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A client failed on a repetition. It was on the lever squat. It was not a heavy lift.
Her rack position was slightly off. And she was fatigued. The bar slipped off and landed on the floor.
And it went crashing down to the floor. The plastic bumpers safely hitting the ground first dampened the thud.
The client slipped away safely and quickly.
We discourage ego-lifting and overreaching in our gym. When people lift heavy, we provide ample spotting.
As far as gym fails go this was ideal. No one hurt. Nothing damaged.
The bumpers did their job. And the lever height allowed the client to slip away quickly.
Bumpers are 18 inches in diameter. That puts a bar loaded with a plate 9 inches off the floor.
This seemingly arbitrary height has had great consequences on training. A deadlift is nine inches off the floor your proportions or goals be damned. A clean and jerk or snatch is pulled from nine inches off the floor.
Why is the plate 18 inches in diameter? Here’s a completely unverified but decent guess from the internet :
The guess, credited to the strength historian Dr Jan Todd: early plate makers wanted a loaded bar high enough off the floor that a lifter who fell with the bar overhead wouldn’t have his head crushed. The plates hit the floor first.
This foresighted choice has saved many a lifter. The only way to seriously injure or kill oneself is on the bench press or a very poorly executed squat fail with incompetent spotters and no safety arms or straps. The latter happened last year when an Indonesian influencer died during a squat fail.
It would be safer to use safeties or attachments that are positioned under the bar to ‘dump’ the bar and slide out safely.
In an ideal world, you will always have someone around you to help in case you fail. This person is called a spotter. There are good spotters and bad ones. In case you don’t have a spotter, here are a few ways to fail safely. Ideally don’t fail, don’t overreach and most definitely don’t ego-lift.
If you fail, there is such a thing as a graceful fail: