The story quickly takes a turn...
A woman has been called out on TikTok after she shared her frustration at an "ego-lifter" in front of her at the gym - and got it completely wrong.
The woman, who has now deleted her account, posted a video saying: "This ego lifter at Golds kept going in front of me to do these half-ass reps."
A bodybuilder then replied, explaining that the man was actually doing a legitimate exercise and that there was no need to label him an "ego-lifter."
Joey Swoll (
@thejoeyswoll) wrote: "So these are called ‘partials.' This is a great exercise for the deltoid; it’s going to give you a great burn, great pump.
"The key to this workout is to only do about one-third the range of motion of a side lateral raise and to also go heavy and high rep. A lot of great bodybuilders love this movement; it’s great for size. The late great John Meadows, one of the best to ever do it, rest in peace to him, he loved this exercise.”
Swoll went on to say that he didn't think the man in the video was "standing in front of the rack to be mean or disrespectful," and that it is "just easier for him to use heavyweights, re-rack it, and do drop set moving down the line, after drop set."
And he called out the woman for secretly filming him doing this, saying that the fact she had to hide her phone whilst filming shows that "you knew better, that you knew you were wrong in what you were doing, but you did it anyway."
Swoll finished by telling the woman to "be better than that" and "mind your own business.”
Swoll's video has been viewed eight million times and racked up 1.2 million likes, with many taking to the comments to praise him for his informative video.
One person wrote: "This is why I work out at home.. people like her."
"I’ll be honest, didn’t know that was a thing. I really do appreciate you explaining what it does and especially how polite and modest you are," another person said.
A third replied: "I love how calmly you put them in their place. Absolutely amazing."
"Actually a very informative video ngl," someone else said.
There was some sympathy for the woman though.
One person said the man should still "get out of the way" of the mirror because "we ain’t here to wait around for him to finish."
"I think it’s a good movement, but don’t just stand in front of someone else at the gym," another person said. "Especially when they can’t move out from behind you."
Someone else replied: "Yeah my gym has rules against lifting right in front of the weights."
