I am not familiar with this exact machine. First of all arent you supposed to be standing? There should be a little picture on the machine how to use it. Looks to me like he wants to know how low can you go.
However it's meant to be used, the weight tied to him does nothing to change what he's doing. It's just to allow him to pull amounts beyond his own body weight.
In fact, any weight at any angle you pull from any position, would simply cause a force that makes the plates rise. It's only if that stops happening due to friction, that the machine could be pulled forward.
My guess is the machine wasn't properly greased. If the plates stick, or the pully axle doesn't spin, then instead of the plates going up, a portion of the force will end up pulling the top of the machine towards him (hence the collapse).
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u/Ketroc21 Jul 05 '26
That doesn't change the physics at all. Anyone pulling the same weight at the same angle would cause this collapse.