No shoes, No service

[Puddle]

The team had gathered for its last practice before the M1 Rattle Battle meet, Haul Ass version.
Howard finally arrives, but instead of packing gear he's pushing one of those chairs with wheels, his right knee firmly planted on it, and with the attached foot wrapped in some sort of cast.

WTF happened to you? Seems he walked into his ammo storage room in bare feet and somehow managed to drop a full can of LC onto his foot from a height of somewhere's around 18 - 24 inches. Damn.

When we asked WTH were you thinking, he said "funny, the XO was asking me the same question at the hospital".

We still shot the match and did fine, but with one member short our scores weren't included in the final tally's.

Out of luv for our brother we had a nicely printed and framed sign made up that says "No shoes, No service".

The XO nailed it the the door of the ammo room.

Consider yourselves advised....

[Faramir2]

Perhaps I'm missing something blindingly obvious here, but how would wearing shoes have helped prevent injury to his foot? That kind of dense weight sounds like a foot-breaker no matter the shoes worn, excepting some of the most robust safety boots.

[Marco Innocenti]

Years ago I was at a gym near my former in-laws house. I dropped a 45 plate on my foot while I was trying to load it onto one of those seated/incline press machines. It was from about chest height, and I’m 6-00 tall. I was wearing a pair of generic Brooks running shoes an plain athletic socks when I did this. The plate landed pretty squarely on my instep, just above the toes.

It hurt a lot. It swelled and bruised up pretty quickly. I finished the work out and limped around for a couple of weeks or so. Didn’t go the doctor. Maybe FX’d a tarsal or 2. But after 2-3 weeks it was pretty much healed and mostly pain free.

About 2 years ago, I was trying to un-jam a drawer in my bathroom that was full of my then 4 y/o’s hair bands and stuff. Drawer fell out from about waist height. Landed right across my toes. I was barefoot on tile. Smashed the be-jeesus out of my big toe. Swelled and bled. Even the drawer weighed maybe 10 pounds, it hurt WAY more than the 45-pound plate did. Ended up going to the doctor to have a hole burned in the nail to release pressure. X-ray showed a busted phalange. Took a good 3-4months to really heal up.

Even a sneaker and sock will absorb a good bit of impact and spread the force/weight across it’s materials/construction. Especially the give from the padding in the sole of the shoe. I think a big part of my drawer-drop injury was because I was barefoot on hard tile. There was no give under my foot, so it all went into the tissue/bone.

[Faramir2]

I guess that little bit does make quite a difference. I tend to wear minimalist/barefoot-style shoes, so I'll make doubly sure not to drop any plates on my feet while at the gym or anything else while I'm at home.

[Puddle]

Yea, I don't think you're missing much at all. I suspect the soles of most any shoe will provide some sort of 'give' cushion. Perhaps at best to limit the extent of injury.

But with bare feet, you're just SOL.

[P.D.]

Re the 45 plate versus the bathroom drawer -- two grossly different injuries = no comparison.

One word: "BOOTS" Wear them. They are toe and ankle savers. A lot of my buds wear combat boots to the gym when they do free weights specifically for the ankle support.

[Marco Innocenti]

Yes different injuries. But yes to the comparison, in regards to the protection offered by shoes and/or any other “thing” that will absorb and spread the impact.

Take your hand. Lay it flat, palm down, on a slab of cement. Drop a 5-pound weight on it, just behind your knuckles from 12 inches above.

Now, do the exact same thing with a 1/2” thick piece of closed-cell foam under your hand, and 1/8” thick piece of closed cell foam laying on top of your hand.

Same weight. Same distance. Same location of impact.

Big difference in potential damage/pain.