This article may make for uncomfortable reading. It's been included to illustrate why it's critical that you're always sensible and conservative in your training. No matter how experienced one may be, the rules of sensible training still apply. Properly done, weight
training is very safe and healthy, but take liberties and it becomes a dangerous activity.
I've learned the importance of safety-first training through some painful and
frightening experiences many years ago. Through foolishness I've been stuck under a
heavy bench press bar without a spotter or safety set-up and stuck at the bottom of a
heavy squat with no help or safety set-up, I've used appalling form to gut out final reps of
sets, and I've attempted maximal lifting before conditioning myself to it. I've paid a heavy
price for the foolishness, and so have countless others. Learn from our foolishness!
- Stuart McRobert
I've been training with weights since
1973, though more off than on over
recent years. Since the start of 2002 I
did, however, resolve to get back into
training regularly.
I've bench pressed safely for many
years. Since I first began training, I was
good at this particular exercise, being able
to bench press more than my bodyweight
with very little training. Being an injury free
trainee most of my life had ingrained
some habits, but not necessarily habits
that would work permanently. As we age,
what seemed fine in earlier years may turn
out to be safe no longer. Previous success
doesn't necessarily mean that you've been
doing things properly.
What the body could cope with during its youth is one
thing, but an older body can't necessarily
cope with the same habits. Of course, if
the training habits were sound from the
start, then even an older body could
prosper on the same methods used on
youngsters. The safety or otherwise of a
given training approach will really be
tested if you try it when you're much
older. This is exactly what I did.
In January I started training "seriously"
again. I started bench pressing anew
following a few years of not doing it. I
thought that my strength would come back
quickly, like in the old days. The first day
back I could perform only two reps with
85% of bodyweight. Within four weeks I
was able to do ten reps with 95%
bodyweight. My goal was to get some reps
with 220 pounds, soon.
Late February, in a warm-up set with
60% of my bodyweight, I felt a pain in both
shoulder joints, something I'd never felt
before. I thought it was due to the muscles
not being warmed up properly. I kept on
adding weight and doing reps. The pain
disappeared. First mistake: not heeding a
warning sign.
Warning Signs
The following week, March 4, 2002, I
didn't feel like training, but as it was
scheduled, I "had" to train. Second
mistake: not heeding another warning sign.
Once again I felt chest-shoulder pain in the
warm-up sets. This wasn't soreness but
pain in the joints as if it was in the bones.
Next was a work set with four pounds more
than the previous week, and then I'd finish with a single-rep set. After the final multirep
set, I didn't feel like doing the singlerep
set. Third mistake: not heeding yet
another warning sign.
But I did go for the final set, the single
rep. I lowered the bar till it touched my
chest, and I pushed it upwards, as usual. In
the middle of the path, suddenly, my left
arm started to shake and I heard a noise
identical to cloth being ripped. The pain
was terrible. I stopped the ascent and
slowly lowered the bar until it touched my
chest. I didn't dare look at my shoulder.
And to make matters even worse, Iwas
trapped under the bar, severely injured,
with no safety racks, and no spotter to help.
A Terrifying Experience!
After a great effort I got the bar off by
tilting it to one side. Then I collapsed on the
floor and started to quiver-a vagal reaction
to the pain. I was taken into emergency care
at the nearby hospital. The next day my left
arm was blue because of the broken
capillaries, and lots of pectoral major fibers
were torn-a very serious injury.
By May I could bench press with
30-40% of bodyweight. I was unable to do a
chin or even hang from a bar. I hope that no
surgery is needed to repair the damage. For
the moment I need to train very carefully
and see the evolution of the recovery.
Train Safely
Listen to your body, train safely, don't be
in a hurry to add weight before you can
really cope with it. Use less weight and more
reps, and get to your goal when your body is
ready. You can't rush strength increase.
Safety is the priority. Getting injured will at
best slow your progress, and at the worst
may lead to permanent problems.
Progressive resistance training
emphasizes the importance of going
heavier and heavier to get bigger and
stronger, but many of us (including me)
have given exaggerated importance to it,
and cut corners on form and safety
measures.
Now I can't perform any chins,
dips or even simple floor push-ups. I hope
that within a few months I'll be able to do them again. But recovering all of my
former strength is another thing. My
training may never be the same because of
a few moments of recklessness.
"Fernando, things happen," said the
doctor who first examined me at the
hospital's emergency ward. Don't forget
this phrase, please. Things happen to all of
us. But bad things don't have to happen in
the gym providing you follow the rules of
sensible training.
I hope you don't need a serious injury to
be reminded of critical lessons of
productive weight training.
In the back of my mind I did know
better, but I let foolish bravado, haste and
lack of caution rule the roost. I knew I
should have been much more cautious, and
started with a far lighter bench press weight.
I knew I should never bench press alone or
without any safety set-up. I knew I should
heed warning signs, not ignore them.
I knew I should never use low reps and singles
when, in effect, I was a novice once again.
But I wasn't a teenage novice like when I
first started training, but a middle-age
novice. But despite all of this, I broke all
these rules, and what a heavy price I paid.
Sensible training means caution and a
conservative approach at all ages, but even
more so in one's mid-life and later years.
I've reported my painful and humbling
experience to help you avoid making the
mistakes I did. Don't think that you can get
away with breaking the rules of sensible
and progressive training. Train sensibly and
safely, or don't train at all.
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Copyright 2000 by CS Publishing
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cspubltd@spidernet.com.cy
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