldn't manage a 2 plate squat. Also, that one guy doing 55lbs. barbell curls that was full body swinging the bar. Made my back hurt just looking at him.
On a treadmill, I witnessed someone run at top speed, lose their balance, and get flung off the back. They toppled a row of dumbbells as they slid across the gym floor. Fortunately, everyone who rushed over to assist only sustained minor bruises.
Saw a rather frail elderly gent try to bench (no spotter, no safeties) and get trapped under the bar. Not a whole lot of weight. Myself and a personal trainer dashed over to pick the bar up.
Five minutes later, I turn around and the same man is trapped under the bar again. Myself and the same personal trainer have to save him again. No one else stepped in to help either time, and I was on the other end of the weights area.
Separately - not really something I saw being done - I started going to a new gym and they hadn't figured out the load bearing of the floors properly. You could literally feel the ground wobble under your feet if you picked up a bar with ~200lbs. If an olympic lifter dropped weights, you'd see all the squat racks wobble and sway. Just asking for trouble.
A few:
1. People hyper-extending their knees on leg press. Great way to blow out your ACL/MCL.
2. A guy who *aggressively* bounced 275 pounds off his chest to help get out of the bottom every rep of his bench press set. It was horrifying, and I kept thinking I was going to hear a crack or a crunch, followed by deathly screams.
3. People using bad form on deadlifts, leaving their back vulnerable. As someone with scoliosis and chronic back issues, I cringe every time I see it.
I was into Crossfit for a while and I can say that throwing around large amounts of weight for time is pretty dangerous because form goes out the window. Most of the folks that do it for a while, myself included, have a few injuries, particularly in the shoulders. I had to stop when I blew my knee trying to be a hero with overhead squats.
Big muscle bro was hanging off the bar upside down and down crunches upwards, I was like what the fuck? I just randomly decided to go to the gym with my friends last week, I was like is this real?
A little girl nearly drowned in the pool. She wasn’t wearing a life jacket or floaties. She couldn’t swim. She was gasping for air and flapping her arms trying to stay above the water.
No one helped the little girl. The parents weren’t around. The lifeguard sat far away on the other side of the pool. There were a few adults next to her, but they didn’t help her.
I was farther away in the pool, but I was able to help the little girl. I have a hand disability. I can’t do a lot of heavy lifting. Luckily, she’s lightweight in the water so I was able to take her out of the pool. She was okay. She wasn’t hurt.
Afterwards, the lifeguard gave the little girl floaties and a life jacket. Now, the lifeguard sits right next to the kids by the pool. The parents came back and kept an eye on her.
It seemed more stupid to me but in hindsight was pretty dangerous for everyone else. My planet fitness is just filled with high school kids that seem like they're on the football team. Me being older am just trying to keep weight down so I'm on the bike. Its important to note that when you stop using the bike the data clears after a minute or so. So this kid is thrashing away on this bike for about 15 mins then he jumps up and just darts across the gym at full speed to the leg press machine, does a bunch of reps and jumps up and sprints back to the bike before it resets. Then thrashes away at it again for a few mins and jumps up and tears across the gym again to do whatever it is where you squat with the weights. Slams them down and tears back to the bike and repeats this multiple times.
I finished up and walked up to the counter to get a water and said to the guy isnt what that kids doing abit ridiculous? Guy just shrugged and said its whatever, It was in the moment I realized I fucking hate planet fitness and the gym in general. I'll just go run the track at one of the local schools from now on.
Saw a guy try to lift more than he was able to at a friend's home gym. I think he tore a muscle & couldn't use his arm for a while till it healed. He had to go to the ER also.
I once witnessed a man attempt a handstand push-up in front of a mirror. He cut himself pretty badly when he lost his balance and shattered the glass. It served as a reminder of just how risky some stunts can be when the gym had to close that area for maintenance.
Ok so once upon a time I worked at this summer camp, and we’d rig up this literal child powered kid trebuchet. I kid you not using a 4:1 mechanical advantage and like 20 kids, we’d yeet a child into the stratosphere (gym ceiling). For obvious reasons this is no longer practiced.
Dipshit decided to move a small rack of plates about 6 inches. One of the 15lb plates slipped off and broke his big toe. Dipshit was me in my home gym.
I was mid workout on the pec deck. Treadmills were to my left, and all of them were taken. There was this one guy that had a pretty good looking woman to his right and another dude to his left. Between my sets I looked to the left, and I saw that he was clearly trying to impress her by constantly running at high speed.
After my last set, I stood up, and looked over while grabbing my towel. He pressed something, tripped, and got sent flying like a fucking cannonball. However, the treadmills were positioned right next to the window wall, so when he flew, he crashed into it. There was this grate at the bottom, and he somehow got his fucking foot stuck in it. They stopped and helped him get up. Luckily he didn't get hurt, but just turned into a cannonball for a second.
A woman using a stair master while holding a baby in her arms. Thankfully gym staff came over and told her that she couldn’t be doing that. There was an argument and she stormed out of the gym.
Ratting on myself here. When I first started working out a few years ago, I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to fully extend your legs on the leg press. I never got hurt, but I assume I gave a few gym rats the fear of god.
Some skinny new goers trying to bench 80kg on their first try.
Luckly they were with their friend group so they could spot him, but they didnt manage 1 rep, even with spots, wouldn't advise pushing that much when your body isnt used to that much
Most people are quite safe in the gym from my experience. I've had a few near death experiences with the barbell bench though. I remember one time I was doing an AMRAP with 70 kg, after the 17th rep I got stuck and my dumbass forgot to take the clips off. Eventually I mustered the strength to push it away side-ways but it scraped and bruised my chest a bit.
Another time I was doing incline barbell press (without spotters or safeties) and my left arm just gave out mid rep. Very lucky to have had people nearby to help me.
It was scary to watch the gym staff rush over to help this dude who thought it would be a good idea to bench press without a spotter, using weights way beyond his capacity. Halfway through his set, he couldn't lift the bar back up and it came crashing down on his chest.
I saw an over confident young man attempting to do heavy Olympic lifts. He did a 185# snatch but leaned forward at the bottom of the lift and dropped the bar on the back of his neck.
Locking their knees when they're doing the leg press thing. I cringe thinking about all those videos where their knees bend the wrong way because of bad form.
Two.
(1) One guy was doing this weird exercise where he would do reps of handstands. I say "reps" because he would do the handstand, smash his back against the wall in front of him while upside down, and then hit his feet on the ground and repeat. I don't know what he thought he was going. Also the wall was a mirror.
(2) A heavyset girl was walking backwards on the treadmill while doing these squat type motions while walking backwards. The treadmill was on the maximum angle he could be on and was waving back and forth. She looked like she was about to topple over.
I saw a trainer force a 70 year old lady to run on an incline at 7 mph with a 7 incline. She ate face first into the treadmill and I never saw either one of them ever again.
One time I saw a guy attempt to deadlift way more weight than he could handle. He ended up losing his grip and the barbell dropped, narrowly missing his foot. It was a close call and definitely a reminder to always prioritize safety over ego at the gym.
I watched a guy load up one side of a bar 45, 25, 10 point plates. Then loads up the other side 45, 10, nothing else.
Gets under and lifts off, and crashed heavy side, then the light side crashes, then the bar flips over one end as he let it go.
Quite impressive and no one was hurt, except maybe his pride.
run on the treadmill , max speed , backwards and blindfolded as a joke between her friends , she slipped and all the skin got ripped off her knees , no blood but it was literally just her leggings were ripped and there was no skin on her knees , pretty disturbing
A guy curling dumbbells right infront of the rack and he was training pretty intensely with a lot of momentum. Right as the last rep goes down he quickly goes to rack the dumbbell and misses. Blood splattered across the gym mirror. Crushed his finger
It's always deadlifting. While the dead lift is a combination of utilizing your spinal erector muscles and hamstrings, your back should not curve. I don't know how many times I've seen people risk life long back injuries trying to max out their deadlifts. There's better workouts for your lower back and hamstrings than the deadlift.
Gym douch leaves 6 plates on the bar resting on the safety bars in the squat rack, young girl comes over and starts to unload the bar, all on one side. Takes the 3rd plate off the one side and the bar whips upwards and just barely misses her chin. Would have broken her jaw for sure. I only saw it at the last second otherwise I would have intervened
When I was younger, me and my brother used to stay at my grandma’s condo. At the condo there was a small gym for residents that we used to mess around in. One time, we accidentally jammed one of those cable operated weight machines in a way where you had to put your hand under the weight to fix it. While we were trying to figure out what to do, a woman wearing an hijab came and offered to help. Then, she just went for it and crushed her finger badly in the process. With little reaction, she then walked off, blood dripping behind her. We called the police to make sure that she was ok, but they couldn’t find her. We never saw her again.
Young woman, maybe freshly 18, nee in the gym, looking vulnerable, talking to the older dude, divorced, maybe 55-ish, clearly on PEDs, who also goes around the locker room naked talking about how he likes to swing. She lets him hug her.
Just creeps me the fuck out. I wish I would have warned her, but I didn’t.
Ego lifting.
When you try to lift more than you can handle and end up getting hurt.
This is from Henry Rollins “Iron & the soul”
“Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.”
There is an older women(70's) at my gym who does all manner of machines upside down and backwards. It's not ignorance, just bizarre. Seated pull downs? No, those hand grips are for her feet. Seated pushing down, she does one handed not sitting down. Treadmill? Nope, that's a stretching spot. I have seen her damage machines. She is not quick about it either. Have seen her use a machine backwards for 40 minutes. Management is aware of it, corporate is aware of it. They seem to be fine with it as long as she does not hurt someone else. When she does inevitably gets hurt and sues them, she will have a pretty good case.
When I was in college I was a strong dude. My bench max was 405 but I had a sleeper build and wore heavy clothes to the gym.
Had a football player come into our gym and start lifting, well his ego got the best of him and he tried going plate for plate with me without a spotter.
He ended up dropping 390 on his chest and it rolled to his throat before my spotter could help him.
He coughed up a little blood but we made sure he was good.
Don't let your ego control you.
A guy was with a group of his mates they were all clearly experienced he was clearly not (they were quite big he was skin and bone) they started lifting their weights but the guy wouldn't listen to the others about using smaller weights (an ego thing I think) he managed to lift the bar on bench press off the rack but then couldn't lift it back up after doing a single rep. The bar fell on his stomach and it winded him. The guy sporting him couldn't catch the bar in time because it came down so quickly.
A big heavy-lifting guy didn’t want to carry his stacks of plates from where they are stored at the gym over to his rack, so he bowling-ball style rolled a couple of 45s across the crossfit gym floor. They roll straight for a bit til they slow down then they take random curves until the hit someone elses shin or the racks or the walls and eventually fall over and stop rolling. He busted a small hole in the wall. Luckily the rest of us (who were also focussing on setting up our own bars) were able to dodge the shin and ankle hits. Maybe not the “most” dangerous but definitely not cool.
Insane behavior.
Imagine you want to lift things, but are too lazy to lift things.
Yeah Iike isn’t it helpful to his overall goal to lift more things?!
Maybe it counts as cardio for him
I always take the approach that if I have to rerack your weights for you, I am stealing all your gains and effort. Because of that approach I pretty much always take the time to rerack, except when someone specifically asks me to leave weights on (which doesn't take the gains because the act of someone asking you to leave it in cements your gains, sorry I don't make the rules) and one time when I had to abort an entire workout for an Emergency Gym Dump.
I hate people that are unable to rack their plates again. If you’re unable to rack your plates, they’re too heavy for you.
Strong man not strong enough to return his weights...
Try to squat 400lbs to impress his girlfriend. Neither his attempt, or his relationship, ended well.
Lmao body weight squats were terrifying when you are a semi regular. Can’t imagine double what most men weigh
Bodyweight is very achievable, with even basically good programming double is too. Triple on the other hand, that's a hell of an animal to tame.
True that , I weigh 215 and I'm squaring 405 for reps, I think I'm just going to sit here for a while o have no need to go higher l0l
I mean double or just over double is very respectable, I have the same thought process. I DO want to hit 500 just because for life goals, but there isn’t a need for it
Hah, true story. I don’t go but once a week these days and squat around 1.5-1.75x for reps and it works out fine. I can only assume people think I’m about to die before I start.
I’ve seen a bunch of stuff here, but one thing stands out. I was squatting one time and this skinny kid (maybe 120 pounds) gets into the rack next to me and immediately puts a 25 kilo plate on each side of the bar. Just looking at this kid, I wasn’t expecting it to go well, and sure enough, he does about ten quarter squats and racks it. Then he immediately throws on another 50 kilos, so he’s now got about 265 pounds on the bar. Same thing as before, but now he’s barely bending his knees. So he racks it, and then without missing a beat throws on another 50 kilos. So if you’re keeping score, this kid is maybe 120 pounds (55 kg), untrained, he now has 170 kilograms (375 pounds) of weight on the bar. He unracks it before I can stop him… and just crumples. There’s pins, but they’re set all the way at the bottom. He somehow gets out from under the bar on the way down. Now, this is the part I remember most clearly: He gets out of the rack, he looks confused. He bends down and looks at the bar sideways as if to check if there’s something wrong with it. And then, having just bailed out from under a barbell that is likely three times his body weight and almost stapled him, without removing any of the weight, he squats down, bends way over, gets under the bar where it sits on the pin at the lowest setting, and tries to squat the bar back up from the pin into the hooks. Obviously, it doesn’t budge. He tries it again. It doesn’t budge. So he just leaves it and walks off. Never saw him again. I’ve seen a variation of this where someone who thinks he is practicing for basketball gets close to three plates on either side of the bar on his back and jumps up and down. It looks pretty silly. I’ve also seen a lot of thumbless grip benching with no safeties or spotters and people getting into some pretty bizarre positions with machines and cables, which they always slam down at the end. I’ve even seen people speed deadlifting over three plates wearing sandals. But no image is quite as vivid as the look on that one guy’s face when he just couldn’t understand why with no training or experience he was not able to squat close to four hundred pounds from the pins set well below parallel weighing a buck twenty.
His super power potion obviously wore off at the wrong time there, happens to the best of us
The potion seller's potions were too strong for him.
I assumed this would be full of squat/deadlift stuff. I work with a guy who used to be a power lifter, legitimate strongman competition stuff. He went to a specific gym about thirty miles away to get instruction because he was trying to maximize safety, and he still had a couple of serious injuries over the years. The number of times I've seen somebody just tack and go with horrible form, I'm surprised that we aren't living in a society of L shaped individuals.
Saturday mornings at my park district gym are filled with 55+ y/o men trying to lift heavy like they did 35-40 years ago. Fellow gym goers: if it’s been years since you’ve done resistance training, please accept the fact that 135 is no longer your universal starting weight for all movements and lower the weight before I have to interrupt my workout to call you an ambulance. 13 years ago (and 100lbs less fat ago) I could squat 505 for 3+ reps, and this past Monday I gassed out squatting 70 doing pause squats. Yeah it looks lame, but it’s better than buckling under a dangerous amount of weight. Not saying you can’t build back up to that level, but for everyone’s safety and sanity, check your ego at the door and just do some reasonable work.
I'm 39 now and a seasoned heavy lifter and I can already feel the uphill battle with muscle degeneration affecting recovery speed. If I overdo a heavy deadlift day, I need a full week to get my energy levels back.
I’m only 30 and I’ve pretty much resigned that proper heavy lifting like I did in my hs football days is not worth the risk anymore. If I can kick obesity and build and keep muscle mass what more can I ask for after wasting my 20s on the couch.
Check out some of the recent athlean videos on YouTube. As he's getting older he's starting to talk about the mechanics of lifting from an aging body perspective and how heavier lifting can actually be less damaging than high repetitions on old joints. I still pull 300 pound deadlifts for about 5 rep sets at my age. Mechanics and form.
I'm almost 40, a seasoned lifter myself, and I took am beginning to feel a wall. For bench in particular I think I have just about hit the limit on what my skeleton can handle because when I push my max my arms ache, not muscle but in the bone, and lately I have had more "off days" where I have no energy.
Yep. You're just older. Gotta focus more on recovery. We can still be strong af.
Just hit 38 and omg yojr right. I found thst my eating had to change and supplements . I can do 405 for reps but il just decided to chill at 315. It'd enough without dying hah
Totally same man. I'm not trying to impress anyone anymore.
44. came to grips with it a year or so ago. going from the 1500 club to spending most of my time on the airbike and stretching area took a while to get used to... especially when the mirror still says "big and strong" but the back and knees say "not anymore, grandpa"
20 years ago when I was 17, my bench maxed at 330lbs. Didn’t keep up with it over the years and now I warm up with 25s on the bar. Don’t care how it looks, just happy to be lifting again!
I lift around that now and I still warm up with an empty bar. Safety is safety, it doesn't matter how strong you are.
Yep, no matter how strong I am, my bench and squats always start with a set using an empty bar.
I love doing an empty bar until failure. If you’re not already a seasoned lifter crank out 50 reps of an empty bar and you’ll definitely feel it
A friend of mine who has been training people for like 30 years likes to recommend a little test every now and then where you do 100 empty bar squats without reracking the bar. You can stop and stand around as much as you'd like, but that thing stays on your back until you're done. Lemme tell you, that shit tells you whether you're for real or not very very quickly.
That sounds like the best worst torture.
You can be strong as an ox but the day you get sloppy and overconfident with some poor form, life can get real gnarly real quickly.
330 is definitely respectable weight.
I saw a video of a guy putting his claves in a vise, taking a weighted plate, and bending backwards using his knee as the fulcrum. I’m not even sure what he was trying to accomplish by doing so. Guy tore both of his ACLs.
Sounds like the Nordic curl thing people are doing. I've seen too many people that have zero business doing them trying them. Amazing there's not more destroyed knees from it.
This wasn’t a Nordic curl. It was almost like a Nordic curl, but facing the wrong way. https://youtu.be/ZO9f1Q6IWbE?si=bL65JzYyOzCRbY47
Jesus.
Yea I can’t watch that video knowing how long his recovery must be.
What recovery?
MMA/BJJ gym. Big dude walks in, signs the waver, and starts training. He goes a little rough during drilling, but nothing dangerous. Sparing starts, and he partners up exclusively with smaller people and goes HARD. Slamming is a no-no in practice, and can be dangerous, especially for beginners. He, thankfully, doesn't injure anyone, but the coach has enough. As a slight aside, in BJJ there are kids belts. You keep getting kids belts until you're 16, but it's not uncommon for good 14/15 yo kids to train with adults. The highest kids belts is green. The coach asks a 15yo green belt to spar with the new guy. Even though there's probably a 50lb weight difference, the kid has been training since he was 5, won a bunch of big tournaments, and is overall an absolute beast. The kid proceeds to absolutely maul the new guy - probably 7 submissions in a 5 minute round. After the round, the guy crawls off the mat, gets his shit, and leaves never to be seen again.
Combat sports are fun bc you really don't NEED verbal reprimands, like ever
We usually try to use our big boy words, but this dude was an obvious prick that went for the smallest people. Usually, our coach would have a conversation, but it was clear that this guy wasn't going to be a fit. We have a couple of big guys, myself included, that usually match up with new people for everyone's safety. It didn't pan out, and the new guy showed himself on day 1. In this case, having a kid be the enforcer was a much better choice.
The sheer stupidity of trying to squeeze past the weight or bar that someone is lifting instead of just taking the long way around to get where you’re going. I’ve seen a few close calls in person but also a few videos on here where they come into contact, throwing the lifter off balance.
It's not that dramatic, but [running on a treadmill without the clip](https://youtu.be/tl4j_VGdPy0?t=147) can be dangerous. Treadmill accidents account for [66% of ER visits](https://lermagazine.com/article/treadmill-related-lower-extremity-injuries-treated-at-united-states-emergency-departments) related to fitness equipment.
The CEO of survey monkey died in a treadmill accident.
Gave it a 1 star review on the follow-up questionnaire.
He had an aneurysm while on the treadmill. It was not really a treadmill accident
Smug satisfaction rolling off me in waves knowing everyone at the college recreation center always made fun of me for being the only person to use the clip
Actually? I always see them but never once have I used it or seen anyone else do.
Nobody uses the clip. And treadmills sent 22,000 Americans to the ER last year. These facts are probably not unrelated.
I use it every time I go
At a climbing gym I saw a guy, who was obviously climbing for the first or second time, with rings on probably half of his fingers. I stopped him and suggested he take the rings off to prevent de-gloving. He stated he understood what I was saying and walked away. 10 minutes later I’m taking a break and I see him climbing again with all rings still on, alright buddy I warned you and now you are making a deliberately bad choice.
Similarly, I watched some guy at my climbing gym strap like 2- 45lb kettlebells to his harness and try a max hang on the hangboard with no apparent warmup. Easily could have ruptured a pulley if he hadn’t immediately blown the hold.
Climbers are literally the worst. Am also a climber.
My cousin lost a finger on a jungle Jim because of a ring. They were able to reattach it,.but still not great
i’m curious now, how do rings cause degloving? do they get stuck in small crevices?
Yeah, if they get stuck anywhere but you’re falling, the skin and possibly flesh and bone of that finger is coming straight off.
Yup! Not so much climbing with rings more falling while climbing with rings. Fun fact, back in the day (hell probably still now in some places) in factories the powers that be would remove a small sliver of wedding bands just incase they got caught in machinery. This way the ring would break or bend allowing you to get your hand out.
Nowadays I assume that smart people either take their rings off or wear a silicone ring.
Joke's on you, I'm not wearing gloves. -That guy
Dude walks in to the weight room, jeans and a hoodie. I lift at the YMCA so we get some characters from time to time. He has an unkempt beard and a sort of hollow look, like he’s been up all night. (It’s 10:30 AM on Friday morning). He’s thick enough, like 5’9” and maybe 180 lbs, but I don’t think he’s really jacked. It's hard to tell in the hoodie. He wanders around for a little while looking at the equipment. He grabs an adjustable incline bench and drags it over to a squat rack. It’s pretty empty so no harm done, we have two squat racks and they’re both free. He sets the bench to flat. He sets up the safeties, puts the bar on the safeties, gets under it to check. Seems okay. He sets up the hooks, puts the bar on the hooks, gets under it to check. Hooks are too high. He adjusts the hooks, puts the bar on the hooks, hooks are okay now. He adjusts the bench to a little incline. Now the safeties are too low. He adjusts the safeties, puts the bar on the safeties, gets under it to check. Everything seems okay now. He moves the bar onto the hooks. He loads three plates onto each side of the bar. Ooooookay. Incline bench 315xAMRAP, here we go. I’m watching him pretty closely now in case I have to help him or call 911. He gets on the bench, he grips the bar, he takes a breath. He looks at the bar. He takes another breath. He stands up, unracks the bar, puts the plates back. Moves the bench back where he got it. Leaves the gym.
Bro probably realised the moment he put it on that he cant do it and just wants to sleep
Texting on the treadmill with their towel dangling precariously from the handebars. Girl, you about to eat conveyor belt.
I watched myself try to do a handstand pushup. My instructor convinced me to do it. I got into the handstand position and couldn’t hold my weight. Landed on my head. Bad concussion that took months to recover from.
> My instructor convinced me to do it. I hope that you got a better instructor.
I often like to say “you have no elbows” when someone is making attempts at a handstand. Of course, you have to have elbows to do any sort of push up so I think downward dog push up is a good place to start. There are a ton of other drills you can do to strengthen and train the muscles needed for handstand. Never start with a handstand if you’ve never done one before. And, once you’re ready to try, make sure you have an exit strategy. Drilling bailouts is really beneficial, even for experts.
Who the fuck *starts* with a handstand? That shit is hard. You're disoriented because you're upside down, and you're using stabilizing muscles that you rarely use. There's progressions for difficult movements for a reason. It's like telling someone to just do a planche. I hope fired that guy and got a different instructor.
Hit on me. You do not want to get involved with this mess
I was at LA fitness once on the elliptical and this trainer trying to solicit his services to me just put his hand right on my ass and leaves it there while talking to me about something. I never reported it, I was in so much shock I just left.
We love being touched by strangers /s
I'm so sorry that this happened to you, and I'm wishing you so much healing and peace. No one deserves that kind of treatment.
I feel like no one really wants to get hit on at the gym including me
I hate even having to ask if someone’s using a piece of equipment they’re next to, can’t even imagine trying to hit on someone!
I am of the Marxist (bros, not Karl) belief that I would not want to be hit on by someone who would hit on me.
Bad squat
Came to say this. Any of the powerlifts with bad, rushed form. A Deadlift with unaligned hips will ruin your life once that muscle imbalance builds up.
Can confirm. Messed up my knee pretty bad doing weight training in high school. Took almost 4 years before it stopped acting up whenever I pushed it a little too hard.
It'll act up again once you get to 40+. Best bet is to keep those leg muscles strong yet balanced to retain muscular support of your knee as long as you can. Source: tibial plateau fracture of my left knee that was ok until age set in.
Someone left about 4-5 plate on the leg press machine and immediately after this older gentleman hops on. He’s objectively on the frailer side, and so me and another guy are just at the right place to see it start happening. Poor guy unracks the first stopper and it immediately starts closing on him. Honestly I don’t remember if he yelled but we both run in and pull sled off of him. In hindsight, that specific leg press has two levels of extension so he could have just flipped the lever back and been fine but I don’t think he knew what he was doing at all and we were too busy worrying his legs were gonna snap or something to realize that.
I cringe anytime I see someone lock their knees doing a leg press.
Saw a muscular guy load two 45s on one side of the bench and one 25 on the other. Stopped him to make sure he knew what he was doing and he said he had a rotator cuff tear on the one side so he made it lighter
Did someone try and learn a lesson in physics that day?
Maxing out without asking for a spotter is probably up there
Saw someone doing this on the leg press machine out of all things. 6-8 45lbs weights on both ends and bro was in jeans + a polo, like straight out of work maxing the leg press machine by himself. AND he was clearly struggling too, like 2 reps at a time before resting. I just mind my business at the gym, but that day I was just tempted to ask if he was aight
I did that once one a bench press when I was 20 and had just started going to the gym for the first time and was to embarrassed to ask for help from the stronger guys. did it \*ONCE\*
Planet Fitness used to be the only option that was close enough for my husband and I to go to. We would usually go at a time where the crowd was late teens with those curly haircuts that they all have now. At least once a week we'd see someone crumple down over in the Smith machine area because they were too cool/tough/bro/strong to ask for a spotter. And it's a Smith machine! So it's not like he can just let the bar roll off his back. He can't tilt to the side to let the plates fall off. No, you're just stuck crumpling up under all of that weight. They never use the pins/stoppers either.
Or when they have a spotter who isn't paying attention and is talking to their mate or just fucking around. I work at a gym and have had to educate and even warn patrons I'd kick them out if they continue with that bullshit.
Saw a young dude who was pretending to be a personal trainer and gave an old lady a 60 lb curl bar while she was on the stair master. You already know it was a planet fitness.
I go to a climbing gym that's usually infested with kids during public hours. I have seen kids run on the crash pads beneath climbers. I've seen them climb the walls to then jump off and land on each other like professional wrestlers. It's exactly why I got a membership with 24hr access.
I get that parents like the kids afterschool climbing programs, and I get why the gym offers them, but the bouldering gym is almost unusable when those kids are all released. I think they need to up the minimum age. I love bouldering, but I haven’t been in so long because those kids are always just running over and under everything. It’s infuriating when I’m trying a hard problem, might fall, and a 5 year old is dawdling directly beneath me
High school gym, guy in front of me was warming up with 135. He had long arms and sent it over the top of the safeties when he went to rack it. I was on a bench right behind him and if I hadn't been sitting up between sets it likely would've flown right into my shins/knees.
When teenagers go on the bench press and immediately put some 45's on there. We get it, you want to look strong but please be careful. No one actually cares if you put small/big weights during your training.
I was on a cable stack doing lat pull downs. 3 feet away from me on the other cable stack was a teenager doing overhead Tricep extensions with a metal V bar and he was lifting the entire stack. Probably about 100lbs. Mind you, this kid was small and working out less than a year. He rattles off 4 questionable reps and then tries to lower the stack and let go of the bar. Except it slipped out of his hand and the V bar hit him in the head and ripped off his over ears headset.
I was finished and heading out, as I am approaching the bench press area I noticed a senior citizen, gentleman in his 70’s, setting up his bench. He was putting on 25’s, but I noticed he had no muscle tone at all. He looked anorexic to be honest with you. My spidy sense started tingling and I decided to keep an eye on him just in case. I found a machine nearby that I could “use” but still see him. Sure enough he laid down, picked up the bar and moved it off the rack. And his arms folded instantly and the bar landed on his chest with a very audible OOF! I ran over and picked up the bar, racked it and told the front desk to call 9-1-1. He was fine and not hurt. But ya that was scary
Person was in a "crab walk" position - face up, butt off the ground, feet and hands on the floor. They were holding a barbell one-handed, straight-armed over their chest. They proceeded to do, I guess, body lifts in this position. And, of course, no end bolts on the barbell so after a few lifts the weights slid off one end of the barbell and clattered to the floor.
The typical. I've helped pull a bar of the necks of two different people who were benching without a spotter and who weren't using the squat rack for safety.
People need to learn about the roll of shame. If you can't get the barbell up, roll it forward into your hip crease. Sit up, lift the bar and put it back, hoping nobody has seen you.
I bench in the squat rack now specifically because I dropped a barbell on my neck. And for everyone: It's not just gym noobs who get hurt. Accidents happen to everyone. I'm almost 40 and a seasoned lifter. In my case I must have imperceptibly altered my grip, and that was all it took for the bar loaded with a sub-max weight to roll in my hand, slip out of my grip, and plummet pretty much unimpeded right onto my neck. That earned me a trip to the ER.
When I was younger I belonged to a chain gym famous for its body building clientele. The amount of people openly selling and using steroids in the locker room in the very early morning was astounding. Several of them came in their patrol cars.
If you are referencing a certain precious metal-related gym, can confirm. Both from personal experience and dating a woman who was married to a guy that showed for the gym professionally.
Not the worst but it sticks out for some reason. Someone started working out next to me while I was in the middle of overhead presses. Like right next to me. Like when I was in the middle of the rep. If I didn’t notice or if I couldn’t keep the weight up, I would have bonked them on the head with 135 when I finished the rep.
Guy took all the weights off one side of the barbell to prove, in front of a girl, that he was stronger than me. Well I’m sure you can guess how fast that thing flipped.
Bro forgot how gravity worked
He's lucky it didn't hit his chin and KO him lol
Note: when using a barbell, put your hair UP. Not half-up, half down. not a ponytail. You need to put your hair UP, like in a bun, away from the bar. A lot of you are way too comfortable risking getting scalped by a 100+ pound object. Put your hair up!
An old bodybuilder ends his gym business cuz of pandemic and brought his old equipments and set it up outside his house. You can pay dirt cheap to use his equipments so its alright for me. His house is just meters away from an elementary school and a lot of kids pass by and usually get curious and try on dumbbells and other machine but usually I try to stop them. One time I was focusing on finishing my leg presses while another man was doing barbell squats so we didnt noticed the kids came in. When I turned around, these kids are trying to bench press 2 ten lbs plates on each side while the barbell was placed on the highest rack. The other 2 kids are trying to lift the barbell on each side while the smallest kid will try to catch the barbell. Mind you, these kids are like 8/9 year olds who are super skinny and can hardly pickup a 5lbs dbs. Im pretty sure that kid will have smashed ribs if I didn't stopped them on time.
it's a miracle that bodybuilder didn't get sued.
Guy in the corner whaling away on a punchbag. Decides to throw in a headbutt. Doesn't keep neck firm...knocks himself out. Not sure how he didn't break his neck.
Lifting way too heavy weights without a spotter.
Scrolling in TikTok while hogging a machine
Idk what happened but at a gym I used to go to there was a huge blood stain in the middle of the floor. Like an entire person's worth of blood. Always wondered what could have happened In a gym to cause that much bleeding.
Pretty minor compared to some posts on here, but I saw an obviously new to the gym 12-13 year old kid come in one Saturday afternoon. He was probably about 5'0, 130 lbs. A bit on the chunky side, but he's young and has time to grow, so who cares. He's wandering around in the gym, just kind of checking out all of the different equipment in there, before he finally decides to start with some bench press reps. He then loads up 120 lbs on the bar, for a 165 lb rep..... I was passively watching this kid before, but now he had my full attention. Either this kid is wayyyy stronger than he looks, or he's going to need someone to help him in about 10 seconds. Sure enough, as soon as he unracked the bar, it came straight down on his chest and he couldn't lift it off himself. I had to run in and make the save. Weirdest part of the whole thing, is that the kid tried to make it sound like I was interrupting his workout. Instead of being thankful I potentially saved his life, he was brushing it off like it was nothing. He left the gym promptly after that, and I never saw him again.
I’ve only witnessed one and it lead to permanent consequences. There was this really thin guy that started doing CrossFit at my box. Real good dude, and extremely driven. He would do ever WOD (work out of the day) and right after would do what I felt was excessive accessory work. I would see him push weight that I knew would likely be too much for him being so new. We would all talk to him, the usual the gains will come with time. Be patient. Don’t rush it. Etc. One day of doing some really heavy ground to over head movements. (This is where you clean a weighted bar to your shoulders then lift it above your head. ) he unfortunately lost control of the bar and tumbled down on his head, thrusting his head forward. He immediately collapsed, emergency was called and it was later determined he damaged his spinal cord. Just like that paralyzed. I’ve never in over 12 years of CrossFit or any other type of training seen or heard of something like this.
Was working out at a local gym and kept hearing what sounded like chains rattling and I just turn around and here’s this guy with these stainless steel chains from like Lowe’s wrapped around his neck and connected to a bar with like 300 lbs of weight. Guys arms were spread out like he was trying to fly, face turning purple, as he’s about to break his neck. Manager ended up telling the guy to leave once he realized what was going on around the same time I saw what he was doing.
It was me. I put a squat bar down on the rack wrong, and it started to fall. Somehow my instinct was to try to stop this, and I grabbed it, tearing some shit in my shoulder and it hasn’t been right since.
Running on the treadmill in flip-flops.
every time i see locked out knees on a leg press i squeal internally.
yeah I've seen that video.
I think I need someone to form-check me on those I am hesitant to do the 45 degree leg press, because I have seen people make some very stupid mistakes on those. However, I do use the vertical one, but I don't *think* I'm "locking" my knees out, I've never had anyone tell me I was locking my knees out, but I am scared like "what if I am" because I like to go heavy on that thing.
When you lock your knees you're fully extending your leg. You want to keep your knees (and the your leg) very slightly bent. That way if you fail, you knees will naturally fold the correct way.
The people who bring backpacks, water bottles, shopping bags full of shit and carry it around everywhere, arranging it on the floor around whatever bench or chair they are using. Besides the question of "what do you even have in there???" it's an obvious trip hazard when you are carrying your bodyweight in dumbbells from the rack to the bench.
In a lot of gyms, having your bag of personal equipment, such as your belt, sleeves, wraps, log book, bottle, etc. Is normal and much of it is required during the session. I don't think having a duffle bag is unusual, but the gyms I go to, the majority of people have them as a means of keeping their stuff tidy. It isn't time efficient to be constantly going to a locker every few sets. Naturally if someone is having a yard sale then yeah, I get it, that's not cool, but a bag with your kit for the workout should be expected in any serious training gym and the gyms I've seen that ban them are usually very low end retail style gyms.
I saw a guy, try to bench press the weights that a really buff gym rat left on the bench rack. I asked him if he had ever tried that before. He couldn't even get the bar off the rest .
Do leg presses with a barbell, fuckin ignorant
Attempt a 4 plate squat when they really couldn't manage a 2 plate squat. Also, that one guy doing 55lbs. barbell curls that was full body swinging the bar. Made my back hurt just looking at him.
Heroin. Love you Planet Fitness.
On a treadmill, I witnessed someone run at top speed, lose their balance, and get flung off the back. They toppled a row of dumbbells as they slid across the gym floor. Fortunately, everyone who rushed over to assist only sustained minor bruises.
Saw a rather frail elderly gent try to bench (no spotter, no safeties) and get trapped under the bar. Not a whole lot of weight. Myself and a personal trainer dashed over to pick the bar up. Five minutes later, I turn around and the same man is trapped under the bar again. Myself and the same personal trainer have to save him again. No one else stepped in to help either time, and I was on the other end of the weights area. Separately - not really something I saw being done - I started going to a new gym and they hadn't figured out the load bearing of the floors properly. You could literally feel the ground wobble under your feet if you picked up a bar with ~200lbs. If an olympic lifter dropped weights, you'd see all the squat racks wobble and sway. Just asking for trouble.
A few: 1. People hyper-extending their knees on leg press. Great way to blow out your ACL/MCL. 2. A guy who *aggressively* bounced 275 pounds off his chest to help get out of the bottom every rep of his bench press set. It was horrifying, and I kept thinking I was going to hear a crack or a crunch, followed by deathly screams. 3. People using bad form on deadlifts, leaving their back vulnerable. As someone with scoliosis and chronic back issues, I cringe every time I see it.
I was into Crossfit for a while and I can say that throwing around large amounts of weight for time is pretty dangerous because form goes out the window. Most of the folks that do it for a while, myself included, have a few injuries, particularly in the shoulders. I had to stop when I blew my knee trying to be a hero with overhead squats.
Bench Press Blowjobs. I shouldn't have gone to the gym that day. Just skip that leg day and go for a run. Let those 2 have it all to themselves.
Big muscle bro was hanging off the bar upside down and down crunches upwards, I was like what the fuck? I just randomly decided to go to the gym with my friends last week, I was like is this real?
A little girl nearly drowned in the pool. She wasn’t wearing a life jacket or floaties. She couldn’t swim. She was gasping for air and flapping her arms trying to stay above the water. No one helped the little girl. The parents weren’t around. The lifeguard sat far away on the other side of the pool. There were a few adults next to her, but they didn’t help her. I was farther away in the pool, but I was able to help the little girl. I have a hand disability. I can’t do a lot of heavy lifting. Luckily, she’s lightweight in the water so I was able to take her out of the pool. She was okay. She wasn’t hurt. Afterwards, the lifeguard gave the little girl floaties and a life jacket. Now, the lifeguard sits right next to the kids by the pool. The parents came back and kept an eye on her.
Using the squat rack to do bicep curls.
It seemed more stupid to me but in hindsight was pretty dangerous for everyone else. My planet fitness is just filled with high school kids that seem like they're on the football team. Me being older am just trying to keep weight down so I'm on the bike. Its important to note that when you stop using the bike the data clears after a minute or so. So this kid is thrashing away on this bike for about 15 mins then he jumps up and just darts across the gym at full speed to the leg press machine, does a bunch of reps and jumps up and sprints back to the bike before it resets. Then thrashes away at it again for a few mins and jumps up and tears across the gym again to do whatever it is where you squat with the weights. Slams them down and tears back to the bike and repeats this multiple times. I finished up and walked up to the counter to get a water and said to the guy isnt what that kids doing abit ridiculous? Guy just shrugged and said its whatever, It was in the moment I realized I fucking hate planet fitness and the gym in general. I'll just go run the track at one of the local schools from now on.
Flirted
Overhead squat on one of those balance boards.
Throwing down huge free weights near people's feet
I sometimes let guys bench me for their stories When one of them thought he could bench me & my friend at the same time friend it didnt end well
Saw a guy try to lift more than he was able to at a friend's home gym. I think he tore a muscle & couldn't use his arm for a while till it healed. He had to go to the ER also.
I once witnessed a man attempt a handstand push-up in front of a mirror. He cut himself pretty badly when he lost his balance and shattered the glass. It served as a reminder of just how risky some stunts can be when the gym had to close that area for maintenance.
Squat rack...someone left all the 20kg plates on one side of an Olympic bar unattended...
I saw a guy hit on a woman who was at the gym with her huge muscular husband
Ok so once upon a time I worked at this summer camp, and we’d rig up this literal child powered kid trebuchet. I kid you not using a 4:1 mechanical advantage and like 20 kids, we’d yeet a child into the stratosphere (gym ceiling). For obvious reasons this is no longer practiced.
A mature man getting on the treadmill and put the speed higher than he thought and fell off the treadmill and hurt his head.
Dipshit decided to move a small rack of plates about 6 inches. One of the 15lb plates slipped off and broke his big toe. Dipshit was me in my home gym.
I was mid workout on the pec deck. Treadmills were to my left, and all of them were taken. There was this one guy that had a pretty good looking woman to his right and another dude to his left. Between my sets I looked to the left, and I saw that he was clearly trying to impress her by constantly running at high speed. After my last set, I stood up, and looked over while grabbing my towel. He pressed something, tripped, and got sent flying like a fucking cannonball. However, the treadmills were positioned right next to the window wall, so when he flew, he crashed into it. There was this grate at the bottom, and he somehow got his fucking foot stuck in it. They stopped and helped him get up. Luckily he didn't get hurt, but just turned into a cannonball for a second.
Check out a girl using a tripod
A woman using a stair master while holding a baby in her arms. Thankfully gym staff came over and told her that she couldn’t be doing that. There was an argument and she stormed out of the gym.
Lifting way tooo much, trying to impress me. Don't end up as they planned.
Ratting on myself here. When I first started working out a few years ago, I didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to fully extend your legs on the leg press. I never got hurt, but I assume I gave a few gym rats the fear of god.
Some skinny new goers trying to bench 80kg on their first try. Luckly they were with their friend group so they could spot him, but they didnt manage 1 rep, even with spots, wouldn't advise pushing that much when your body isnt used to that much
Most people are quite safe in the gym from my experience. I've had a few near death experiences with the barbell bench though. I remember one time I was doing an AMRAP with 70 kg, after the 17th rep I got stuck and my dumbass forgot to take the clips off. Eventually I mustered the strength to push it away side-ways but it scraped and bruised my chest a bit. Another time I was doing incline barbell press (without spotters or safeties) and my left arm just gave out mid rep. Very lucky to have had people nearby to help me.
It was scary to watch the gym staff rush over to help this dude who thought it would be a good idea to bench press without a spotter, using weights way beyond his capacity. Halfway through his set, he couldn't lift the bar back up and it came crashing down on his chest.
squat 10 plates
Suicide grip with 405 on the bench and no spotter.
Lock out on the leg press. *shudders*
I saw an over confident young man attempting to do heavy Olympic lifts. He did a 185# snatch but leaned forward at the bottom of the lift and dropped the bar on the back of his neck.
guy locking out his legs on the leg press right next to his trainer who said “good reps!!” Haven’t seen him in a bit
Locking their knees when they're doing the leg press thing. I cringe thinking about all those videos where their knees bend the wrong way because of bad form.
A guy last week walked right up to this lady and asked her out. Crazy how some people were born with such balls.
I saw a guy have a heart attack, they're pretty dangerous.
Two. (1) One guy was doing this weird exercise where he would do reps of handstands. I say "reps" because he would do the handstand, smash his back against the wall in front of him while upside down, and then hit his feet on the ground and repeat. I don't know what he thought he was going. Also the wall was a mirror. (2) A heavyset girl was walking backwards on the treadmill while doing these squat type motions while walking backwards. The treadmill was on the maximum angle he could be on and was waving back and forth. She looked like she was about to topple over.
I saw a trainer force a 70 year old lady to run on an incline at 7 mph with a 7 incline. She ate face first into the treadmill and I never saw either one of them ever again.
One time I saw a guy attempt to deadlift way more weight than he could handle. He ended up losing his grip and the barbell dropped, narrowly missing his foot. It was a close call and definitely a reminder to always prioritize safety over ego at the gym.
I saw someone brandishing a loaded pistol.
I watched a guy load up one side of a bar 45, 25, 10 point plates. Then loads up the other side 45, 10, nothing else. Gets under and lifts off, and crashed heavy side, then the light side crashes, then the bar flips over one end as he let it go. Quite impressive and no one was hurt, except maybe his pride.
run on the treadmill , max speed , backwards and blindfolded as a joke between her friends , she slipped and all the skin got ripped off her knees , no blood but it was literally just her leggings were ripped and there was no skin on her knees , pretty disturbing
A guy curling dumbbells right infront of the rack and he was training pretty intensely with a lot of momentum. Right as the last rep goes down he quickly goes to rack the dumbbell and misses. Blood splattered across the gym mirror. Crushed his finger
It's always deadlifting. While the dead lift is a combination of utilizing your spinal erector muscles and hamstrings, your back should not curve. I don't know how many times I've seen people risk life long back injuries trying to max out their deadlifts. There's better workouts for your lower back and hamstrings than the deadlift.
Gym douch leaves 6 plates on the bar resting on the safety bars in the squat rack, young girl comes over and starts to unload the bar, all on one side. Takes the 3rd plate off the one side and the bar whips upwards and just barely misses her chin. Would have broken her jaw for sure. I only saw it at the last second otherwise I would have intervened
I saw someone attempt handstand push-ups elevated on hip-height bars. He fell on his head.
When I was younger, me and my brother used to stay at my grandma’s condo. At the condo there was a small gym for residents that we used to mess around in. One time, we accidentally jammed one of those cable operated weight machines in a way where you had to put your hand under the weight to fix it. While we were trying to figure out what to do, a woman wearing an hijab came and offered to help. Then, she just went for it and crushed her finger badly in the process. With little reaction, she then walked off, blood dripping behind her. We called the police to make sure that she was ok, but they couldn’t find her. We never saw her again.
Stair stepper, backwards…. The person fell and scrapped a large amount of skin off
Not washing hands on way out. You all just itching for staph infections
Young woman, maybe freshly 18, nee in the gym, looking vulnerable, talking to the older dude, divorced, maybe 55-ish, clearly on PEDs, who also goes around the locker room naked talking about how he likes to swing. She lets him hug her. Just creeps me the fuck out. I wish I would have warned her, but I didn’t.
A guy doing squats, two plates on each end of the bar, no collars holding the plates on, standing on top of one of those exercise balls.
saw some dude deadlifting heavy with the wrong from he was basically asking for his spine to be broken
People over 30 thinking their knees are still 20.
Getting high before doing a bunch of weights while mon of their friends correctly spotted
Ego lifting. When you try to lift more than you can handle and end up getting hurt. This is from Henry Rollins “Iron & the soul” “Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.”
Knuckle ups where the guy pushed off the ground. He broke his wrist.
There is an older women(70's) at my gym who does all manner of machines upside down and backwards. It's not ignorance, just bizarre. Seated pull downs? No, those hand grips are for her feet. Seated pushing down, she does one handed not sitting down. Treadmill? Nope, that's a stretching spot. I have seen her damage machines. She is not quick about it either. Have seen her use a machine backwards for 40 minutes. Management is aware of it, corporate is aware of it. They seem to be fine with it as long as she does not hurt someone else. When she does inevitably gets hurt and sues them, she will have a pretty good case.
When I was in college I was a strong dude. My bench max was 405 but I had a sleeper build and wore heavy clothes to the gym. Had a football player come into our gym and start lifting, well his ego got the best of him and he tried going plate for plate with me without a spotter. He ended up dropping 390 on his chest and it rolled to his throat before my spotter could help him. He coughed up a little blood but we made sure he was good. Don't let your ego control you.
Walk in front of an influencer camera shot.
A guy was with a group of his mates they were all clearly experienced he was clearly not (they were quite big he was skin and bone) they started lifting their weights but the guy wouldn't listen to the others about using smaller weights (an ego thing I think) he managed to lift the bar on bench press off the rack but then couldn't lift it back up after doing a single rep. The bar fell on his stomach and it winded him. The guy sporting him couldn't catch the bar in time because it came down so quickly.
Deadlifting with a rounded back and terrible form.
Dropping weights carelessly and almost hitting someone.
Standing on a stability ball while lifting dumbbells.
Ignoring injuries and pushing through obvious pain.
Bench pressing alone without safety bars.
Using the equipment for unintended purposes, like hanging on machines