Spot On/Off

I feel awful. A guy at the gym asked me to spot him on a bench press – he was bench pressing about 200 pounds. I stood over him. The first 2 reps were fine. The 3rd he managed to get through and then something snapped and the bar fell on him. I didn’t move fast enough to help and he rolled the bar over him and off the bench. He said he felt something in his chest snap. I feel terrible that I didn’t catch the bar in time. He even tells us he is a sports therapist. Ron will tell you I was doing it all wrong and should have been helping him on that last rep even though usually he tells me I help people too much and just yesterday I helped a guy out after he started to fail at the lift and he said that was exactly the way he wanted it. I feel terrible. Ron gets to have his I Told Ya So in the near future. This is after hearing that someone in the gym said I’d packed on some pounds.


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4 responses to “Spot On/Off”

  1. beastmomma Avatar

    Oh my goodness, that sounds like a rough gym trip. I am sorry that happened.

  2. JB Avatar

    Awww, dude, I feel for you.

    Bear in mind you’re not perfect and you shouldn’t blame yourself for not reacting quick enough – it sounds like a split-second thing. You say something snapped? On the equipment? That’s hardly your fault. And the stuff you’ve written about Ron makes it pretty clear that you’ve got a hard job figuring out exactly how much to help based on what each person wants.

    A bit tangentally, no-one here ever seems to ask anyone to spot them unless they’re gym partners. Must be a cultural thing.

    As for the pounds, hey, it’s Christmas. It’s bloody hard to diet around this time of year!

  3. Lyle T. Lachmuth Avatar

    Bummer!

    Nothing worse than having a loved one with ‘nag credits’!

    See ya can’t win…. Ron says you help too much. Then allegedly you don’t help enuf. Jeez! It’s hard being Perfect!

    Since you isn’t… forgive yourself dude!

    Have you thought that the dufus who was bench pressing THAT MUCH may be the one who screwed up. I mean it’s just so unlike a GUY to over estimate their prowess.

    LL

  4. Big Sis Avatar
    Big Sis

    Hey there — I think the gym should have trainers responsible for stuff like that, not expect the customers using the gym to do spotting when they haven’t been trained as PTs.

    my 2 cents, anyway.

    Not your fault.

    (lieutenant, what do those pulse rifles fire?)

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