What do you when the odds are stacked against you? Like when you’re at the bottom of the squat and you can’t get back up. Do you dump the weight behind you, or use your resources to self spot yourself?
Before diving further into this piece, in no way, am I recommending anyone ever self spot themselves when a lift goes wrong. In fact, self spotting in a lot instances, is more dangerous than just dumping the weight.
The first video comes from a Facebook clip shared yesterday by Huyen Thanh. Her clip features a shoeless lifter who misses his second rep coming out of the hole. Instead of dumping the weight to the safeties, he grabs them, and pushes himself back up.
When I first saw this clip, I thought for sure he was losing a finger. Weight falling on a hand/finger like that is sure to leave it severed. Fun story, when I first began my lifting career, I saw a lifter lose part of his pinky putting down dumbbells after a DB bench press (I was 5-months into lifting and rattled), this clip sent shivers down my spine.
If you find yourself in a similar lifting situation, do not put your hands between the barbell/dumbbells and the safeties/metal, I repeat, do not put your hands between heavy metals with only gravity between them.
The following two clips are videos I found from doing a “selfspot” search on Instagram. I was curious if other lifters had ever self spotted themselves back to upright positions, and sure enough, there were.
Our next clip was uploaded by Brandon McCombs on his Instagram page. McCombs, similar to Peterson, pushes off his knees to finish the lift, but with less weight, and on his first rep.
Whether you’re a veteran or newer strength athlete, you’re always better off dumping weight when you’re in situations like these. Some lifts are not worth the possible injury saving.
Feature image screenshot from @boilerm8ker Instagram page.
