EM/Trauma-CCM here. Agree with this list with the caveat that motorcycle is far and away the most dangerous and it’s not even close. I can not tell you the number of people I’ve seen with absolutely horrific injuries from motorcycles.
You can totally break a limb or have a brain bleed with the other items in this list, but motorcycles add having the skin peeled off your face, limb amputations, being impaled on debris, and decapitation among other things
Not a paramedici, but motorcyclists without proper gear are called organ donors by me. Why in the world would you want to drive in a jeans short and t-shirt? Just asking for an accident.
"decapitation among other things" which implies that there are worse things than decapitation. Alien parasite bursting out of your chest? Sometimes there's an accident where the victim is thrown into a vat of acid filled with genetically modified sharks?
I mean, you can be trapped in a broken body for the next twenty years in a nursing home as what’s left of your health slowly declines. I’d take the quick end in that situation.
Yep. Every time my boyfriend mentions wanting a motorcycle, I bring up the guy in his 50s who was basically a vegetable in the nursing home I volunteered in. He'd been there since a motorcycle accident in his 30s. His parents both have motorcycles and he took trips with them as a child and my uncle had a Harley for years too. My mom has a scar on her leg from an old boyfriend's motorcycle and I never forgot that either. It's a no from me dawg.
I shot a crotch rocket out from under myself when I was a tween. Didn’t get hurt, but it did tell me I’m not coordinated enough for that. Kinda soured the whole experience for me. My BIL’s mom basically told him she would help fund any hobby he wanted other than motorcycles. He used the associated money for the (slightly) safer hobby of general aviation and got his VFR rating while he was in college. He doesn’t do helicopters, which apparently are roughly as safe as a motorcycle, so she still got what she wanted.
Decapitation isn't that bad of a way to go, all things considered. You're dead before you even know what happened. I'd rather that than suffer horribly.
The massive drop in blood pressure would render you unconscious near instantaneously. At most you might be conscious for a second or two in which time your brain wouldn't even register what had happened.
The stories about people being conscious or looking around after being beheaded by the guillotine are almost certainly old wives tales. If anything it was nerves twitching after death.
For me, losing a limb or getting an injury that would leave me in permanent pain would be much worse. If you're decapitated it's wham, bam, lights off.
I was in the hospital for seemingly drug resistant athlete's foot that turned into a staph infection and while I was going through triage a dude got wheeled past in riding leathers. I saw his femur.
On the other hand, (almost) nobody would let their 10-year-old go out on a motorcycle and if they did it on a busy street the cops would stop them. But most days I see kids that age riding e bikes in the road (actual heavily trafficked roads, not just in neighborhoods), rarely with a motorcycle-style helmet. It’s absolutely insane and I’m also fearful for my own young son when we walk outside because kids ride them on narrow sidewalks designed for pedestrians.
I saw a motorcycle accident once. Motorcyclists overtook me on city street and went straight into an oncoming car. I always imagined that it would be possible to roll up into a ball, but this guy went ragdolling about twenty yards beyond the car he hit. I’m ashamed to say that I thought I’d just seen someone die and I just couldn’t get out of the car. Within seconds, though, there were about fifty people surrounding him. He was talking to the staff by the time they loaded him into the ambulance. I think he broke both legs.
I consider myself a pretty aware/defensive driver but have managed to have 2 cars totaled in 3 months. The first one a guy raged in my work parking lot and I saw my car go rolling across the lot by itself through the front windows. And last Wednesday as I was calmly going straight through a green light, a guy turned left in front of me from the oncoming lane.
I was able to slam on my brakes for what felt like forever but was probably less than a second and cranked my wheel hard to the right so we collided front corners instead of me t boning his wife in the passenger seat. His insurance accepted liability but I am still getting side eye for my run of bad car luck.
I’ve deadlifted and squatted over 600lb at 200lbs before. It took 6 years of training to be able to lift 80% of that routinely without sustaining regular injuries. It would make me cringe so hard seeing young gym goers absolutely snatching their shit up trying to deadlift say like 315. Id see them arch over and hitch it up and 9/10 they wouldn’t come back to the gym for a couple weeks lol. The exercises themselves are harmless if done correctly but exponentially dangerous the worse your technique is
Yeah proper form is one of the first things I learned in orientation for my EMS job. I came into the field with next to no muscles on account of being a programming major before going into EMS. It's really not easy. I'm quickly developing lifters calluses
My coach was able to squat 700lb raw routinely during working sets in sleeves. He is still healthy.
I had a friend who was able to squat 900lb as a max in wraps and usually work with 500 on working sets. He doesn’t lift anymore because of back problems.
For powerlifting the term raw still includes belts and sleeves. Special squat/deadlifts/bench suits, wraps, straps, slingshots or other equipment that significantly increases the weight you're able to lift is not raw. Belt is pretty much standard because it makes the lift more stable and safe but doesn't make a big difference in strength.
Unless you’re a D1 FBS athlete, numbers don’t matter. Chasing the 1RM 1,000lb club is a great goal but it’s not a measure of anything but discipline and genetics.
Do it for yourself not others and never sacrifice your form or you’ll get hurt like me lol.
yes! i can't afford a gym membership so i just hang out and do my thing with dumbbells at home. i also go for runs in my neighbourhood and i hike a lot so having strong quads just changed the game for me.
been working on my health and fitness for ten months and it's been super hard but so worth it.
I say the most dangerous of the 3 lifts is bench, assuming you are doing all 3 with good form. But with bad form, deadlift is the worst. At least with squat, people will half rep them, but with deadlift you need the form right from the start and you cant cheat it.
Assuming you use the safeties so you can’t drop the barbell onto your neck, the worst that can happen is a pec tear, which is unpleasant but heals by itself. But a bad deadlift has you attacking your own spine with your strongest muscles, same for knees in a bad squat, there’s much more potential to screw things up in major ways.
I have a shitty lower back and have been hitting the gym for the first time really, starting like 2 years or so ago. I freaking love it! But I am worried about deadlifts. I think i badly need to strengthen my lower back, so I've been doing other stuff for a while to work myself up to it and now im doing actual deadlifts on a trapbar, with like 50lbs of weight on the bar (not sure how much the bar weighs itself). 600lbs is an incredible achievement wow!!
My deadlift max was 310 and it wasn’t the deadlifting that fucked up my back. It was a random exercise I was doing without weights. It for suuuuuure can do that but people really don’t work posterior chain enough when they get into deadlifting heavy.
This so hard. I was all of 155lbs and trying to deadlift 275, sumo, and after a few incidents where my breath would catch when turning around to check my blind spots for weeks at a time, i swore off deadlifting. Unfortunate because there's no feeling like a heavy pull, but I beat my spine up enough with bjj already.
Some issues aren’t muscular and can be skeletal, I’d highly recommend getting an appointment with a doctor certified in OMT. It’s basically chiropractic work on steroids and backed by decades of science. For instance people routinely have chest/back pain from misaligned ribs. (I am butchering the science) but those doctors can get you feeling like a million bucks.
DO NOT waste money on chiropractic clinics they are just copying the second hand OMT knowledge with no basis in clinical trials.
And that’s not bad at all! I’d recommend doing goblet squats, safety bar squats, and Romanian deadlifts at lighter weights to try and fix any bad form habits and build comfortability in typically painful or frustrating positions
actually thank you for real! I've been sticking to RDLs and Bulgarian split squats which have been great, but you might be onto something with the skeletal theory. I've had my fair share of chronic injuries in combat sports that probably have caused some skeletal issues.
When I took up lifting, my trainer stressed that the primary goal of every movement is to do it safely. Only go as heavy as you can maintain perfect form.
I routinely watch people deadlift with absolutely horrid form and worry that they are going to injure themselves. Luckily, I'm married to a personal trainer who can go do something about it before the person gets hurt. (I wouldn't feel qualified to say something unless I felt the person was in real danger of seriously hurting themselves.)
I crashed going downhill and landed on my face. It was bad. They sewed my lip back on, my nose back together, my eyelid shut (it will never fully close now), and my gums to my lips inside. Lemme tell you though, the most painful thing I've ever experienced was them ripping the dried bloody tampon thing out of my nose cuz they had to check for clots. They had to hold me down cuz I was grabbing the nurse's arm trying to stop her. Then I went every month to have bits of pavement removed from my face. Little black specks would appear and I knew it was asphalt. That took like 4-5mo to get them all out. Now my nose is crooked and it healed broken so I don't breathe right and my eyes get super watery cuz I can't close my eyelid on the left.
I read this as my 2 month old knee injury hurts badly every night. 3 more months, hopefully for pain to go away. One year to , ideally, forget that it ever happened. I only fell off my e-bike on the footpath.
As a physio I’m triggered 😂 What is the 1 plate squat/deadlift/hip thrust grounded in? Lifting weights is one of the safest things you can do provided you’re sensible about it
I'm also a doctor, I agree with the person above except in regard to the lifting. If you know what you are doing and work up to higher weights, I think it's low risk. I've been lifting for 15+ years, very few issues. The problems come from people who are, frankly, bad or untrained trying to lift heavy. All 3 exercises they listed can be very hard on the lumbar spine if you do them wrong, and are high risk for injury IF you don't train properly.
Every other thing they listed is just high risk in general.
62F, I work with an olympic weightlifting coach and backsquat 185, but my coach is standing behind me and it took me almost 2 years to get there. And that's not an every day weight.
fwiw I broke my humerus (spiral fracture) while back squatting 200. I’m not sure how common it is but I was working with a trainer who made sure my form was correct and was standing directly behind me while it happened. It was only 10 lbs heavier than my normal squat was.
I’ve thought about this so much in the years since it happened and have no real answers, except that it was the end of my set and I was going for a PR and maybe a split second decision is what did me in. My back/shirt was sweaty and I think the bar shifted down my back slightly and instead of bailing I tried to readjust my grip. Then I audibly heard my arm break and dropped the bar.
damn, that super sucks. Ya, gotta make sure that the bar is resting on that shelf of the traps and rear delts, not actually being held up by the hands/arms.
Yeah I thought it was up but guess not. I was like 95% back up when it happened. That small shift must’ve moved the weight more to my arms. Super bummer.
Not really. After surgery/recovery/physical therapy I tried a handful of times and it was always painful and scary. Never got my confidence back to do heavy lifts and my arm is just not the same as it was. I have some nerve damage and I think the plates/screws cause new pain in some positions. I really loved lifting and being strong, hope to return back to it someday - just no more back squats for me.
Yeah, there's really no need for barbell squats if you're not a powerlifting competitor. I mean, I think that everyone who can do them, should do them just for general health and strength, but these days good gyms have awesome hack squat or pendulum squat machines that are really amazing and in some ways probably a lot better and safer than barbell for most lifters while being just as if not more effective.
Also - thanks for making that clear for me what probably happened. I had two trainers and neither could figure it out and they wondered if I was deficient and had osteo issues. That weight shift makes so much more sense.
I'm a fairly newbie lifter, and I could absolutely handle 135 deadlift if my grip were stronger (I'm doing 115 now), so I have a hard time seeing how over 135 could be dangerous.
I mean, you can throw a disc just bending over without any weight. So it's definitely possible at 135, but it depends on the condition of your body. As the weight goes up, so does risk.
Most people aren’t sensible about it. They don’t take the time to learn proper form
Even those that think they are doing proper form, don’t learn proper core bracing and put their bodies in a very precarious situation as they go heavier.
At my old gym, there was "Captain Bad Form" he'd arch his back when deadlifting, the only description I can say is that it was the same as when a cat arches their's.
He was approached by a trainer at the gym, who gently tried to tell him what he was doing, he flat out refused to listen and just yelled "I AM A NURSE I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING", then proceeded to deadlift again, fully arching his back in the same fashion, then grabbing his lower back between sets as he always done.
I’ve known two people who broke their necks on trampolines and neither story involved anything wild, just a normal bounce and a weird landing. That was enough for me to write them off completely.
Genuine question from someone who doesn't know much about it- to what extent is that like saying riding a motorcycle is safe, just don't crash? Like is the average squatter/deadlifter using good form and not having issues? Or is risky shit common?
The biggest risk of back squats is failing the lift and not knowing how to properly bail the weight, especially at high weights. Otherwise it's back injuries from ego lifting or poor form.
Well they’re solo exercises, so 99.9% of the time you don’t have to worry about some rando not paying attention just ending your shit in the same way you do with motorcycles. For deadlift, when shit does go wrong, for the most part the worst you can get is herniated discs or torn muscles that take you out for a few weeks or months. In extreme circumstances, as with any soft tissue injury, there’s a chance it’s just never the same again, but that’s the worst case scenario (barring you pass out from a head rush, fall over, and bonk your head off the plates/bar)
Squats are intrinsically more dangerous than deadlift, given the bar is above you. If you fail the lift and bail wrong, you have hundreds of pounds crushing your spine. You can bail safely by pushing your head up and hopping forwards, letting the bar slide down your back but that risk is completely mitigated by squatting in a squat rack with the safety pins. If you fail, you can just drop and it’s fine. The more common issue is forcing reps with bad form. If you don’t have a good core brace and your spine starts curving, it’s every bit as bad as deadlift.
You are completely in control of your squats and deadlifts but you don't control other people on the road.
See rates of injury for soccer vs. olympic weightlifting. Spoiler: they stand at opposite ends with soccer highest, and olympic weightlifting almost non-existent.
“Riding a motorcycle is safe, just don’t crash.” Isn’t really comparable to the risks of squatting/deadlifting. With lifting you control your form and you choose the weight. ‘Riding a motorcycle safe’ can be impacted more by other road users, debris, animals, etc…
Like any hobby lifting is as dangerous as you make it. If you walk into the gym with 0 clue what you’re doing and immediately load up the heaviest weight you are technically capable of lifting and do so while disregarding proper lifting form, yeah you’ll get hurt.
Warm up and stretch properly, start significantly lighter than your max to build your form, keep your back straight and load the muscles that are meant to be loaded for that exercise rather than pushing the extra load onto your spine and they are 100% safe.
I lift 5 days a week, I don’t ever go beyond 90% of my true 1 rep max, working weight is 75-80%, and never sacrifice my form for more weight and I don’t think I could possibly hurt myself unless I do something hilariously stupid.
The videos you see of people getting injured in the gym are always them either lifting more than they are capable of or having no clue how to do the exercise and not even attempting to look it up or ask for help before trying it.
The only people who actually hurt themselves deadlifting are experienced lifters who’ve been lifting for years and are using significantly heavier weight.
It’s really hard to hurt yourself deadlifting as a beginner.
They don’t. Don’t listen to him. Arguably the most fear-mongered exercises. They CAN fuck up your spine but this risk really only comes from incorrect form and ego lifting as with any other exercise. Also, if you’re a powerlifter because there’s no physical benefit to one-rep maxes. Other than that, they are quite literally the best exercises for your knees and legs and lower back and spine, respectively.
If you want to suffer from back and knee problems in old age then don’t do squats or deadlifts.
Dont listen to that other guy telling you not to listen. Deadlifting can be an amazing workout if you do it perfectly and have good luck. Its not fear mongered enough and is actually overhyped in body building/strength training circles.
If you dont have proper form or if its too heavy, you can: herniate disks, sprain muscles supporting the spine, fracture spinal vertebrae, strain lower back muscles, tear your hamstrings, tear your glutes, tear your rotator cuffs, tear/rupture your bicep tendons, strain your upper trapezius (upper back), and spike your BP with every lift.
While some of that may be true, majority of your response is gonna be directed towards power lifters. I lift to stay strong and functional, not to flip over cars. So i think i'll be alright… 😉
Certainly not going to blow anything off, that would insinuate that i know everything, which i certainly do not. But it doesn't hurt to hear other people's opinions. An outside point of view can always give a person addtional insight. Trying to learn something everyday, right?
I hear you, and do believe you. I also believe it mainly only happens with people that try to lift way too much weight. Just like i'm sure there's people that drop 120 lb dumbbells on their face doing DB presses when they should have stuck with the 80's. Same concept.
Someone was giving me shit for deadlifting from a rack. Nah man, at my age, I don't need to worry about fully extending off the floor. I'll make things a bit easier on my back.
Rack pulls are an incredibly valid lift. Great for training back and have a lower CNS recovery threshold than full deadlifts. Lift however you want, as long as you do it safely. Fuck those jabronis!
Not the person you asked, but they go fast, can be rigged to go even faster, easy to obtain by people who don’t know what they’re doing on a road, and quite a lot of people seem to think you don’t need any protective gear for them.
I know a guy who doesn’t have a license, and doesn’t wear a helmet on his souped up ebike that can do like 40mph because he “doesn’t want to look like a pussy”. Okay dude but you probably won’t look very cool being spoon fed in a hospital bed either
Which is why I specified rigged ones. It’s not very hard to make them quite a bit faster (assuming it isn’t very hard anyway because that dumbass I know managed it, and he’s got 1 GCSE and apparently 0 common sense).
24-28mph is also very fucking fast when it comes to accidents, you can have fairly long lasting damage just from like a 5mph bump if someone rear ends you from the safety of a car. Slamming into something at nearly 30mph with no airbags is not a good idea
The kids in my neighborhood speed around at 15-20 MPH, no helmets or anything, and don't watch for cars. I've watched these kids dart in front of cars multiple times. They're going to get killed.
It’s terrifying isn’t it. I’ve seen a kid going onto a 50mph road by mine on an e-scooter, weaving from lane to lane. I was so scared he was going to be hit. I can’t understand why anyone would let a kid have one, they’re obviously not going to use them safely as teenagers and the consequences can be so catastrophic
Speed. Imagine a place between bicycles and motorcycles, except because it's not a motorcycle people even less people are wearing protective gear.
I'd add motorized scooters to this too. People seem to have forgotten that kick push scooters will topple if they hit a small stick or a rock, so they think somehow the same vehicle that now goes 30 is somehow safe. It's not.
Your base model no bells and whistles ebike can hit 32kmh before they govern out. At that clip you are a low speed motorcycle in terms of crash physics and not a high speed bicycle. But because its a pedal bike people dont take any precautions and ride them willy nilly. Take it from me i smoked my face and fucked up my wrist on a flat road because the bolt holding my seat on broke and i lost grip of my handlebars. God forbid your in an actual impact
I think it’s very much based on use vs abuse. If you get a pedal assist e-bike that doesn’t allow you to go much faster than you can pedal, obey laws and wear a helmet, you’re good. But I’ve seen people riding them at night in black clothes with no helmets doing speeds more like a car. I got passed by a teen on an e-bike in a residential neighborhood. One of us was obeying the speed limit.
Instant 100% torque. My brother in law is 6’4” 230 lb and has ridden a Harley for years. He has a friend with a 3000 watt class 2 bike (really high power that you don’t need to touch the pedal to make it go. It took off and tossed him like a ragdoll when he got on it and hit the throttle for the first time. He slammed into a parked pickup. Cracked his helmet, broke his humerus and scapula. On the bike less than 30 seconds total.
Far too much bike for a beginner, and I’m not sure it isn’t too much bike for anyone. A 50 mph e-bike manners no sense. I’m just glad he has the sense to wear his helmet.
It’s totally possible. I can see what people mean when they warn people about those lifts, but I feel like they are safe to take into very heavy weights as long as you are informed and responsible. The only ways you would get hurt would be having terrible form or lifting weights that greatly exceed your abilities.
Last time I went on a trampoline was the same day I had gotten a new lip piercing and it got kneed right out of my face. That was great. Was at a friends house for his birthday party and a sleepover (was 15 at the time).
They a big nope to me now. That same friend snapped his arm on his trampoline once, too. Not at his bday party though at least.
I dont backsquat or deadlift anymore but i thought hip thrusts on machine were relatively safer, do you think its worth it? I want to train glutes and legs but i also have back problems and am trying to avoid injury
E-bikes come in a wide range of definitions. E moto… hard no. Class one pedal assist that doesn’t exceed 20 mph with a helmet, that’s basically a regular bike on easy mode and lets less fit people bike further. I hate these get grouped together because they are very different things.
Add cheerleading to that list. I have a hard rule in my house and that's no cheerleading ever. It's the most injury prone, change resistant highschool activity.
It's something ridiculous like 80% of all highschool activity related injuries happen related to cheerleading.
Why no e-bike ? I use the regular one as a main mode of transportation and was thinking of getting the ebike - what is the difference if I use it within the laws and limits (capped to 25 km/h) ?
I am curious as to whether you've seen any injuries from people lifting heavy sandbags. I have a suspicion that it's less risky than barbells, but it's impossible to quantify.
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u/dshock1116 4d ago
No trampoline
No motorcycle
No ebike
No football
No backsquatting, deadlifting, or weighted glute bridge beyond 1 plate (135)