Gym safety auditor calls for improvements after man crushed while weightlifting

Gym safety auditor calls for improvements after man crushed while weightlifting In short: Experts are calling for better safety measures at gyms as many move to a 24/7 model with unstaffed hours. A man in his 50s is recovering from life-threatening injuries after an incident with weightlifting equipment at a Gold Coast gym. What's next? There are calls to mandate safety racks on lifting equipment at gyms. An incident that left a man crushed by weightlifting equipment on the Gold Coast has sparked calls to mandate safety equipment in Australian gyms. Paramedics were called to a Broadbeach gym at about 8am on Friday and took a man in his 50s to Gold Coast University Hospital with life-threatening neck injuries. He is now in a stable condition, according to Queensland Health. Queensland Work Health and Safety said it was not investigating the incident. The gym has been contacted for comment. Griffith University sports scientist Phil Bellinger said such incidents could be prevented by making safety racks mandatory for lifting equipment, particularly as many gyms moved to a 24/7 model with unstaffed hours. The racks allow adjustable bars to be set at different heights to catch a barbell if gym-goers fail a lift. Dr Bellinger said the "relatively simple precaution" of using a buddy or a spotter would also improve safety. "Where problems tend to occur is when people may progress too quickly or push loads that are maybe a little bit too heavy for them,"he said. He said gyms also needed to properly screen and educate clients. "In a lot of gyms, there's not a huge barrier in terms of someone walking in off the street that doesn't have a lot of experience and then being able to access that gym out of staffed hours," he said. Concern about 24/7 gym model The Gold Coast incident comes almost a decade after a 15-year-old boy died in hospital after he was crushed at a Brisbane gym while trying to bench press about 100 kilograms. Ben Shaw was found by a staff member at the Pine Rivers PCYC gym pinned to a bench after the weightlifting accident occurred. It was not clear how long he was trapped. FitSafe Australia founder Selwyn Becker has more than 30 years of experience in auditing gyms across the country. He said while safety measures such as CCTV and panic buttons could help during unstaffed hours, they were not enough. "When I first started in the industry, there was gym instructors on the gym floor all the time," he said. "I feel like that should come back." Mr Becker, who has previously worked as a trainer, said he would discourage people bench pressing on their own. "There's always that risk of it falling on your chest or even higher up onto your neck and that's not good," he said. He said gyms needed to be proactive with safety precautions, including regular equipment maintenance and independent safety reviews. "Prevention is always better than investigating what went wrong after the fact," he said.