Gym tells woman she's intimidating guests with 'toned body'

[The Straight Story]

RICHMOND, Calif. —

A Richmond woman was asked to cover up while working out at a Richmond gym, after staff members say she was intimating people with her toned body.

Tiffany Austin said she was excited to get back in shape after recovering from a recent car accident. After her doctor told her it was time to start walking more, she took a tour of the Planet Fitness Gym in Richmond. On Monday she officially joined the gym and was looking forward to her first workout – but that workout lasted a quick 15 minutes.

Austin said things started out well. She hopped on a treadmill, set the speed to slow, put her earbuds in and started walking. She started to notice others starting at her, and quickly grew self-conscious but she kept on walking. That is until a staff-member stopped her.

According to Austin that staff member said, "excuse me we've had some complaints you're intimidating people with your toned body. So can you put on a shirt?”

Austin was wearing a tank that showed her stomach and capri-pants and says she didn't see anything wrong with the outfit. She says she was only told not to wear a string tank because of the dress code policy at the gym.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/gym-tells-woman-shes-intimidating-guests-toned-bod/nfGHz/

[liberal N proud]

1. why not use her as a success story?

[The Straight Story]

2. They have a policy that bans what they call “gymtimidation.”

Planet Fitness boasts 5 million members and a policy that bans what they call “gymtimidation.” Its website says members can get in shape without being, "subjected to the hardcore look-at-me-attitude that exists in too many gyms."

The franchise goes even further and has a “lunk alarm” in every gym which sends off a siren if someone drops a weight or breathes too hard or shows any behavior that staff members consider "lunk-like".

[VScott]

5. I lift things up and put them down

[AngryOldDem]

14. They need to rethink this.

I totally get the concept of people feeling unself-conscious and welcomed at a gym, especially if they're new to it or grossly out of shape. They are to be commended for taking that often hard first step toward fitness. Gymtimidation, to me, are those places where it's obvious that people are there to only show off, especially for the opposite sex.

I used to belong to a gym (the franchise is now out of business) that in the evenings was nothing more than a meat market. Guys showing off for girls, vice versa, and if you didn't look like an SI swimsuit model or Mr. America, good luck getting ANY kind of help from the staff. When I asked how to use a piece of equipment, I had to wait around longer than was reasonable for a staff member to show up, who then gave me a half-assed explanation and walked off without showing me or watching me use the machine -- all because of how I looked. I had a much better experience there when I switched to days, when the clientele was older and more into the true purpose of a gym -- working out and not hooking up.

It sounds to me like this woman was there to get herself back into shape from a car accident. She should be a role model for everyone else there, not singled out as making everyone else "look bad." And as for "lunk-like" behavior -- I really question exactly what Planet Fitness has in mind here in terms of working out.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Because she'd only exercised there 15 minutes

She'd be her own (or someone else's) success story.

[Vashta Nerada]

3. "it's unfair to show off your body" because it can make other people feel bad."

One member is quoted as saying.



That's something one should strive for. I'm glad my gym doesn't have draconian rules like Planet Fitness.



I'd get kicked out of that gym because I run 6-10 miles every time I go to the gym (5-6 nights a week). I'd probably intimidate others.

[TransitJohn]

4. Can't have anybody feeling like they're not special.

Anybody ever read Vonnegut's Harrison Burgeron?

[hatrack]

25. "It was the year 2081, and everybody was finally equal."

[mercymechap]

6. What!

They claim they don't want members intimidated and they intimidate a new member.....what hypocrisy....anyone that feels intimidated by a "toned" body should have started working out long before now.....

[Brickbat]

7. Planet Fitness is not a gym.

http://www.menshealth.com/fitness/planet-fitness-not-gym?fullpage=true

On January 7, a Category 2 shitstorm exploded on Reddit when a Planet Fitness member complained that his local club had removed its only squat rack. By way of explanation, an employee told him “a customer complained that it was intimidating.”

As of Friday morning, the post had generated more than 1,400 comments, and links to the rant showed up all over my Facebook feed. When my New Rules of Lifting coauthor Alwyn Cosgrove wrote about it, his post got 70 shares and more than 300 likes.

But you know what the weirdest part of the story is? That a Planet Fitness franchise still had a squat rack to remove. “That’s not a typical Planet Fitness,” says McCall Gosselin, the company’s director of public relations. “Our clubs don’t have equipment like squat racks and Olympic benches. Our dumbbells only go up to 80 pounds.”

Planet Fitness isn’t embarrassed to be known as the wimpiest gym in town. It’s the business model, and it works. Gosselin says the chain has tripled in size in the past five years, from 242 clubs to more than 750 by the end of 2013. They’re in 47 states and Puerto Rico, with more than 4.5 million members.

[Brickbat]

11. In fact, they bank on people who sign up and then don't go.

Gosselin is also candid about why it works: “The gym industry was built on bodybuilders, people who work out multiple times a week. Planet Fitness was founded as a place for the other 85 percent.”

[Demobrat]

29. All gyms do that

They want you to sign up - not show up - UNLESS you pay for a personal trainer.

[steve2470]

8. amazing

You expect to see toned bodies at a gym or physical fitness facility. They need to force people to sign a separate piece of paper that spells out that policy, so that "well toned" people can go elsewhere.

[LiberalAndProud]

9. I hope she gets a refund.

There has to be a gym more accepting of her toned body.

This is truly a moment.

[AngryOldDem]

15. I would suggest the Y.

You see all kinds of people there, and oddly, they all co-exist. Go figure.

[yuiyoshida]

10. Stupidest thing I HAVE ever heard. wtf is she even there for if she can't

put on a little muscle, for god sakes!



deal with it!!!

[LisaLynne]

13. This is one of those stories, told from one perspective, to ...

whip up outrage because "common sense" tells us immediately that this is totally outrageous. However, Planet Fitness' business model is a place where people can go to work out without being made to feel inferior. As someone who has been overweight, underweight and every weight in between, I've had a lot of experience being at gyms. There were times when I was getting back in shape that going to the gym was very demoralizing because of all the "grunting" and heaving weight lifters who would pretty much chase me out of the weight room (I'm a girl, after all -- what was I doing there?) and being talked down to by staff. Supposedly Planet Fitness is, at least in its stated mission, trying to be different and offer a more accepting place for people who maybe aren't in top physical condition. I just don't see anything wrong with that.

Oh, and for the person up-thread who said that Planet Fitness' business model relies on people signing up and not going... that has been the business model of pretty much every gym ever.

[Bettie]

16. Planet Fitness isn't really a gym

It is pretty much for people who do exclusively cardio workouts.

I don't understand their model at all, nor do I understand why they would do that to this customer.

Then again, our local gym (not a franchise) began asking people they believe 'sweat excessively during class' not to come to classes.

Strangely, the people they asked to stop coming were the members who didn't have to pay the cash fee for the classes. Now, they have mostly people who pay cash for each class instead of members. Odd how that works, isn't it.

Then, they removed the free weights, leaving only the machines and raised the rates.

I work out at home now, where I can lift in peace and use DVD's for my cardio work.

[Drahthaardogs]

17. its Planet Fitness

Where lifting big iron is not allowed grunting forbiden and nobody squats or deadlifts. All dedicated gym rats avoidvit like the plague.

[3_Rs]

19. That explains a lot...

[3_Rs]

18. Well.. that's classic loser talk...

[Brigid]

20. I thought that was what a gym was for.

My bad.

[Nolimit]

21. Planet Fitness is a joke

Planet Fitness doesn't care if their members get in shape or not and it's pretty cynical they leave out pizza and tootsie rolls to help people get back the calories they just worked off. They say they are judgement-free but superficially judge people like this woman. Their lunk alarm is a menace to anyone in the vicinity who is holding weights and could be startled. "Lunks" tend to be well versed in nutrition and proper exercise technique. They are focused on way more important things, like their own workout, than how anyone else looks. I think the straw that broke the camel's back was the removal of squat racks. Squatting is like the king of workouts because it effectively works out and tones so many muscles.

[RedSpartan]

22. Wonder what they'd think if Ronnie Coleman showed up?

[MillennialDem]

24. Pfft, he doesn't even touch them to his chest or lock out his elbows. Doesn't count!

[VScott]

31. Who's going to ask him to leave because his workout routine

is intimidating and upsetting to others?

[rudolph the red]

23. That's just dumb

I hope she sues their ass.

[SummerSnow]

26. lol

[1000words]

27. It's a fitness center, for Pete's sake. Petty jealousy?

I'd be interested to know if it were male or female members who felt intimidated, and why.

[davidn3600]

28. At least she didnt blow up like this guy....

[IDemo]

30. I have free use of a gym a one minute walk from my cube

I've never seen the inside and never will.

[penultimate]

32. I understand the idea behind Planet Fitness, but this seems a bit extreme

I fully understanding them not wanting some obnoxious person banging weights and grunting, or walking around like a "bad ass", but this seems a bit ridiculous. Who would complain about that?