Woman’s Roast of Gym-Goer Backfires After a Bodybuilder Points Out Her Entitlement — “My Biggest Gym Pet Peeve”

Every place has its own culture and then there are sub-cultures within those cultures. Take fight gyms, for example. If you’re training with Khabib Nurmagomedov and his crew of Dagestani savages, just know you’re going to do some mountain man type of stuff. You’re going to get pushed to the brink of your physical abilities and you’re going to wrestle. A lot.

If you’re training at Tri-Star, you’re also going to get pushed and receive world-class training, however, it’s going to be done a bit differently. But whatever gym you train at, you’re going to have to fall in line with its cultural mores and the same goes for weightlifting at commercial gyms where folks pay a monthly fee for a membership and share equipment to get their workouts in.

And with the advent of Influencer-dom, people are constantly sharing their workouts on social media and setting up cameras at all parts of the gym so they can share their exercise routines with their followers and folks on the internet.

And sometimes, interactions between folks who record their exercise routines and other gym-goers are recorded during these set-ups, like this one that Joey Swoll, a pro bodybuilder and trainer commented on.

The clip in question depicts a woman setting up to squat on the smith machine (first red flag, there’s a good case for these things to be abolished from gyms entirely). Posted by TikToker @xandrafittt, right before the woman is about to start her set, someone off-camera says he’s sorry to interrupt her, but he wants to know how many more sets she has on the smith machine.

She proceeds to act annoyed, takes off her headphones, responds to the gym-goer, and then puts her headphones back on and returns to her workout.

The text overlay for the video reads: “My biggest gym pet peeve.”

Joey Swoll proceeds to offer up his commentary on the situation: “This man did nothing wrong. There is absolutely nothing wrong with somebody asking you politely how many sets you have left. This man was trying to get your attention you were setting up your camera you hadn’t started your set yet, he went as far as to even say I’m sorry for bothering you.”

Swoll continues, “He didn’t deserve your smirk he didn’t deserve your attitude and he definitely didn’t deserve to be posted to your social media as an example of what bad gym etiquette is. The only bad gym etiquette here is you. People ask me all the time how many sets I have left. I go as far as to say would you like to work in with me. You don’t have to do that but you need to respect people.”

Perhaps the biggest point of contention is the fact that it is a communal space as stated by Swoll, “It’s a shared space. You don’t own the gym your name is not on it. Until it is I suggest you mind your own business, be better than that.”

His response had a litany of responses. Some quipped that neither of them should’ve been using the smith machine in the first place. Others surmised that the guy was just using his question as an excuse to speak to the woman, while others agreed with Joey.

One user wrote: “He just wanted to know when he should be there at the machine, if you don’t ask, someone else might take it. He didn’t beg to do his sets. He just asked nicely how many sets. This sense of entitlement is [gross].”

While another added: “I just respect the lady not causing drama about it, and the man shouldn’t have asked about the sets, at least wait or her to finish, then start a proper conversation with the lady. We guys love talking to beautiful ladies just for the beauty, don’t we?”

And one person wrote: “Ima go head and be toxic gym guy here. Sure she was wrong but as a grown man, you should not be using the smith machine unless you got some kinda injury that prevents you from doing actual squats.”

What do you think? With instances of guys hassling women at the gym constantly cropping up online, do you think she had cause to be defensive and upset? Or do people need to get over themselves while they’re working out and realize that gyms are shared spaces?