Those are what I call NFL workouts, as in, Not For Long.

Either they get injured doing it or get old and think back how they ruined their joints.

I'm having flashbacks to Franco Columbu carrying a refrigerator in the 1977 Worlds Strongest Man competition for these guys...not going to end well...

I don't know if people are still doing it, probably, but my favorites were guys squatting or bench pressing on physioballs that would pop and they'd crashed to the floor with all that weight.

There are so many aspects of the "functional" exercise movement that are just ridiculous and often dangerous.

Oh man, this is funny.

I always enjoy "gym fails" or "strange denizens of the gym" stuff. Not folks getting injured, just the weirdness.

Like the treadmill dancers, and folks who curl like 150lb dumbells for only like an inch.

These are truly heroic individuals. With the rise of helicopter parenting the delicate little flowers of the most recent generation have caused a massive decline in ER visits and spinal injuries, resulting in thousands of doctors having to scale back on the size of their 2nd homes. These workout warriors are literally putting their lives at risk in an attempt to prop up the ER industry and keep those docs afloat.

Seriously though, I can't imagine a world where I'd want to add elevation and imbalance to heavy weightlifting sets...core strength isn't important enough to sacrifice spinal health. The milk crate challenge that was all the rage for about a month falls in this category too -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VENY5FA93xI

There's a guy that goes to my gym who's about 50 like me. I'm really afraid he's going to kill himself. He goes at 5am in the morning when there's not very many people there. He's not very big but he loads up the bar with 315 and does decline press with the collars on. He unracks it, barely bends his elbows and does a few reps. He can't move the bar more than a couple of inches max.

But it he ever moves more than that, that bar is coming down on his chest/neck and there's no way he can press it off him. It makes me nervous just to see him doing it.

You know it is dumb when you are hoping you fall flat on your back in the parking lot instead of all the much worse possible outcomes.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

There’s a video that comes up on my IG feed occasionally of a guy doing preacher curls with some insane weight.

Unfortunately both of his biceps simultaneously detach. And it’s about as pleasant to watch as a compound fracture in an arm wrestle.

These massive loads are the easiest way to massive sudden trauma you can imagine. Even with some hardcore base training, because the millisecond balance goes, *everything* gets recruited very suddenly to help out.

Live & learn.

I do believe that this IS a consequence of helicopter parenting and too much media for kids.

Young adults SHOULD have a much better understanding of what constitutes "adventure" and what is a reasonable trade off between risk and reward.


Risking death to make the first ascent of xx face- arguably worth it.

Risking death to make one of several thousand homemade jackass videos....
Definitely not worth it.

So many aspects that are super fun and beneficial, though, too.

Maybe I'm not watching the more extreme videos, but nothing in this looks all that dangerous to life for me. Dangerous to injury, sure. But for most it'd take some kind of freak accident to die.

Though one of my favorite "homemade jackass videos" is Martyn Ashton. And he's my hero for remaining a jackass after he paralyzed himself.

Before:



After:

I’ve seen that video.

I’ve also been on the business end of a catastrophic tendon detachment (pectoral) and I feel that video in my soul. It’s one of those injuries you never imagine could happen to you, until it does. Then it’s all you think about when you’re pushing heavier weight.

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The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W

I’ve seen that video also and then subsequently had that happen to one of my biceps tendons. (not lifting) Needless to say I don’t do a lot of bicep curls and when I do it is low weight, high rep.

That was awesome! I'm not sure if I'd seen anything of his pre-injury or not, but that post-injury video is great!

Here's a TED talk that he does:
https://youtu.be/CYebJBcLZHA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

He lives a few houses away from my brother, so I've followed his stuff pretty closely both before and after his injury.
Absolutely inspiring in how he's managed to keep doing what he loves - albeit in a modified fashion - given his situation, and especially great to see the love and support he's received from the industry.