USC's Stafon Johnson seriously injured

I don't know all the facts. But I'm still trying to picture how a bar "slips" during a bench press in such a fashion as to crush someone's throat. There had to be a problem with the grip technique, or, as some opined on the running cfb thread, some snafu as Johnson went to rack the bar.

The bar can't "slip" out of your hands when you are benching, unless you aren't holding onto it.

 

If a sledgehammer can slip out of your hands, so can a bench-press bar. Seriously, though, I find that hard to believe, too, but maybe it was something with his shoulder or elbow or wrist that gave out on him and caused him to lose his grip. This story is making me rethink my workout routine. I never use a spotter.

 

I just want to know more about this.

"Slip" is not descriptive enough.

If you are benching, and you have locked out a rep (or are anywhere else in the trajectory of a flat-bench press) and simply let go of the bar, it is either going to stay where it is (in your palms) or roll forward and crush your chest.

Wouldn't anything else require your hands to snap off at the wrists?

I just can't picture it.

And anything over my body weight, I always use a spotter. Good thinking.

 

Only problem is that there's a dearth of spotters at 1 a.m. I've gotten away from benching big weight, though, because it fucks up my shoulder.

 

Dumbbells, amigo. Dumbbells.

Your bench will improve, plus a whole bunch of other benefits.

 

I'm not worried about improving it. I can bench my body weight plenty of times. I have 5-6 weight exercises I like that I do a lot a couple times a week. I just don't need too much weightlifting screwing with my other workouts that involve a lot more range of motion.

 

Just briefly because I don't want to derail this thread: I just think that some great topics get swallowed up in these giant threads. Seems a lot of folks hesitate to start a new topic, or feel the need to apologize or explain why they're going rogue, because someone will invariably pounce and announce 'It's on the Running Thread!!'

So yeah, I get the purpose of running threads, and have certainly started my share....but I also like seeing threads on newsworthy topics. That's why we're here. 8)

 

Alrighty then. Thanks. .

 

I'm not saying anybody should be sued, nor am I saying that it was the spotter's fault. I'm saying the guy should be canned because he obviously wasn't doing his job properly. I can't stand incompetence.

Tstumpf hit the nail on the head about the kind of position the spotter should have been in (and very clearly was not).

 

At the paper I used to work for, one of the women in ad sales lost her nephew.
The kid was playing first base in a high school baseball game. The batter hit a popup about halfway between home and first. First baseman ran in to catch it, batter ran down the baseline. They collided and the bill of the batting helmet struck the first baseman in the throat. He did not survive.

 

I am always tickled by the follow up apology when someone is caught starting a thread who's topic already exists.

 

Back in the day, serious lifters used to do reverse grip bench presses, where your palms face toward your face. I once saw a man break a couple of ribs doing these bench presses. Not saying that Johnson did these types of bench presses, but it would make more sense on how a bar could slip out of your hands and land on your throat.