spotters or no spotters . . .
What amazes me is people who do not take advantage of spotters for safety. Or people who squat really heavy outside of a rack. Why not use a rack so you can bail easier if you feel something pop? A spotter can do nothing if you need to drop a squat and the spotter might get severely injured too (gets the bar on his arms). Remember Fux's injury, it was in a rack iirc, only there were no pins set.
Reminds me of a young bodybuilder I trained years ago, who,
when backing off from the squat rack (no safety ‘net’), tripped,
stumbled and fell to the ground with the working weight still
across his shoulders. Fell ass to the ground, legs splayed. Now
here is the amazing part . . . never seen repeated . . . he got
back up to his feet with the weight still on his back and started
squatting his work set. This young man had incredible flexibility
and strength (I have posted fotos of him on PM somewhere.).
Abound the same time, I spotting a powerlifter with another
young man . . . I was on one end, he was on the other. All good
right? Wrong. When the squatter got in the ‘hole’ and could not
get out, the other spotter (and I use the term loosely) decided
to bail so the squatter had no option other than ditch the weight
off his back. The only problem with that is that the stack of 45’s
on one end of the bar came down right on the top of my left foot
with such force that my little toe blew out the side of my sneaker.
I think the plywood platform is the only thing that saved my toes.
Had it been concrete, my toes would have been mush. I ran or
hobbled as fast as I could to the men’s toilet and stuck it in the
toilet bowel full of cold water to slow the swelling.
Then I called a podiatrist friend who was my neighbor and he
said meet me at my office. (This was after hours.) We x-rayed
my foot and miraculously no bones were broken. He fitted
me with a wooden ‘shoe’ that prevented toe flexation and he
sent me on my way. I eventually lost 4 out of five toe nails.
Now . . . as far as Kevin doing singles or low rep sets . . . big deal.
Kevin is Kevin. Let him do what he wants to do. Presumably he
knows full well what he is doing, trying to accomplish, what is
best for him at the time, for whatever reason. Who are we to
judge? To each his own.
We wear the chains we forge in life.
.gif "IP Gear")
