Fitness Positivity Influencer Praises Gym for Disallowing TikTok Shaming and General Video Recording Inside Premises

Fitness positivity influencer, “Joey Swoll” was happy to see that LA Fitness put into place a policy to protect their clients from being filmed unwillingly.

Swoll shared a picture of a sign that LA Fitness has put up reminding their members they cannot film others while in the gym unless they have permission. Failure to abide by the rules will result in termination of membership and law enforcement will be contacted.

Swoll added, “About damn time gyms started stepping up! Thank you @lafitness hopefully more gyms follow!”

This comes after TikTok user jessica.frndz posted a video of herself at the gym counting how many times a another patron looked over at her. The video was titled, “This is how to not approach girls at the gym”.

In the video the woman is fumbling with her free weights while holding a microphone in her hand and filming herself and those around her. The man comes over and offers to help her put the weights on the bar. In her video she captions that she is having a meltdown over it, she belives that the man is just checking her out trying to hit on her.

Swoll responded to the video with a different interpretation of what was going on. Swoll pointed out that the man wasn’t staring at her, he only glanced over probably wonder what she is doing talking to herself.

Swoll then answered, why would the man come over and offer to help her put weights on the bar. He belives the man saw her struggle to put on the first side of her weights and as an experienced lifter knows it’s difficult to add weight to the bar, infact there is a jack to help. The man came over in his view to offer help, “because that’s what kind people do.”

He then addressed a comment that claimed it was misogyny, Swoll said its just not true, men offer to help both men and women when in the gym, “you help because its kind to do.”

He then pointed out that she was not kind, adding the comments to the video of waiting to “rip off his reproductive organ and wishing natural selection would take him out”.

He captioned the video, “Women are harassed in gyms and it needs to stop, but you are not one of them. An act of kindness or a glance does not make you a victim.”

Women are harassed in gyms and it needs to stop, but you are not one of them. An act of kindness or a glance does not make you a victim. pic.twitter.com/34g9265KXb

— Joey Swoll (@TheJoeySwoll) January 21, 2023

His rebuke of the TikTok girl’s post received some backlash from the left claiming that “he’s only fueling misogyny online.”

Swoll is not political in his posts, and responded to the accusations.

He wrote in part:

“Number 1 – my videos have made a big impact on the gym community and helped thousands of men and women over the last year start their fitness journey, overcome their fear and anxiety, and I’m NEVER going to stop helping people and standing up to bullies and toxic gym culture. And anyone who’s ever met me at the gym, or anywhere, no matter their age, body, gender, or race, can attest to my kindness, inclusion, and message of positivity. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of.

And number 2 – anyone trying to use my words, videos, platform, or my message as an excuse to harass, body shame, or demean anyone of any gender is no friend or follower of mine. They are just as much a bully as any video I’ve highlighted on my page. They do not stand FOR me, nor do they stand WITH me. To those people i say, with every fiber of my heart – “DO BETTER.””

People filming and sharing their lives seems to be everwhere, but not everyone wants to be posted online especially when in a private facility. If someone has an issue with another person at the gym there is staff to help address the situation. It seems however that wouldn’t have worked for her as she was looking to make content for her social media presence.

Swoll is only trying to advocate for people to feel comfortable at the gym and to encourage more to get involved in their own fitness.