is brandon lillies career over?

dor843088

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2KPXrfai4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Spotters look like they couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding never mind 750lbs off your ass after a failed squat. They failed him terribly.

Alf Veedersane

All sorts of knee injury going on. Kneecap in half, meniscus, patella tendon and quad tendon tears in both legs, as well as an ACL tear.

Ouchy.

kevpants

dor843088 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2KPXrfai4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Spotters look like they couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding never mind 750lbs off your ass after a failed squat. They failed him terribly.

His knees were destroyed regardless. When a lifter dumps, you get out of the way or you're likely to break your arms, legs, whatever. When a lifter pops out the front like that he's taking the spotters out of contention to help him, if you fail by sinking down and not being able to get back up but the bar is still on your back you'll be 100% fine. Not that he had a choice, Lilly had literally no control over that weight when he went, pretty much every tendon in his knee snapped and his knee cap broke in half. It was a catastrophic failure and there's no way he would have expected the spotters to do anything. Nobody is catching a 750lb bar in freefall.

I haven't seen one powerlifter blame the spotters for this.

For reference here is the greatest powerlifter of all time being spotted by no less than 5 people and the same thing happens.

I don't know enough about knees but I think he has a long road ahead. He's lost the strength built up in those tendons over a lifetime of training. His ACL I wouldn't be concerned about, it doesn't come into play too much but the ones connecting his quads to his knee, that's serious.

dor843088

kevpants wrote: »

His knees were destroyed regardless. When a lifter dumps, you get out of the way or you're likely to break your arms, legs, whatever. When a lifter pops out the front like that he's taking the spotters out of contention to help him, if you fail by sinking down and not being able to get back up but the bar is still on your back you'll be 100% fine. Not that he had a choice, Lilly had literally no control over that weight when he went, pretty much every tendon in his knee snapped and his knee cap broke in half. It was a catastrophic failure and there's no way he would have expected the spotters to do anything. Nobody is catching a 750lb bar in freefall.

I haven't seen one powerlifter blame the spotters for this.

For reference here is the greatest powerlifter of all time being spotted by no less than 5 people and the same thing happens.

I don't know enough about knees but I think he has a long road ahead. He's lost the strength built up in those tendons over a lifetime of training. His ACL I wouldn't be concerned about, it doesn't come into play too much but the ones connecting his quads to his knee, that's serious.

Begs the question then why use human spotters at all if its commonly felt theyll be no good at this kind of weight? Seems an unnecessary risk and the better the athlete the greater the risk . I think powerlifting has a lot to answer for letting their best athletes and ambassadors of the sport compete under these silly conditions.

kevpants

dor843088 wrote: »

Begs the question then why use human spotters at all if its commonly felt theyll be no good at this kind of weight? Seems an unnecessary risk and the better the athlete the greater the risk . I think powerlifting has a lot to answer for letting their best athletes and ambassadors of the sport compete under these silly conditions.

Remember he more than likely dumped the bar because his knee gave out, not the reverse. So damage was done. You have a point though. Many federations refuse to use a monolift because they pride themselves on lifters having to walk the lifts out. That's fair enough except there is nothing stopping a lifter walking out from a monolift and the monolift allows chains or ropes to be suspended from above to catch a falling bar.

In this case it looks like most of the damage was done well before the bar got down to a level that chains or ropes would have been set.

Powerlifting is all about controlling weight that seems to much for the human body to handle. If anything goes wrong and you lose that control you could get badly hurt.

There doesn't seem to have been much done wrong here other than a guy gambling by putting 750lbs on his back and losing.

RidleyRider

I love the quote at the end of the video you posted kevpants:

'Move me out of the way so someone else can lift'

Unreal.

What was the aftermath of the Lilly injury? Did the expo continue or stop? A terrible injury but he'll lift again I'd say.

COH

One part of me thinks his competitive career is over, the other part of me expects him to take a tonne of sh*t and be back training next week

BossArky

dor843088 wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2KPXrfai4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Spotters look like they couldnt pull the skin off a rice pudding never mind 750lbs off your ass after a failed squat. They failed him terribly.

Crazy having just 3 spotters for that weight. Should have been 5. Not much spotters could have done anyway.

Search for "brandon lilly injury" and you'll find a few vids of guys giving their thoughts on how this was avoidable. One suggestion for FitnessJuggernaut youtube channel: use straps/chains hanging off mono's or the likes.

There were some rumblings about how the insurance companies weren't gonna pay up due to his profession being listed as "professional powerlifter". That has been resolved and according to facebook it's just his ambulance trip which is not covered.

I'd say he'll be back (what else would he do?) and there will be Mark Bell-esque/ Juggernaut Training systems motivational videos in a year or two starting out with a slow mo of this accident, followed with him setting some record in the future. He'll probably have a Dan Green style ponytail by that stage ... and there will be a SlingShot for Squat type product on the market too.

Horrible to watch the video. Hope he recovers soon.

Off topic: Reminds me of one comp I did where a spotter was standing drinking a pint of beer leaning up against a wall whilst the competitor was going for his 3rd and pb Squat. Jesus :eek:

BossArky

Brandon Lilly went 300/250/320 for 870kg in Sydney at GPA worlds over the weekend.

Not bad as it is just 3 days short of 10 months (according to his fb) since he bust his knee in the fall.

Hanley

I love how that was the spotters fault....

Good to see him back hitting it hard.

dor843088

Hanley wrote: »

I love how that was the spotters fault....

Good to see him back hitting it hard.

I dont think anyone said it was the spotters fault , just that they could have done a better job. The guy on the right didnt even follow the bar down.