Out for the count!...well, at least for a few weeks!

[buckley_heath]

Hey guys,

Well, you hear about folks injuring themselves in bizarre ways at the gym and never really think it's going to happen to you... because you're always ever so careful. Careful in lifting the weights, careful in holding yourself... even careful in handling the weights.

Unfortunately for myself this afternoon, one thing I wasn't careful about was who was working out around me - and it proved to be a terrible mistake.

I was just about finished my work out and had planned to wrap it up once I'd done with my usual routine on the Incline Leg Press. Unfortunately, some impatient moron who had been working at the lat-pull down right next to the Incline Leg Press decided that he wanted to get to a machine on the other side of the Incline Leg Press, and, rather than walk around me, he'd push past me just as I was loading a 20Kg (44lb) plate onto the bar. The bump caused the plate to slip out of my hands and off the end of the bar (as I was just centring the hole in the plate onto the bar as I was bumped).
The plate fell from waist height to the ground... right onto my left toes.
ouch.

By the time I'd stifled several expletives, and the urge to spin around and deck the guy who bumped me, blood was already pouring from my trainers. Not a good sign.

So... it turns out that all my left toes (bar my little toe) are broken, (not to mention being cut up, bruised and generally mashed to bits!) and they had to remove the toe-nail on my big toe at the hospital...oh, and the nail-bed has been damaged, meaning that IF the nail grows back, it'll be all monged.

Interesting too that due to the nerve damage, I'm not actually feeling any pain (YET!) other than throbbing from the swelling... Thank God for small mercies eh?!

I'll be off training for at least 4 weeks as far as lifting goes. And I think what really f***s me off about this is that this is really gonna put me behind the 8 ball. <SIGH!> But what can ya do eh!?!

So! Moral of the story is: Don't load weights onto a machine when folks are walking around behind you!

P.

[kirby_freak15]

OUCH! ...And that guy didn't even stop to help you?! sheesh
Hope you recover soon... Hope that other guy gets all of his toes broken for being so careless! >=(

[buckley_heath]

Originally Posted by kirby_freak15

OUCH! ...And that guy didn't even stop to help you?! sheesh
Hope you recover soon... Hope that other guy gets all of his toes broken for being so careless! >=(

Well... ok, to be fair, he did help me as best as he could. But geez I didn't know whether to thank him for helping me or smack him for being so stupid!

[RadRx]

I broke a couple of toes in an oddly similar way -- only it was me who wasn't paying attention. I was pulling a 45# from an incline press Hammer Curl machine and went to the other side to do the same. Whoever was using it prior had left an odd number of plates, however, so when I pulled the 45# I heard the sound of another (25#) plate sliding off first.

No nerve damage -- I could feel everything. The bad part was that I was travelling for work and had no idea where to find an ER.

[glammaman2000]

Important cautionary tales,here!Hurting yourself putting weights back,etc. is way more common than hurting yourself during an exercise. & think twice about headphones in the gym.Noises(& people yelling"LOOKOUT!") could give you a warning!

[TeknoDave]

Man, that really bites. Hopefully you will recover quickly.

I typically wear buds listening to my iPod when I do work out, and I don't have it cranked too loud, so I can still hear the goings-on around me. Sometimes the gym music is not quite my cup of tea.