In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO -- who goes by "Dr. Mike" on social media -- watches painful TikTok gym accidents.
Following is a transcript of the video (note that errors are possible):
Varshavski: We all want to go to the gym and get swole, but how many of us have had accidents in the gym? I'm about to diagnose them. Peewoop!
Running. Running. Running. Oh! That was a slide tackle. Red card. Just, "Ah!" That's part of the exercise. You got to escape the thing. You got to do a quick counter movement, jump.
Bench, bench, bench, strong bench. Can't get it up. I say if you're alone in the gym, it's better to not use clips so that in a situation like this you can throw the weight off to the side. Obviously, you got to be ready because it's going to flick to the other side as well.
Let's see what's going to happen here. Oh, don't choke yourself out. Yeah. This is a really big problem because you could start putting pressure on your veins here and actually cut off your circulation to your brain. But putting pressure on the veins is a little bit easier because they are thin walled, so you start building up pressure in your brain and that can make you pass out on its own. Wow, so, so dangerous here. I hope he is safe.
Okay. What's about to happen? Is he going to glide over the water? Glide over the water. Glide over the water. Oh! Honestly, those rapid kinds of changes of direction are terrible on your joints, like the knee. I just felt the ACL scream. Like the person scream, but that person was merely speaking for the ACL.
Parkour. Oh! Oh, I wasn't ready for that. Oh my God! He is going to have to visit a dentist, a nasal surgeon. He's not going to breathe well. He's probably going to have to drink smoothies for awhile.
Oh, I felt that. No real injury, but pain. Yeah.
Oh, what is happening here? Honestly, like I have seen weird stuff at the gym before, like people just misusing equipment, but I have never seen stuff like this. My hamstring is literally jealous of that flexibility. Okay. More people misusing machines. Interesting. That gentleman was very much interested in her form.
Wow, that is a lot, a lot of lumbosacral flexibility. Whoa, that is ... he is a contortionist. Okay.
Sam: Cirque du Soleil.
Varshavski: Oh, Cirque du Soleil. Okay. That makes sense. There are blood vessels called the vertebral arteries that run up and down either end of your spine. You have to put a lot of pressure on those by being in that hyper-extended position. I wonder, like, is he cutting off circulation to his lower extremities right now?
Narrator: I was just doing leg presses and watch what happens.
Varshavski: What happened?
Narrator: I now have pink eye.
Varshavski: Not how you get pink eye. Pink eye is usually a viral condition, sometimes bacterial. Why did she have to come up like this? I hope they know each other. Because if they don't, this is an awkward way to get to know one another. It's like, "Well, hello crotch."
Shoulder circles. Oh, front-facing squat. Ooh ... oh. Oooh. There is a lot of strength involved in that. A lot of strength.
Male: No way.
Varshavski: Medically that looked tangled.
Narrator: When you accidentally get too hyped for the homies PR.
Varshavski: To me, if he did that to my back, I would just cough. Maybe because I'm elderly now.
Dunk! Double fail. Double fail.
Okay. We got ... oh, oh, that is so dangerous. That is why those machines have to be secured to the ground, especially if you're using resistance bands. Because imagine if it hit him in the back of the head, knocked him unconscious, and then he fell with it. Man, that could have been deadly.
Oh, wow. He is struggling with that. He is struggling. Whoa, he is getting really red. This is raising the intracranial pressure. Oh, shut down. You know what can happen here? He could have a vasovagal response, where he actually bears down too hard, dilated all his blood vessels in his legs, therefore dropping the blood pressure, not getting enough circulation to his brain. That's why when he went down, he started feeling better because then it was easier for the heart to circulate that blood from the lower extremities.
Whoa. Throw up. Jerk. No. Oh, went too far back. I love that this guy completely didn't care. He was just like, "Oh, yeah. You're good. Rub some dirt in it."
Oh, oh. He knocked himself out. Oh, idubbbz. idubbbz, May 14th. The chin is the worst place to get hit because you get the maximal rotation and movement of the brain inside the skull. Because, remember, the brain sits in a soup so when it gets shaken like that, you could easily get knocked out.
No excuses. Oh, one-legged. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Deadlifting. Yeah. Look at that hamstring activation. That rear chain. Posterior chain, good stuff, fella.
Oh, what? Is this real? First of all, the balance on this is incredible, to dip with that much weight on you. I mean, what is it? 315. His triceps and shoulders, my God. I wouldn't recommend that.
Oh my God. Look at these tires. I'm sorry, I have worked out before, but I've no idea what the preset weights for tires are. That could be literally like 50 lb or it could be 5,000 lb. I don't know. Does it mean this person can lift a semi? Imagine their name is Axel.
Oh, medial ankle injury like that. Bone ... oh my God. You get struck on the bone on one side. That could potentially be a fracture or a bone bruise. But then you also evert your ankle, therefore putting strain on the anterior talofibular. Anterior talofibular.
Male: Anterior thabya Libya.
Varshavski: Then he fell onto the assault bike.
Male: Ten month bulk update. My son's bulk is going really well, but we tried to introduce ball sports and he got a bit confused. He does the occasional assisted squat, which he loves. I did some tinkering in the garage with a bunch of scraps and built him a fully custom, quarter-size leg press.
Varshavski: That's so cute.
Male: He loves that and he is going to have some monster quads and glutes soon.
Varshavski: That's adorable. Please don't make the baby over-lift, but that was really cute. Hope the baby doesn't get a splinter either.
This guy is really looking thin on those legs. Maybe that's because the form is just absolutely ... what is going on? Is he dancing? Is this Zumba squats? What is happening here? This is what happens when you load up the thing to look cool for your girl. You really have no idea what you're doing.
Okay. This is a cat with toilet paper just chilling. I would have done this better. I would have thrown the toilet paper on the tail as well and watch it move. What did I just watch?
Whoa, that's savage. How does he know? How does he know? God, if that hits, tooth gone. Ship sliding off, very aesthetically pleasing. Oh, not aesthetically pleasing. Oh, nope, still aesthetic pleasing.
Oh, I know something is going to go wrong here. He is with the ab wheel, and he is on the dumbbell and those are unstable dumbbells. They are not heavy enough to be stable. Oh fractured tooth, dislodged tooth, fractured jaw. Oh, just terrible. Why would you do that? For the 'gram. He did that it the 'gram.
Oh, plyo. Plyo. Wow. Balance and plyo. Wow, he can do three. Wow, that's really, really impressive. Like, you guys have no idea how hard that is. Props, bro.
Okay, what do we got here? Lots of plates. The bar is bending, so you know it's really heavy. Good form. Is the barbell about to break? Drop it, bro. Drop it. Wow, that is a bad barbell. That's really bad. This gentleman is strong. He got lucky there.
Whoa, that is so dangerous. God, that thing could cut the other guy's face, lacerations. Terrible. Whoa, okay, that's got to be a skit. That's got to be a skit. That is way too evil. You could really hurt yourself like that.
Oooh, oooh. Quick hands. Quick feet. She is in socks. She was quick, yo. You see me box, I'm not as good as that.
The stiff arm. Niners. Niners. Oh, wow, look at that. Cowbell. More cowbell, please.
Male: I got to have more cowbell.
Varshavski: Oh, it's a bear. Hey, bear. Care to throw a bear a little nugget? Wow, that's a good bear.
Oh, they are using sound to guide the hoop. With the backboard. Bank's open on Tuesday, folks.
Male: "Bank's open on Tuesdays, folks."
Varshavski: How many Monsters I drink in a week? Because apparently I drink too much. Monday. Wow, five in a day. This is way too much. Way too much. I predict kidney stones and/or kidney problems as the first sign and maybe inflammatory enzymes of the liver going up.
Male: Come on ... what do you...?
Varshavski: Let go. Let go. That's a friction burn in a place I don't want to friction burn.
Ooh, he got clipped right in the face. I'm not a huge fan of pressing down on your heels and lifting your butt off of the bench. Some people say that this allows them to target the lower portion of the chest. I think that if you want to do that, do a decline bench.
The fact that he is wearing those wrist supporters at such a light weight tells me that he is probably benching too much. You can't allow one part of your body to become overdeveloped and think that everything is going to be okay. You're bound to have an injury. If your wrists are not strong enough to hold the weight and you have to put something artificially here ... this is not ... I'm not talking about, like, strongman or like these extreme weights. As an average lifter, it means you best be working on those wrists instead of using that and lower the weight a little.
As always, stay happy and healthy in the gym.
is a board-certified family physician and social media influencer with more than 9 million subscribers.