Yeah, I agree. My good friend and co-owner of our gym suffered a complete tear of quad, blew out a few knee ligaments and shattered/dislocated his ankle mid squat in a competition. He tore his quad mid squat, which collapsed his knee and then ankle. Nothing spotters could do. 9-12 months later he's back to a 1.5-2x bodyweight squat...oh and he's 65 years old. He had a huge mental hurdle when he put 2 plates on the squat but once he got through that, it's been business as usual.
Yeah, scary stuff. It was at an RPS meet and Gene said it was the worst injury he's seen in a competition. His rehab was pretty simple. He started doing air squats as soon as he could and we just kept pushing his depth down further and further. I think 4-5 months post surgery he was full depth on his air squats. He went to his doctor, did a few air squats and the doc was like, fuck it, do whatever you want anything I recommend won't be as good. Then we started with the bar and simple linear progression. He does warm up for about 15 minutes or so now, which is the only change to his routine post injury. I think his days of competing are done but not squatting heavy...if that makes sense.
Speaking of injuries, what's the worst sports injury you guys have personally witnessed? As far as strongman goes, one of my friends was doing a frame carry (just like the one they do at The Arnold) in a contest. He was going too fast and when he crossed the finish line, he dropped it and it hit his ankle. He tried to keep competing but the Curt Schilling-like bloody sock and the broken bone that was protruding through his skin prevented him from finishing the contest. In rugby, I've seen dozens of broken bones, mostly fingers or tib/fib, but I did get to see one girl get her femur snapped like a twig. The sound of bone snapping is one you'll never forget and you will never mistake for anything else. The worst that I've ever seen, however happened in September of 2013. We were playing against a lower division team and one of their guys came into the ruck in weird way. Our guy went to clear him out of the ruck and his shoulder hit the bottom of his chin. He was out before he hit the ground and he didn't wake up for about 6 weeks or so. When he finally came out of the coma, he was completely blind, had no memory of his life (didn't even recognize his mom or siblings), and had the physical capabilities of an infant. He made some physical strides (was able to feed himself and walk with assistance), but he finally succumbed to the TBE a few months ago.
That's fucking horrible. My friends injury above. I heard a pop during a football practice where a guy obliterated his knee. In law school, I jumped over a snow bank onto a road with black ice and shred my ankle. My ankle was pointing 90 degrees the wrong way (same injury that ruined Garrison Hearst's NFL career).
For me personally was a gnarly cut in my leg. Kinda hard to see from the picture, but it's basically the length of the pen (just to the right of it). I was playing football in the Bahamas on a youth retreat when I was 15. Did a somersault dodging someone on the ground and when I sat up, my leg was literally filleted open. All the way to the bone and about 2.5 inches wide. I was staring at just raw meat and bone. Didn't hurt at all. Had to travel about an hour to the hospital where a man was there with a butcher knife stuck in his neck from his brother attacking him. They didn't' have much room, so they took me into a storage closet to stitch me. The novocaine shots made me almost pass out from pain. After that it was easy breezy. Total for x-rays, stitches, cleaning, etc... was $17. Crazy. We also never found what actually caused the cut. I've had several other bouts with stitches from sports (next to my eye, in my head, bottom of foot) and I broke my fibula playing football once. As for the worst I've ever seen personally, my soccer coach accidentally rolled up on the female goalie on our girl's soccer team and she had a bad compound fracture in her leg. Pretty gruesome.
Personally - I've dislocated my left shoulder 20 times and had two surgeries. It's not all that gnarly when it happens, if i wasn't doubled over in pain and you were standing next to me, you'd probably won't know anything was wrong. Also had this happen in December playing basketball: Spoiler Worst injury I ever saw was a dislocated ankle of a teammate on my hs basketball team. Landed on another guy's foot and his ankle was pointing sideways. Gross
Luckily the only bad sports injuries I have seen were guys getting hit in the face by a baseball during an at-bat. May have even been in the same season, but: First kid ended up with a broken cheek bone, eye socket and nose. Was like a scene from Saving Private Ryan, just took two steps and his limp body went straight to the ground. Second kid had a broken jaw, and had it wired shut for a few months. Blood everywhere. Makes you flinch like a little bitch next time you're up to the plate and a ball comes inside.
I don't necessarily agree with more training sessions. Straps and slingshots are pretty close to the exact competition lifts and you're probably doing those in training for some overload training in your peak.
Straps are allowed in strongman. I have no problem with them incorporating them into a PL division. I wouldn't do it because I prefer the feeling of fucking crushing my thumbs, but whatever.
That was my point. Everyone does these for 'training' to prepare for a competition, not as a competition unto themselves. Sounds like something Westside would do to claim some world records.
Agree. Strongman is a totally different 'sport' and requires a different type of training. We should be going back to a more 'purer' powerlifting world, not expanding it into side-acts. Again, just my opinion but if people want to pay to lift in a slingshot bench competition, more power to them. If people desire expansion, I'd rather see old school standing press added like the old days (judging would be fun and hilarious at the same time).
I'm with you on the world record part. Definitely don't want records being held for variations of the lift. Holding this as an individual push/pull meet or an extra flight at a small event? Sounds like a fun thing to do.
Injury talk is making me nautious Worst I've seen was my own, a badly broken arm when I was in 6th grade
i have a cist on my hand, gonna have to get it drained cause it is stopping me from lifting now. damn it
i've been sticking my butt out too much and using my back too much on squat, need to get more straight up and down
You can initiate the squat by breaking at your hips, but your knees need to track forward over your toes with the bar staying over your midfoot. Take some videos.
Did any of y'all watch JP's vid on knee positioning? I have been liking it a lot, even though I have never had any major valgus.
God damn it. I forgot my gym closes at 3pm on Saturday and slept in a like a loser and planned to workout this afternoon. Now my weekend is ruined.
Grip strength is limiting my deadlifts. Are all straps about the same? I've added in some static holds to help, but need some help in the meantime. Looking to just grab these from amazon on the cheap. Thoughts? Lifting Straps - Weightlifting Hand Bar Wrist Support Hook Wraps by Anvil Fitness, Pair(2), Wrist Supports Assist Grip Strength Weight Lifting Straps
Think I'm going to start strong lifts 5x5 tomorrow. I've been struggling to keep any sort of consistency in going to the gym the past 6 or 8 months other than going for cardio. Maybe being on an actual scheduled program will help
This is absolutely the reason I started SL5x5. Feels great looking through the app and seeing my 8mo progress. Also very much support giving them the $5 or $10 or whatever upgrade their app; the warm-ups and supplemental exercises you can add take it from a skeleton to an actual thorough work-out.
It's fun looking back at my all-time graph, seeing where I started, seeing my deload, then seeing the overall progress.
I love my versa gripps. Don't care what anyone says. http://store.versagripps.com/cart/product/8192/Versa_Gripps_PRO__BLACK/
http://www.ironmind-store.com/mobile/Strong-Enough-Lifting-Straps153/productinfo/1239/ I think these are also lhprop1 approved.
I want these. https://www.prowriststraps.com/product/embroidered-motivator-wrist-straps-with-poly-1-inch/
I like them a lot. Just squatted in them for the first time, I'll give a full review after a few more squat days.
There's a reason that is the only brand of straps you see WSM competitors using for the deadlift. I have some APT's and they've done ok for me. However, I've personally witnessed no fewer than half a dozen APT's break during a lift. That is no good. That's why I recommend the Ironmind straps and ONLY the ironmind straps.
Also, did you get the anti wear and padding? I was gonna go all out on the apt straps. If the iron mind blue ones are just as good for $14 then I'm all over those.