As Strongman Terry Hollands proves in the video below, no gym injury is too small to be taken seriously.
Strongman Terry Hollands shared a video with fans on Instagram earlier today that shows a minor injury he sustained while training in the gym. In doing so, he inadvertently taught viewers a very important lesson about physical fitness: even small injuries should be taken seriously, otherwise they might escalate into something much worse. The video below shows the deadlift in question, which Hollands immediately stopped after his “index finger decided to start burning[,] then went completely numb.”
Hollands went on to complete a 360-pound deadlift after he assessed the situation and realized it was okay for him to keep going. However, this is an important reminder to everyone who works out how important it is to take your health seriously. An inexperienced lifter would have shrugged off a tingling numbness in the fingers as something small to just power through, but Hollands, an experienced athlete, knew better than that.
The truth about gym injuries is that they’re not always dramatic. In fact, most tears and sprains are the result of gradual degradation of the muscles and joints due to poor form and repeated abuse. We recently reported on a man who died at the gym after dropping weights on his chest without a spotter (caution: NSFW/graphic video ahead.) The truth is, freak accidents like these in the gym are fairly uncommon. Most injuries are preventable and most of them start small.
A numb finger may seem like nothing and maybe it is. But if there’s a chance that it isn’t, it’s worth taking the extra precautions to protect your health and safety. If anything about the way you are working out feels different or worse than it usually is, you should immediately pause and assess the situation. In the case of Terry Hollands, it turned out to be nothing. But a numb finger could also be a sign of a stroke, nerve damage, or a clot. Some of those conditions are serious and can even be fatal. If that numb finger had been the warning sign of a potential stroke, Hollands could have died if he attempted to keep lifting 340 pounds the way he was. Lucky for him that it wasn’t.
Let’s all learn a lesson from this about putting our health first when we’re working out. Pushing yourself is useful — to a point. After that, it just becomes dangerous, and sustaining a serious injury could even end your athletic career. The greatest champions of the sport got where they are because they know how to moderate a careful balance between pushing themselves while still respecting the limits of their body. Cheers to Terry Hollands and looking forward to watching him compete at Britain’s Strongest Man on January 18th, 2020.
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*All images and videos courtesy of Instagram.
