In what seems like a nod to “The Fly,” an arm-wrestling simulator entitled “Arm Spirit” is being pulled from arcades due to three reports of game-related injuries. Few details were released on how the game actually broke people’s arms, but the game company reps had this to say about the incident to the AP:
“The machine isn’t that strong, much less so than a muscular man. Even women should be able to beat it,” said Atlus spokeswoman Ayano Sakiyama, calling the recall “a precaution.”
“We think that maybe some players get overexcited and twist their arms in an unnatural way,” she said. The company was investigating the incidents and checking the machines for any signs of malfunction.
Not sexist at all!
Interested about Arm wrestling injuries? Here’s a short description of how an injury like this could happen from “Broken Arm Wrestler” in the British Journal of Sports Medicine:
This type of arm wrestling injury tends to occur when one arm wrestler tries to force the match in an effort to win or to change the tide of the contest. This results in the defending arm wrestler taking or being forced to take a posture in which his centre of gravity and therefore his body weight has shifted. As the offensive wrestler continues with the attack, the defender’s internal rotator shoulder muscles suddenly and passively stretch and change from their maximally concentric contraction to an eccentric compensatory contraction, resulting in an intense rotational force with subsequent humeral fracture. This fracture was treated by means of a collar and cuff in a net body bandage.
