Exercise is a highly personal journey that looks different for everyone. But apparently, as one viral video alleges, one Crunch Fitness employee may have failed to get the memo.
Multiple TikTokers have been sharing their ups and downs concerning the gym brand on the app. This includes a complaint over Crunch Fitness continuing to charge people for membership when they want to cancel and a confrontation with a fellow gym-goer over machine use.
But Lizzie Buchanan’s (@lizzelol) TikTok, which has garnered 398,000 views, takes things to another level.
In the clip, she directly addresses the camera.
“My mother just went into the Crunch Fitness on Whitsett Street to inquire about a membership,” she says. “When she went in, he was like, ‘What kind of weights do you use? How often do you work out?’ […] And she was like, ‘I just wanna walk on the treadmill,’ and he was like, ‘Well, we don’t want people like you in here.’ So she left crying. She came back and said, ‘Maybe we got off on the wrong foot,’ and he said, ‘If you come in again, we’re gonna call the police.’”
“So if you’re gonna join I would get in shape first,” she quips. “Apparently a requirement.”
In the video description, she tagged Crunch Fitness and spoke to the directly.
“F— you, because making a 62 year old woman cry for trying to work is CRAZY,” she wrote. “Also, their corporate number is not in service LOL.”
The Crunch Fitness location where Buchanan says this happened declined to comment. BroBible reached out to Crunch Fitness corporate via press form and to Buchanan via Instagram direct message.
Similar Experiences
One commenter alleged they had a similar experience, saying they “got banned from Crunch Fitness for working out with [their] friend.”
“I was just helping her with her form between sets when staff came over and told me I couldn’t ‘personal train’ unless it was through them,” they said. “I explained that we’re literally just friends working out together, not training clients. They said if they had to talk to me again, we’d be banned. Well… they came back. So yeah, I apparently got banned for helping my friend with her hip thrust.”
Another wrote, “‘People like you’ is a discriminatory comment, contact a lawyer.”
A third added, “I worked for Crunch as an instructor, they are trash!”
A fourth queried, “Why is the cheapest national chain gym acting as if they have elite standards for membership?”
However, some commenters felt there was more to the story.
“Do you have receipts BC I’m sorry I just don’t believe PPL can be this rude,” a fifth commented.
And a sixth said, “I call BS. There’s absolutely more to the story. Why would they threaten to call the cops unless something else happened?”
Is It Weird To Just Do Cardio At The Gym?
On the r/xxfitness subreddit, one user had a similar exercise approach to the TikToker’s mom. “I don’t know why but my brain tells me it’s extremely humiliating for me to pay for a whole gym membership only to use the treadmill and the stair master a few times a week,” they said.
They later added, “I want to go to the gym but I feel so awkward already, as if I’m doing something wrong or not working hard enough.”
However, fellow Redditors seemed to be a lot more open-minded than this Crunch Fitness employee allegedly was. Many of them admitted they also used the gym in unconventional ways.
“I go for treadmill only I put my headphones on and at that moment I’m in my own lil world listening to my music,” one wrote. “My fitness trainer says this is perfect cause not only I benefiting from walking I let go fro side bars and walk and I feel every inch benefiting from this. I’ve lost six inches around the belly I’m happy. So no don’t feel awkward everyone does something different.”
“Girl you do you,” a second added. “I literally once had a membership to a gym so I could use their Pilates room as a dance rehearsal space lol. That looked weird, a treadmill does not.”
While a third said, “Fun economic fact: those big box gyms are actually counting on a lot of their customers to pay the membership fee and NOT show up, or stick to machines only. […] so, don’t feel bad if you don’t go often or don’t use all the equipment. You are subsidizing the gym members who do.”
@lizzelol @Crunch Fitness fuck you because making a 62 year old woman cry for trying to work is CRAZY. Also, their corporate number is not in service lol #crunchgymfitness #thatsmymom #elderabuse #gymbully