Safety First If You Love Your Shins

Safety First If You Love Your Shins
Written by Michele Vieux

Hey clutterbugs – clean up your lifting area! Or don’t . . . but don’t come crying to me when you bust your shins.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone who had a stack of plates around his platform drop his barbell onto them causing it to bounce back into his shins. I have never done it myself, but it looks pretty painful and something I’d like all of us to avoid. It would be terrible to do it to yourself, but even worse if your barbell bounced into one of your workout buddies.

The solution is simple. Do what your mom always told you to do and pick up after yourself. And don’t wait until the last minute! Keep your extra pile of plates far enough away from your lifting station that there is no risk of you dropping your load on them or tripping over them when you’re performing that traveling snatch. (Note in the photo above that the plates are behind the rack so that the barbell will not be dropped on them.)

Shins get abused enough as it is on missed box jumps and double-under whippings. Let’s all be on the lookout for everyone’s safety. If you see extra weight laying around; save your shins by putting it away. It is worth the extra few seconds of going back and forth to the storage piles between lifts not to have a permanent lump or broken tibia.