A 14-year-old lifter who went viral after a barbell accident has reassured concerned viewers that he’s doing better than expected.
The teen, who goes by the handle builtbyjaydenn, became the subject of widespread attention after video footage showed him trapped beneath 420 pounds (190 kilograms) during a failed bench press attempt.
In a follow-up video, the young lifter addressed the flood of concerned messages directly.
“All right, so that was me. I dropped 420 pounds on my chest at 14 years old,” he explained. “I’ve got a lot of comments asking me, am I okay? Am I alive? And did I break anything? And first, no, I did not break anything.”
The teen revealed he went to the hospital immediately after the incident for evaluation. “I went to the hospital right after I got x-rays done and nothing was broken, nothing fractured, perfectly okay,” he said.
Despite the weight involved, his injuries were remarkably minor. His voice was slightly affected by the incident, and he sustained bruising to his chest area.
“Only injury that did happen was I messed up my voice a little bit, as you can tell, and I have a little bruise on my chest, but it doesn’t look like 420 pounds dropped on my chest. It looks like I just got punched in the chest pretty much, but I’m okay,” he stated.
Perhaps most surprising is the speed of his recovery. Just two days after the accident, he was already back in the gym.
“I am alive and I am getting back into benching. I warmed up to 225 pounds today and then I took a break. Didn’t go anything past there and the incident was two days ago, so already recovering pretty quick, so we should be all good,” he shared.
The teen also provided his analysis of what went wrong during the lift. He pointed out that one spotter failed to assist while the other attempted to help, but the situation quickly deteriorated.
“I lifted off, and I slowly let go and back up to change position, and he drops it, just go down, he drops it, and my momentum’s shifting back, so I have to go from like here to like here, and then come over and grab it. That’s it. That’s how my story went,” he recounted.
