A truly tragic turn of events.
Many people wonder about the age one should be allowed to begin lifting weights. There are many who believe Lifting before you’re ready can stunt your growth or cause some kind of physiological damage to young lifters. While lifting in your teen years shouldn’t be much of any issue to your body, we can all agree that there is a ton of danger involved if those young lifters aren’t given the right supervision. In a sad and unfortunate way, the death of Australian teenager Ben Shaw highlights this issue.
At only 15 years of age, Ben Shaw lost his life in a weight lifting accident. It’s a sad turn of events that such an unfortunate tragedy had to occur. But you can’t help but feel like it all could have been avoided. Where was the supervision at the Citizens Youth Club gym where the accident occurred? Why was no one on hand? Why didn’t Ben Shaw have a training partner with him?
The unfortunate truth is that so many questions may be left unanswered. Ben Shaw was likely a youth filled with exuberance, trying to better himself physically. At that age the feeling of invincibility can take over and likely pushed Shaw to up the weight on the bar. This is where an experienced lifter being present could have been paramount to the young man’s survival. They could have prevented him for lifting that amount of weight or at least have been there to ensure that he didn’t harm himself. If not a training partner, staff at the gym should have been present, especially at a youth gym.
For now this will all be written up as a senseless accident. If there’s any positives to take away, it’s that more attention and supervision should be made absolutely mandatory, especially in regards to youth gyms.
Generation Iron extends our deepest condolences to the family of Ben Shaw.
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