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Weightlifting & Calisthenics

Owned by Nathan Wailes
Last updated: Oct 05, 2023
23 min read

Table of contents

Child pages


Weightlifting

YouTube channels

How to perform reps

Shoulder packing

  • People who recommend it:
    • Scooby recommends it for all chest, shoulder, and lat exercises: Scooby's Workshop - Shoulder Packing
    • My CrossFit trainers were always pushing people to do it.
    • I also had a trainer at Equinox who recommended it when doing lat pull-downs.
  • My experiences:
    • I didn't write it down at the time but I have a vague memory of hurting myself when using shoulder packing while doing the dumbbell bench press.  IIRC it was caused by the fact that my scapulas had the full weight of my torso and the dumbbells resting on them.  I may have just been doing something wrong (maybe curling my back could've taken weight of the scapulas and put it more on my upper shoulders?).
    • I think I have noticed that shoulder packing has helped me avoid shoulder-joint pain when doing one-handed cable flies.

Rep ranges / time under tension

  • 2017.03.02 - YouTube - AthleanX - "3 Sets of 12" is KILLING Your Gains!!
    • This video has really stuck with me.
    • The main idea is that you want to aim to keep the muscle under tension for 45-60 seconds, and have it "fail" (unable to fully contract) within that time range, with the idea that you'll have performed around 8-12 reps in that time, but with the number of reps not mattering as much as the time under tension and performing to failure.  To drag out the reps over 45-60 seconds you go up (contract) quickly and then go down slowly.
    • From my personal experience I've found that doing this makes the muscle feel like someone is holding a fire to it as I get to the 35-40 second mark, which I suspect is a good sign.  I had that feeling happen to me the first session where I started doing cable ab curls and lying leg raises and the next week I felt like my abs were significantly stronger (I could do the 20# weighted captain's chair leg raises much easier than I could the previous week).

Equipment

Straps

Figure eight straps
  • 2016.11.10 - BarBend - Giants Pro Figure of 8 Lifting Straps Review
    • If you’re looking for something that will bind you to a barbell throughout various lifts — but primarily heavy, heavy pulls — these are one of the most secure choices on the market.
    • For someone who wants a strap for strictly deadlifting or other heavy movements that don’t require ample mobility, it would be worth giving the Giants Pro Figure of 8’s a try.
    • These straps are not ideal for doing any form of Olympic lifting/weightlifting. The bar remains so secure that it actually inhibits your power movements that require ample mobility. This wouldn’t be a good wrap for those who plan to use it with Olympic or power focused exercises.

Wrist wraps

  • Undated - CrossFit Invictus - 5 tips for using wrist wraps
    • The purpose of a wrist wrap is to provide support to the wrist joint during heavy or max effort lifts in pressing movements and overhead lifts. During these movements, the wrist can be pulled into excessive extension under load and result in compromised mechanics, possible injury, and failed lifts.
  • 2014.11.19 - Tuff Wraps - 7 commonly asked questions about wrist wraps for CrossFit and powerlifting
    • When performing bench press or Olympic lifts which include a snatch, clean & jerk, push press, etc. the wrists are stressed into what we call the extension position [NW: this is where the wrist is bent backwards]. Under extreme heavy loads, an athletes form can be compromised which could result in a wrist injury or not completing the lift.
    • The primary purpose of the wrist wraps is to support you when lifting weights that are greater than 50% of your one rep max. If the weight is too heavy, there is a chance for a sprain/strain injury.

Programs / Training plans

Body-region-specific notes

Shoulders

Chest

  • Use shoulder packing: Scooby's Workshop - Shoulder Packing
  • 2013.05.25 - YouTube - Scooby - 10 Secrets For Huge Pecs

    1. Patience - huge pecs take years to develop.

    2. Don't neglect squeezing exercises; alternate pushing and squeezing exercises (like flys)

    3. No shoulders/triceps in the 2 days prior to chest workout

    4. Don't overtrain; work your pecs every 5-7 days.

    5. When you train chest, hit it hard. Don't mix it with exercises for other regions of your body.

    6. Vary rest between sets weekly.

    7. Use drop sets when going heavy, or you won't get enough of a workout.

    8. Shoulder packing - Pull your shoulders back and down.

    9. Good nutrition

    10. Hydration

Lats

Arms

Abs

  • Men's Fitness - The 30 best abs exercises of all time
    1. Ab Wheel Roll-out
    2. Arms-High Partial Sit-up
    3. Barbell Roll-out
    4. Barbell Russian Twist (Standing)
    5. Swiss Ball Crunch
    6. Dip/Leg-Raise Combo
    7. Flutter Kick
    8. Front Squat
    9. Horizontal Cable Wood-chop
    10. Leg Raise
    11. Medicine Ball Russian Twist
    12. Medicine Ball Mountain Climber
    13. Pike to Superman
    14. Plank
    15. Pull-up to Knee Raise
    16. Push-up Rocket
    17. Resisted Reverse Crunch
    18. Swiss Ball Roll-out
    19. Medicinal Ball Seated Knee Tuck
    20. Side Plank
    21. Sprinter
    22. Sit-up and throw (medicine ball)
    23. Star Plank
    24. Straight-Leg Barbell Sit-up
    25. Suitcase Deadlift
    26. Swiss Ball Plank Circle
    27. Swiss Ball V-Up and Pass
    28. Medicine Ball V-Up
    29. Weighted Sit-up
    30. Half Kneeling Chop

Legs

Lift-specific notes

Cable fly - high / High cable chest fly

Cable fly - low / Low cable chest fly

Dumbbell chest press

Dumbbell lateral raise

  • 2010.02.01 - YouTube - Scott Herman - How To: Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise
    • TODO: Summarize this.
  • 2015.06.30 - Athlean-X - Rotator Cuff Killer (SHOULDER LATERAL RAISES!)
    • Summary:
      • Lean forward and externally rotate your shoulder to avoid developing a shoulder impingement.
      • At the top of the movement your thumbs should be pointed up.
      • You don't want your pinkies to be higher than your thumbs at the top of the movement.
      • You don't want to internally rotate your shoulder while standing straight up to put the focus of the exercise on your medial delt.
  • 2017.09.21 - Mike Thurston - How To Perform The Dumbbell Lateral Raise For Bigger Shoulders
    • Summary:
      • He sees a lot of people doing this exercise wrong.
      • You should be aiming to work your mid delt.
      • The first mistake people make is to lift too heavy.
        • This tends to cause people to initiate the movement with a shoulder shrug to build momentum, shifting tension to the traps instead of the delts.
      • Another common mistake is to shift the work onto the front delt.
        • This tends to happen if the weight is too heavy, or the person doesn't know what they should be doing, or the person just isn't paying attention.
        • What this looks like is that the person will be standing straight up, and as they get to the top of the movement they'll rotate their arms so their thumbs are pointing up.
        • It's even easier to target the mid-delt if you lean forward slightly.
      • How high should you go with the weights?
        • It depends on the person; you want to try to get to parallel with the ground but some people don't have the shoulder mobility.
      • How much bend to have in your elbows
        • If he has his arms totally straight he feels more tension in his traps rather than his mid-delt.
        • He likes to have a slight bend in his arms.
      • What he's thinking when he's doing the exercise
        • He's focusing on keeping his shoulders depressed (pushed down) as much as possible throughout the movement.
          • He visualizes trying to scrape the dumbbells along the floor.
        • He's also focusing on leading with his elbows.
          • He finds that thinking about leading with his hands tends to make him rotate at the top of the movement to get his hands as high as possible, which is not what you want.
      • Variations
        • He likes doing the exercise seated because it makes it harder to cheat with other muscles.
        • He finds the standing lateral raise slightly easier but isn't sure why.
          • What you often see people doing is bending over and swinging back as they initiate the lift, which is making the exercise easier.
        • He recommends not letting your arms totally drop so that you can keep tension on the muscle.
        • You should try to pause slightly at the top of the movement and come down slowly, as the top of the movement is the hardest part.
          • Go fast on the way up and control the negative to come back down slowly.
        • Another variation is to sit on a bench that's leaning forward a bit.
          • This is good because it helps keep you from cheating when you get tired.
        • Another variation he really likes is to do one arm at a time while seated on an inclined bench, with his other arm wrapped around the back of the bench, so that he can look in the mirror and see exactly where the tension is being placed.
      • How often you should do it
        • If you're doing the movement properly, it's "joint-friendly", so you can do it 2-3 times per week if you want.
          • As opposed to, for example, the overhead press.

Dumbbell press / military press / push press / overhead press / shoulder press

  • 2010.03.27 - YouTube - Scott Herman - How To: Dumbbell Shoulder Press
    • TODO: Summarize this.
  • 2017.02.28 - AthleanX - How to Lift Heavy Dumbbells (NEVER DO THIS!)
    • What to do:
      • Put the dumbbells at your feet, turn them horizontal, put your shoes under the handles, and deadlift the weight to your knees (turn the weights vertical so one side of each dumbbell is resting on your thigh).
      • Kick up one dumbbell at a time with each knee and let the dumbbells' weight bring you back.
      • When you want to get out of the lift, bring up your knees and push the dumbbells a little forward so that they pull you back into a sitting-upright position with the dumbbells resting vertically on your knees (the way they were before you started the press).
    • What not to do:
      • Don't kick up both dumbbells at the same time, you could fall backwards and sideways (he saw this happen).
      • Don't ditch the dumbbells out to the side or by letting your arms fall forwards with your body still horizontal, as it can hurt you with bigger weights.
      • Don't pick up the dumbbells from the floor by twisting your back to each side of the bench (i.e. not having the dumbbells directly in front of you), as this can hurt you with higher weights.

Dumbbell rows

  • 2018.05.23 - YouTube - AthleanX - This Exercise CAUSES Hernias (IT'S VERY POPULAR!)
    • He says the exercise he suspects causes the most hernias is the dumbbell row; he got his only two hernias from it, and he saw another athlete who also got a hernia from it.
    • To avoid getting a hernia, he recommends straddling the bench rather than having one knee on the bench.
    • Also, the heavier the weight you use, the more likely you are to have an issue.

Dumbbell skullcrushers


Skullcrushers vs. dips

Deadlifts

How I deadlift

  1. I rest my lower back between sets by lying on my back with my knees bent and feet up near my butt so the weight is off my lower back.
  2. Maybe don't use mixed grip ever, even on warmup sets, because I think it was causing my bicep to hurt even from doing it on just one warmup set. Although it wasn't hurting for months while I did the same warmup set, it only hurt when I increased the weight of my deadlift

Journal

  • 2018.06.24 - I've been trying to get back into doing deadlifts but my lower back has been killing me, to the point where I have to stop after only ~5 reps. I knew I must be doing something wrong with my technique because I remember doing these in CrossFit with much heavier weight and not feeling back pain afterwards (IIRC my hands were what hurt the most).
    • Here's what I think I may have been doing wrong:
      • Using running shoes. While in CrossFit I was using their recommended shoes.
      • Trying to look up and forward as if I was doing a squat. While in CrossFit I remember they said to look at the floor.
      • I think I may have been hyperextending my lower back.
  • 2018.10.19 - I've been using Alan Thrall's advice of sucking as much air as I can into my stomach and then flexing my stomach like I'm going to be punched in the gut, and it seems to be working great for both deadlifts and squats.

Squats

  • I was able to do 95# pretty comfortably

How I squat

  1. Background: I wrote up the stuff below after having squatted consistently (once a week) for ~5 years, paying very close attention to my body and watching a lot of YouTube videos for advice.  So I'd consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the movement, although perhaps not an expert.
  2. Setup:
    1. Spotter bar placement: I have the spotter bars low enough that I can get the crease of my hips below the level of the top of my kneecaps, but high enough that I can't get lower than that, as going lower will make it much harder for me to get out of the bottom of the squat.
    2. J-hook placement: I have the base of the J-hooks just above nipple-height. I want it to be low enough so that if I roll the bar down my back while doing the lift, I can still get the weight on the J-hooks without needing to roll the bar back up my back. Basically I want it low enough that I never need to struggle to get the bar back on the j-hooks, but high enough that I don't need to do a squat just to unrack the weight.
    3. I choose a bar that doesn't have a bend in it because a bend can make the bar want to roll or otherwise uncomfortable once it's on my back.
    4. I use my own barbell clamps so I can be sure the weight won't slide towards the ends of the bars. Unbalanced weight makes the reps unnecessarily difficult.
    5. I use liquid chalk on my hands and on my back. I put the chalk in three spots on my back: on my two rear delt areas and in the middle of my back, all where the bar will be touching my skin. A bar that slides around because of my sweat just makes the sets difficult for a reason unrelated to the strength I'm trying to develop.
    6. I don't use a belt because I tried using one and my abs got bruised from the pressure against the belt. I don't see a need to use one.
  3. Warm-up:
    1. I warm up with 50% of my working weight. 2 sets of 10 reps with a minute rest.  Then I do 1 set of 4 at 70% of my working weight.
    2. When I warm up I start with my arms a little wider because having them at the same width as on my heavy sets kind of hurts. Pointer finger on inner ring for 50% warm up sets, middle finger on the inner ring for 70% warm up sets and working sets. Having my hands narrower is a tighter position which is less comfortable, but on heavier sets it helps me to keep the weight in position without fatiguing my arms as much.
  4. Getting into position:
    1. I look at each end of the bar near the J-hooks to make sure they're the same distance from the J-hooks on each side. If the bar is not centered, I pull on it to make it more centered. I do this because squatting with the barbell off center can result in thebplates hitting the spotter bars, and reracking the weight when the bar is off center can be scary because the plates can hit the squat rack or J-hooks or the barbell collar(?) can end up resting on the j-hook.
    2. I put my pinky on the outer ring or pointer finger on the inner ring for my warm up sets.
    3. I put my ring finger or middle finger on the inner smooth ring for very heavy sets (300+ lbs).
    4. I make sure my thumb is not wrapped around the bar.
    5. I then dip my head under the bar and have my left foot under the bar and my right foot back behind the bar. I'm going to get the bar in the right position in my palms and then use my legs to push the bar down my back onto my rear delts.
    6. I have the barbell across the base of the palms of my hands, so the weight is pressing down through the middle part of the palms of my hands into my wrist, and the meaty parts of the base of my palm are on either side of the bar. The goal is to make sure the weight of the bar is not in the middle of my palm where it would be bending my wrist back. I dont want my wrist to be supporting any weight, I want all the pressure being transmitted into my arms. Having the barbell resting further down my palm is better that way (less danger of hurting your wrist), but it also increases the risk that the bar will start to slip out from under your palm, so you need to experiment a little to find the perfect position. My wrist hasn't hurt in years, so that gives you an idea of what to aim for. The best way to describe the position is that if you took a cross section of my wrist, the weight of the bar would be pressing directly down into the center of my wrist. I have the bar positioned in my palm so that the weight of the bar is going directly down into the center of my wrist.
    7. I don't worry about having all my fingers wrapped closely around the bar. My hands are rotated so that I have my pinky fingers wrapped closely around the bar but my pointer fingers are only gripping the bar from their top. If I have the bar in the right position my fingers shouldn't need to do much work at all.
    8. I then use the weight of my body and the pushing of my legs to push the bar as far down my back as it will go with my hands still in position. I have one foot under the bar and another foot back behind the bar to push. I repeatedly relax my foot that's under the bar and then tense it again while pushing the entire time with my rear foot to push the bar further down my back. Having the bar pushed down on my back like that is not a comfortable position. At this point my head is normally pointing towards the floor (maybe 30 degrees in front of my feet) because I was leaning forward to use my bodyweight to help me push the bar down my back.
    9. After pushing the bar as far down my back as I can, I rotate my body more upwards (so my feet are now under the bar instead of behind the bar like they were in the previous step) and I wiggle my body underneath the bar when I'm getting into position so that it wiggles into a tight fit. Like, I get the bar into a squat position on my back (bar on my back with my hands in the right spot) and then I throw my body backwards and forwards while pushing my body up into the bar with my legs until my body is locked into a position where it can't move backwards or forwards when I rock my body backwards and forwards, because it's locked in to the stationary bar.
    10. I keep my feet around hip width apart when unracking the weight (so, narrower than when I squat).
    11. Valsalva: I need to brace my abdomen to protect my lower spine. I've had my spine hurt when I wasn't bracing enough. I take a big breath into my stomach and squeeze my abs like I'm going to be punched. I do this once to unrack the weight and get into position, and then again before each rep.
    12. I unrack the weight and take two small steps back with each foot, just enough to get away from the J-hooks.
  5. Going down:
    1. I avoid going down too quickly (like if I wasn't resisting the weight much at all) to protect my knee from excess force at the bottom of the rep. Like, if the weight is moving too quickly at the end of the rep, your knee is going to absorb a lot of that energy.
    2. I'm careful to keep the weight balanced in the middle of my feet as the weight goes down and up. If my center of balance comes too far forward I can hurt my knee trying to push it back with my toes (it happened).
    3. I deliberately track my left knee inwards a bit because it hurts if I track it wider.
    4. At the bottom of heavy sets (non warm up sets) I pull the bar back and down more and it seems to help me. It seems especially important to pull the bar down and back when I'm coming up out of the bottom.
    5. At the bottom I find that dropping my head a bit (looking down more than if I was keeping my head in line with my back) takes some strain off my lower back. It seems to be because it lets my lower back curve in a subtle way so that it isn't carrying as much weight (or something).
  6. Coming up:
    1. On heavy sets I squeeze my toes to grab at the ground and find that helps me generate more power.
    2. I can avoid doing a good morning by pushing my knees forward when coming out of the bottom. Basically I kind of relax my ankles and it makes my knees go forward, my chest comes up, and my hips drop a little, so I'm more upright, and then I'm pushing the weight up more with my quads and I take the weight off my lower back. It almost feels like I'm kind of slipping under the bar like in a clean. [Later: I think doing this takes the weight off my lower back but it may strain my knees. The day after I did this my left knee felt a little strained. I'm not sure if it was from the squats but it might have been. So maybe I should try to find some kind of middle-ground where I'm pushing my knees forward but not as far as possible.]
      1. To do this, I first need to push the bar up a bit so I have room to slip under it.  I can't do this from the absolute bottom of the lift.
  7. Resting between reps:
    1. I've noticed two ways to rest between reps:
      1. a way that has your lower back absorbing the weight (preventing your lower back from resting and limiting your reps) but seems safe for your spine, and
      2. a way that has the weight going straight down through your spine (which lets you rest your lower back and thus get out more reps but leaves my spine hurting in a way that seems dangerous in the long run).
    2. To have your lower back absorb the weight, just maintain a slight lean (forwards).  But I find this prevents my lower back from resting and limits the number of reps I can do.
    3. To take the weight off your lower back and put it onto your spine: lean forward as little as possible / keep the weight as far back on your shoulders as you can manage. When I do it correctly I feel the weight really heavy on my arms while resting, and I need to squeeze my butt really hard to stay balanced.
  8. Resting between sets:
    1. Before heavy sets I rest for ten minutes on my back with my knees up to get any strain off my lower back to let the lower-back muscles rest. I try to have my lower back pressed into the floor, or I rotate my lower body to stretch my lower back.
  9. If I feel pain during the workout or in the days afterwards, I take that as a sign that I'm doing something wrong. I don't push through it.

Journal

  • 2018.10.19 - I've been using Alan Thrall's advice of sucking as much air as I can into my stomach and then flexing my stomach like I'm going to be punched in the gut, and it seems to be working great for both deadlifts and squats.
  • 2023.09.29 - I think I got my first ever (minor, early) hernia doing squats on this day (Friday) (364#, the heaviest I've ever done up until now).  I think what caused it was a combination of: 1) eating a lot of food before I went to the gym (fitness meals + broccoli) so I had a very full stomach, 2) taking a big deep breath, further filling up my abdomen, 3) doing a heavier weight, 4) (possibly) going deep into the squat instead of stopping at parallel.  I don't actually see a bulge, and I think I was able to "pop" it back into place on Sunday (2 days later) while pooping by holding my right palm very firmly against the spot.  I'm writing this the Thursday after it happened (so 6 days later) and I already feel better, although not totally back to normal.
  • 2023.10.06 - My spine hurts, I think from resting between reps on the squat while standing up straighter than I had in the past, which I'd done to take the weight off my lower back (which would let me get more reps out), but I think it just sent the weight through my spine instead.

Split-jerk

  • IIRC I did 115# and then couldn't manage 135#


Kettlebell Swings

Mistakes to avoid:

  • If you just let the kettlebell drop straight down and stop it right at your groin without bending your knees much, you may put too much stress on your arms / elbow-tendons. From watching the pro's, it seems the proper form is to bend your knees more when the kettlebell comes down so that your quads absorb more of the kettlebell's energy.
    • [2015.05.18 - My elbow tendons and traps hurt in a way that doesn't seem good (muscle-building), and I think it's because I was stopping a 20kg kettlebell for 4 sets of 20 reps by just letting the bell come to a stop right under my groin, not using my quads much at all to absorb the weight as it came down. It makes it easier to do reps but it may cause damage over the long-term.]


Calisthenics

YouTube channels

  • THENX
    • This guy has a nice body.
      • It isn't very puffed-up like a Crossfitter's body (which seems to be a result of Crossfitters dealing with higher weights).
      • He has a very low body fat percentage, which probably adds to the effect.
      • He also seems tall (e.g. long neck and torso), which probably also adds to the effect.
      • He has a pretty big chest.
      • Big delts
      • Bigger-than-I'd-expect biceps.
    • It looks like he does weighted bodyweight exercises (so using a weight vest, ankle weights, barbells hanging from his waist). So he's doing more than just bodyweight, but probably less than what a Crossfitter is doing.
    • Sample workouts:


Ab exercises

Sit-ups

Journal

  • 2015.05.21 - I did sit-ups this morning on an exercise pad on a pool deck, and now (~5pm) I have a pain in my lower back. So it may be a good idea for me to avoid doing sit-ups.
    • From doing some reading online it looks like sit-ups don't even really work your abs as much as your hip flexors.
    • From looking online, it looks like alternatives to sit-ups are: 1) planks, 2) leg lifts, 3) sit-ups with an abmat under your lower spine.

Screwdriver

  • Description: Go to a dip bar, keep your arms extended at your side, and then lower your body while twisting it to the side, and then pull your body back up, all the time trying to keep your arms relatively straight, so that when you go up you're kind of pulling yourself slightly into a sit-up position.
  • 2018.04.22 - AthleanX - Best LOWER ABS Exercise You’ve NEVER Tried!

Muscle-ups


CrossFit


Heart attacks, ruptured aneurysms

  • 2016.05.25 - Jiu-Jitsu Times - Crossfit Practitioner Suffers Heart Attack While Working Out
    • While in the midst of a barbel lift, the man felt sever chest pains that hindered his movement and made him collapse on the floor.
  • 2017.01.11 - DonnaKaz.com - Carrie Fisher, CrossFit and My Widowmaker
    • On July 19 of this year, at the age of 61, I had a heart attack. 95% of my LAD artery, nicknamed the “widowmaker,” was blocked.
    • Three and a half years ago, at the age of 59 I started CrossFit
    • The post office is just 9 blocks from my apartment but I found myself taking the bus there and back instead of walking. A steep set of stairs would leave me out of breath, just as a short and intense CrossFit WOD (Workout of the Day) would. I would still be huffing and puffing on the six block walk home a good fifteen minutes after my CrossFit workout was over. I thought nothing of these changes and chalked them up to getting old.
    • On July 19th I gave up on one part of the 360 workout – a simple 200 meter run. Going from 85th Street to 86th Street and back felt impossible. For the first time in my three years of CrossFit, I walked the 200 meter run.
    • I needed a nap that afternoon but never got around to it. By dinner time my fatigue was overwhelming. I remember shuffling around the kitchen preparing dinner for my husband, thinking a quick lie down on the tile floor would really help. After dinner, I sat on the couch with my laptop propped open and started to feel chills, like I might be coming down with the flu. As I stood up to retrieve some notes off a table, I felt dizzy. Something was very wrong. I asked my husband to bring me his blood pressure cuff and after two readings came up exceptionally high (my normal blood pressure is usually low) I began to notice a very slight feeling of pressure in the middle of my chest. When that happened I asked my husband to get me to the nearest ER. “In fact, call an ambulance,” I said, much to my husbands’ surprise. “What did you just say?” was his panicked reply. “Something is wrong with me. I think I might be having a heart attack.” I stated. “Get your shoes on. I’ll get us a cab. It will get us there faster.” he said.
    • Fatigue and dizziness accompanied by feelings of coming down with a virus or the flu are some of the understated indicators. Back pain, jaw pain, and chest pains are others.
  • 2017.01.13 - East Idaho News - CrossFitters save one of their own after heart attack at gym
    • After a full workout that morning, he was helping to clean up the weights when he suddenly collapsed and began to shake.
    • Howard Egan has a family history of heart problems. His grandfather, father and a brother all have suffered major heart attacks. He was doing everything he could to try to beat the odds and thought he was. He exercised daily — in fact, he did Spartan races last summer — was on cholesterol medication and visited his doctor often.
    • Tauna [his wife] said that they would like if we used part of the money to buy an AED (automated external defibrillator) for the gym.
  • 2017.02.07 - Reddit - r/crossfit - Heart Issues
    • It isn't clear if he had it while at the gym.
    • Today marks 2 weeks since I (29M) suffered a mild heart attack.
    • Comment: you need to always make sure you cool down and don't just collapse after a workout.
    • Comment: Heart attack at 29?!?!? Was it a congenital disorder?
      • His response: No it wasn't (...) can't really pinpoint a casue. I've always had high cholestorl since an infant. I have low testosterone, low vitamin D, and I eat like shit. But the biggest factor of them all is my genes. My uncle passed away from one at 47yrs old, my mom has high blood pressure and my grandfather is on a pacemaker.
  • 2017.02.28 - NewsMax - Did Too Much Exercise Cause Bob Harper's Heart Attack?
  • 2017.07.19 - WMC Action News 5 - Memphis athlete to compete in Crossfit Games
    • "I had some success, and then during one of the workouts a few years ago I had a heart attack," he said.
  • 2018.05.24 - DailyMail - 'He was in the best shape of his life': Tragedy as father, 32, dies from heart attack during an exercise regime on his second wedding anniversary in Thailand
    • Harley Fowler, 32, reportedly collapsed during his exercise regime in Phuket and was unable to be resuscitated.
    • I wonder if the (presumably) hotter weather in Thailand was a contributing factor?
  • 2018.07.19 - MorningChalkUp.com - Get an AED in Your CrossFit Box
    • 59-year-old Dale Cornett had just finished his workout and sat down. Seconds later he had a massive heart attack. Members of the gym called an ambulance and performed CPR until they arrived but Dale didn’t make it.
    • Each AED unit costs $1075.00 with the wall mount case costing $255.00.
  • 2018.08.27 - Syracuse.com - Athlete 'dies' at workout: How 3 Syracuse nurses in right place, right time saved him
    • It sounds like it happened while he was doing the normal warm-up run outside the gym. (I'm assuming the class started at 10am and he had arrived 30 minutes early.)
    • the 54-year-old went to work out at CrossFit Syracuse on Erie Boulevard East around 9:30 a.m. He tied the laces on his sneakers and began a warm-up run along nearby Thompson Road. That's the last thing he remembers.
    • A minuscule piece of plaque swimming in O'Polka's veins happened to reach his heart, fully clogging an artery, just when he happened to be within a few hundred yards of the nurses.
    • O'Polka had only just recovered from a hip injury, which meant he had recently been doing light workouts at his home or at Planet Fitness gym near his home. He'd only been back at the CrossFit gym recently.
    • O'Polka said those who know him well know he's extremely healthy. He said he exercises at least five times a week, in addition to walking his dog twice a day. He's never smoked, rarely drinks and eats a diet of lean meats and vegetables, skipping pasta and white rice, he said.
    • O'Polka began the run at 10:02 a.m. His heart attack occurred soon after, and the person who ran back to the gym made it there by 10:06 a.m. He was on his way in the ambulance by 10:13 a.m., according to O'Polka's wife, who reviewed the surveillance video at the gym.
  • 2018.11.02 - Reddit - r/crossfit - Death in Crossfit (Argentina)
    • Tuesday afternoon, a 38 y/o businessman died of heart failure while he was stretching after a WOD in a box near Buenos Aires, Argentina. This guy practiced crossfit competitively and actually didn't position badly in masters this year's open.
    • Comment: I'm 43 and keep after it, I don't use the age excuse, but we also have a defibrillator in our box.
    • Comment: We had a woman who had a brain aneurysm and collapsed in class one Saturday.


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