Spotter 'saves man's life' in gym as weightlifter is nearly crushed on bench press

dailystar.co.uk:

@roblewy he shows himself on a bench press lifting a bar with four hefty plates on either side.Rob, from California, US, sells workout gear and offers training programs through his business Overload Alpha but showed in the dramatic video how even pros can be caught off guard.As he lifts the weight, he starts to struggle and it nearly capsizes as the plates wobble to one side.Rob tries a second time and lifts the bar about 10cmbut it comes down again and he is pinned to the bench.Suddenly, a man appears and grabs the bar, gritting his teeth and straining with its weight as he helps Rob to lift it up onto the rack.

Rob uploaded the video in February with the hashtag "gym fail" and captioned it: "That was close."Since then, it's been watched more than 3 million times and many people were quick to praise the quick-thinking man who came to Rob's aid.One viewer joked: "Bro sacrificed his whole lower back for that, he is now a paraplegic.""Bro was just happy to be there," quipped a second.Someone else wrote: "Damn even Hercules struggles sometimes."Meanwhile, other weightlifters suggested it was a risky move and said they would use a different grip.One user said: "I'm not real big but I've been lifting for 28 years and I would never do an underhand bench press.""I just can't understand the purpose of that grip," another said.A third wrote: "Not putting clips on didn't help, one of those plates moves an inch on one side and the weight changes on that side dramatically."Other gym-goers reckoned it was actually safer to lift without clips if you don't have a spotter because then you can slide the plates off if you run into trouble..