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Sep 15, 2023

Woman stuck upside

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She got stuck between a rack and a hard place.

Footage captured the "embarrassing" moment an Ohio gym bunny became trapped upside-down in exercise equipment and had to be extricated by police. Footage of her fitness fiasco currently boasts millions of views on TikTok.

"This is so embarrassing," Christine Faulds told a dispatcher after calling 911 in a clip depicting the freak accident, which occurred at 3 a.m. while working out at the 24-hour Powerhouse Gym in Berea. She was reportedly filming herself using the inversion table, a medieval-looking contraption that allegedly eases people's back pain by turning them upside-down.

Little did the influencer know that her world would soon turn upside-down as well.

In a video of her mishap, she said she had set up her phone "to record a video of me on the inversion table and just saying how much I love it for my low back, especially when I’m going to the gym at 3 a.m. and my back is really stiff and doesn't want to wake up."

However, her exercise went south after she became stuck dangling upside-down in the device. It wound up being a viral video in the making.

"Then it just caught the whole thing and kept recording," she said of her at-the-ready phone.

At least they didn't send a whole fire crew… #stuck #gymfail #workoutfail #help #police #911 #monday #fitfam #fail #failarmy

In one of the humiliating clips, Faulds can be seen flailing helplessly after realizing she was trapped. At one point, the gym shark even attempts to crunch her way up to the leg clamps and undo them a la Houdini, but to no avail.

Faulds’ predicament was particularly dire as there were only a few other people at the gym during the overnight hour and they were in other rooms, with music playing. Staff was also absent because users scan key cards for entrance at that time, the inverted influencer explained.

Thankfully, the imperiled Ohioan was able to use her smartwatch to dial 911, as seen in this hilarious clip of the exchange.

"There's only one person at the gym and I got stuck in, you know that backboard thing," Faulds can be heard saying while hanging by her feet. "I’m stuck in this reverse, like, back decompression thing.

"I think the thing went too far and I just got stuck upside-down and cannot get myself right side up," she continued telling the dispatcher. "I’m trying to get my buddy's attention but he's in the other room lifting. I’m sorry, I’m just stuck."

Shortly thereafter, police arrived at the scene and freed her from her spine-decompressing prison, as shown in a fourth clip with 7.2 million views. In total, Faulds had been trapped upside-down for 12 minutes.

While the exercise enthusiast wasn't harmed during the ordeal, she said she doesn't "know if I’ll ever go on that table again, to be honest."

She also said she’d avoid TikTok for a few days because the experience was "so overwhelming and I just need a mental break."

Pt. 2… 911 call next… #gymfail #workoutfail #stuck #failarmy #gym #fail #help #911

Needless to say, TikTok was in hysterics over Faulds’ plight, with one wit writing: "When the Apple Watch saves the day lol girl I’m so sorry but I can't stop laughing!"

"It's only embarrassing if you have to make that call more than once," another mused, while one viewer added, "You know [the police] were talking about you in the car."

One TikTok commenter suggested that Apple Watch use her story in their commercial.

In retrospect, Faulds said she has learned to see the funny side of her situation.

"People are saying, ‘Why would you post that? So embarrassing,’ but I’m like, sometimes you got to laugh at yourself and move on," the mortified fit-fluencer told Complex.com

While certainly a comical situation, getting trapped upside-down isn't as humorous as it sounds.

"It is possible to die from hanging upside-down for too long," according to Healthline. "It's rare, but blood can pool to the head, which can be extremely dangerous for the body."

In a similarly embarrassing incident two years ago, a UK teen had to be rescued by firefighters after getting stuck in a child's swing for 90 minutes while shooting a TikTok clip.

The responders reportedly extracted her using cleaning detergent as a lubricant.

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