The two reported deaths emphasize the hazards of weightlifting from a bench press without equipment safety guards or a human spotter present. When the chest and upper-extremity muscles fatigue, there is the risk of the barbell and weights coming to rest on the neck or chest of the lifter. Once this happens, the person may suffer fatal traumatic asphyxia, either due to compression of the airway, neck vasculature, or chest muscles of respiration. Fatal incidents are rare; however, they are preventable. As weightlifting increases in popularity, the number of fatal incidents will certainly increase. The author recommends proactive prevention measures before the number of fatalities increases to the level of making it cost-effective to require a warning on appropriate weightlifting equipment. In the first case, the decedent was found dead in a friend's workout room. He was supine on a weightlifting bench with a barbell across his neck and a total of 425 pounds of weight evenly distributed on each side of the bar. Past medical history was pertinent for instability and subluxation of the right shoulder and lower back muscle strain due to weightlifting. In the second case, the decedent was a 16-year-old boy found dead in his room supine on a weightlifting bench with a barbell across his neck and a total of 72.6 pounds of weight equally distributed between each side of the bar. The decedent had been lifting weights for the previous 2 months and had not had any formal training in weightlifting. 6 figures and 19 references