As a trainer and avid weightlifter, I’ve seen quite a few weird things happen in the weight room, from the man curling in the squat rack to someone doing something so biomechanically incorrect it makes you cringe. Aside from all the ridiculous things I’ve seen and heard, nothing compares to what happened to me earlier this week. It’s the kind of story you joke about with your weightlifting buddies, the kind that seems so far fetched it could never happen. This is the story of one particular incident that is so uncanny, it may be hard to believe, but I can’t make this stuff up.

It was a Monday, the day I squat heavy because it helps to set the tone for training the rest of the week and I’m psychologically ready for it after finishing the weekend. I arrived at the gym in the afternoon when the weight room was almost empty. Therefore, I didn’t have any problems getting to use the one squat rack available. I started working my way up to some heavy sets of two to three reps when another man made his way downstairs to “train.” This man, who looked like he was in decent shape, started doing some pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and other movements. He didn’t seem like he was following any kind of structured program and wasn’t exactly into his workout. He also didn’t have headphones on, which will come into play later on in the story. Keep this guy in mind.

Back to my squatting…I put 365 lbs on the bar, roughly 85 percent of my current max raw. My body weight is 165 lbs. I planned on doing two to three reps. Obviously, at 85 percent of my max, the weight looked heavy when I unracked it to squat, so I mentally prepared for my set, put on wrist wraps, chalked my hands, and turned up some Rage Against the Machine so I didn’t have to listen to the techno dance crap the gym plays. I noticed the wandering man had just finished some pull-ups and was walking around the room nonchalantly. In my mentally prepared state of mind, I aggressively got under the bar, exhaled forcefully a couple times, and stomped my feet. I’m not particularly quiet when I unrack a heavy squat, so anyone paying the least bit of attention (especially those not into their workout and with nothing in their ears to stop outside noise) would’ve noticed or at least heard what was going on.

After I lifted the bar off the rack and took my steps back to set my stance, I noticed the wandering man had pulled out his phone. He was still walking a bit aimlessly and had started texting or checking messages or something that required him to stare at his palm while he decided to settle his stance just behind me to my left. I briefly wondered what was going through his mind and thought maybe he was going to stand by in case something went wrong with my lift. Boy, I was way off…

Just before I started my descent, this guy, who was still staring at the phone in his hand, decided to place his arm on the collar of the bar as if leaning on a fence post. This man was actually resting his arm on the end of a 365-lb bar that was on the back of another man. How on earth does something like that happen?

I don’t know if I was simply dumbfounded or just couldn’t say anything under the loaded bar, but I managed to let out a grunt, which alerted the man to the fact that he was on the verge of breaking someone because of his stupidity. He lifted his arm, took a step back, and nodded as he mouthed “sorry” before he walked away. Now, of course, my mental state was gone and complete amazement took over my thoughts. I completed two reps that weren’t too pretty, but it felt OK anyways. Unfortunately, the wandering, half unconscious man had gone upstairs before I could say anything to him.

This was easily the strangest, most unbelievable thing that has ever happened to me in the gym. This little stunt could have ended much worse than it did with my vertebral discs popping out like Pez candies. Pay attention in the weight room! It means a lot to serious lifters.