Bench press fails are something that all of us fear, especially when we don’t have a spotter. In fact, any type of gym fail scares us into not pushing ourselves to our full potential.
The reality is, when we start pushing ourselves in the gym, and increasing our weight lifted, we are susceptible to this type of gym failure.
I just wanted to have a little fun today, and I was inspired by a recent bench press incident that I myself had. I was working my way up to 225lbs, and didn’t realize that I hadn’t done 225lbs in a while. The next thing you know, after one rep, I couldn’t lift the bar off of my chest.
Luckily, I was able to dump the weights. That is, when you are doing a barbell bench press, and you can’t lift anymore, you turn to one side, and let the weights slide off. This is why I never recommend using weight clips on a barbell bench press. Unless of course you have a spotter.
Bench press is one of, if not the best workout for building a solid chest. That is why I included the barbell bench press in our list of our 5 workouts for skinny people to gain muscle.
Speaking of gaining muscle, if you are interested in putting on size and getting shredded, download our workout app All Workouts: Personal Trainer (iOS | Google Play). We know that it will help you hit your goals.
Let’s get into some serious bench press fails!
4. The bench press guillotine
All joking aside, this bench press fail is not a situation that I would like to find myself in. Here we have a guy, who seems to know what he is doing. He set up his safety bars, just in case he can’t push up the barbell anymore.
Unfortunately, he trusted the safety bars too much, and the barbell slid right in between the safety bar and the vertical barbell rest. All the weight, which looks like about 350lbs fell onto his neck.
He is honestly very lucky that he was able to slide out from under the barbell. Imagine if his blood circulation was cut off, and he passed out. He probably would have ended up passing away.
3. Ribs smashed after dropping barbell on chest
This one could have been significantly worse than the outcome. With over 300lbs on the barbell, I am shocked that his injuries weren’t worse!
Go to 6:40 in this video to see the actual bench press fail. The whole video is worth watching however. This guy seems like a nice family man, and understands the implications of what could have gone terribly wrong in this situation.
People have literally died from dropping a barbell on their chest.
2. This guy almost decapitated himself from not watching where he put the barbell
This one could have easily been prevented. I have to give credit to the guy, he made it look easy putting up 225lbs, but he made a big mistake.
When you are working with this much weight, you need to be conscious of your every movement, especially when you are re-racking your barbell on the bench.
It looks like this guy just got lazy, and thought that he rested the barbell on the hooks. All of a sudden, the right hand side of the barbell slipped down and nearly chops down on his neck.
This is another case of it could have been a lot worse. Luckily, he and his friends were able to laugh it off together.
1. A possible career ending pec injury
When you enter the bodybuilding world, you know that you are going to have to lift some MASSIVE weight in order to move up and compete.
Unfortunately for Ryan Crowley (a bodybuilder from the UK), this particular injury may have been career ending.
Ryan can be seen doing an incline bench press of 485lbs. This is so heavy, he needs 3 spotters. As he brings the bar down to his chest for his first rep, his pec muscle can be seen completely separating from the bone. He screams in pain, and immediately gets up from the bench.
We really feel for Ryan, and we wish him the best of luck with his recovery. There is some good news for him, though. A GoFundMe was created for him, and he was able to raise $38,350 to help with his recovery.
Main Point: We can actually learn a lot from bench press fails
A lot of people might watch gym fails for entertainment, but they can be a great learning tool for understanding what not to do in the gym.
Some of this may seem like common sense to you, but here is a list of great advice to keep yourself safe in the gym:
- Don’t lift more than you can handle
- Use a spotter if you have one
- Don’t try to be superman and show off
- You are not invincible
- You are not immune to bench press fails
With that being said, it’s time to get out there, hit the gym, and create the body that you absolutely deserve. Everybody deserves to be in awesome shape if they are willing to put in the work. Check out our list of 3 tips for going from a thin to a muscular body.
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