Alex Buscemi
Another day, another internet drama that was spurred by someone filming themselves at the gym. I’m not saying you should never record yourself working out.
But there are social rules to recording in gyms that many seem unfamiliar with — including this personal trainer and fitness influencer, who’s being dragged for her entitled and rude behavior and her total lack of self-awareness.
A personal trainer known as @shapedbyshiana on social media set up her camera to film herself working out. Problem was, she planted herself right in front of the dumbbell rack. When a man goes to return his weights to the rack, he unwittingly passes in front of her camera. She becomes noticeably miffed at this, telling the man that she is in the middle of a set.
She seemed to think the man was in the wrong because she uploaded the video with the caption “*eyeroll* mateee.”
The internet didn’t see things as she did, however. As the video made the rounds, the consensus quickly became that she was at fault for A) doing deadlifts in front of the dumbbell rack, B) expecting everyone else to go out of their way to avoid her shot, and C) attempting to shame the man who was kind and apologetic to someone who didn’t deserve his good manners.
The clip made its way to @joeyswoll, a gym etiquette influencer and “CEO OF GYM POSITIVITY” who has garnered 7.6 Million TikTok followers by calling out bad gym behavior.
“As a personal trainer and coach, you need to set a better example for the gym community,” Swoll captioned his repost of the video.
“Just because you’re filming at the gym does not mean that everybody else has to stop their workout just for you,” Swoll says in the video, which received over 20 million views on TikTok in less than 24 hours.
Comments overwhelmingly agreed with Swoll’s take on the interaction:
“It’s sad that you gotta keep saying this over and over again to a bunch of adults,” said one commenter. Another added: “So she put her cam in front of the dumbbell rack and made him the bad guy?? These people amaze me.”
Swoll also pointed out some other problematic behaviors exhibited by the personal trainer. She recently shared a story advertising her fitness challenge that expressed how “thoughtful” and “non-judgmental” she is. But shortly after that, she posted a video mocking a man on a treadmill.
@shapedbyshiana has since deleted the dumbbell rack video and made her account private.