Almost an accident ...

[Toby]

So there I was yesterday morning unracking my 275 lb squat. Collars done up, all good. As I moved away from the rack, the bar swayed a bit, and the plates on one side started the collar shifting :eek: I tried to recover, but they'd reached about halfway out the bar. The uneven weight made me lose control and the bar dipped on that side further. The plates went sliding off. Of course, I knew what was coming. I tried to counter it, but the bar rotated and the other plates came crashing off too. Probably just as well the 2nd collar failed, because it was easier lowering the empty bar than it would've been with 115lbs on one side. No injuries, the mower just missed getting crushed. The collar on the 2nd side went through my rubber matting, through the lino floor and dug a gouge in the concrete floor.

I'm just thankful my 3yr old and 1yr old hadn't come out to watch me and stand around like they do most mornings. Especially when they walk in when I'm already doing a lift and I can't really look after them because I'm concentrating on the lift.

After that, I started doing up the screws on the collars like a motherf*cker.

[CD Lee]

You are a lucky man indeed. I had a similar thing happen a month ago, because after doing bench press, I needed to get to the deadlift. I am too darn lazy to unload everything off the bar, so I will just pick it up off the rack and walk it over the bench, etc, etc. One day I unloaded the bar wrong and left too much weight on one side hidden by the 45 lb. plates.

As you experienced, halfway slide down the bar, try to recover, the plates go smashing onto everything in the garage, and I tried to counter, but gave in to the swing...crash on the other side. Man holding bar shaking head...

You can bet I look at BOTH sides fully before I pick up any weight now, for moving or for lifting. hehe.

[Toby]

Hehe. That reminds me, one time a few years ago at my old gym. The two main BP benches had weights trees built-in with the racks for them underneath, slightly behind but parallel where the barbell would rest when racked. Because the BP benches were very heavy-duty, a lot of people would leave their weights on there, and take them for other exercises, etc. I was sitting on the bench between sets, and a guy was racking plates from another exercise he'd finished. When I went to do my next set, unracked, felt funny, did one rep, racked it, went and checked. The guy wasn't concentrating (he'd been checking out chicks, apparently) and put 22lb extra on one side of my bar! Same as you, I didn't notice it because it was hidden by the 44lb plates :rolleyes:.