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I will say as a noob early 20’s lifter I did drop the barbell with a 45 on each side onto my face and the fact that I was a weak noob lifter at the time was the only thing that saved my life….
….I had probably told this story before but it’s one of a kind, I don’t think it’s happened to many people in life: I was benching late at night at the gym and was tired after doing a few sets. I had finished my last bench press rep and went to re-rack the bar, but didn’t realize that somehow the bar had perfectly balanced for a second on the LIP of the rack it fit on on the bench, but not in the groove itself
It stayed there long enough for me to remove my hands and turn my head, so about 1-1.5 seconds. Then it fell straight down onto the side of my face. Even with such a light weight that was one of the hardest hits I had taken to the face up to that point. It hit me so hard and so fast that my brain didn’t understand what was going on and it instantly fed me an explanation:
- Someone must have come up and karate chopped me in the face as I was lifting and
- the hit was so hard that my brain also told me this person is not just wanting to fight, but is trying to actually kill me
So it caused an instant fight or fight reaction and adrenaline surge. I remember thinking what a fucking asshole to attack me at such a vulnerable time when I am lifting. And that adrenaline surge caused me to surge up with the bar still on my chest, which bounced to my legs, and look around in a rage
But there was no one there, I was alone. I realized what had happened and went to the mirror and I already had an inch wide diagonal thick bruise across my face. Had there been even 1 more 45 plate on each side, I would have been either dead or paralyzed from the hit…
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