Fitness, Inc.

A case for brave spaces, not safe ones.

What separates a “hardcore” gym from a “toxic” one? Should these decisions be a matter of governance and legislation? When does sterilization become the catalyst for stagnation?

Dodgeball (2004) was bizarrely prophetic of gym culture 20 years later; a characterization in 2004 became the business model for 2026.

The idea that so many people in the world are “alone together” isn’t a new realization since the advent of “smart” phones circa 2007. However, you may have noticed the particular phenomenon of a zombie-world taking over your local fitness gym.

Virtually everyone is wearing noise canceling headphones and looking either at their phone or the floor. God forbid you interrupt someone’s Candy Crush streak to tell them something as benign as “good job” — especially if you’re a man speaking to a woman.

In my imagination I can hear all sorts of cheering and jeering from both the misogynist and progressive sides. So, let’s clear the air and get back on topic. Obviously there are creeps and predatory people in the world — the scandals breaking headlines in the Jiu Jitsu world right now are unfortunately not “new news.”

It should go without saying that you shouldn’t interrupt someone’s active set, nor photograph / video them without consent, and especially do not touch them without explicit consent.

However, do people not like to be congratulated or complimented anymore? Does “solidarity” not mean “willingness to give psychological and /or material support when another person is in a difficult position or needs affection?”

Maybe I want to tell someone they look nice or that I was genuinely impressed by their lift. No, I don’t want your number, and I definitely don’t care if you have a boyfriend — who should be here too, and also complimenting and cheering you on, but I digress.

Imagine if we didn’t need TikTok to call people out, nor the compulsion to ruin others’ lives for the sake of clout and call it “community.” What if all kinds of misconduct — (not that they’re equivocal, but) leaving weights unracked, bullying or harassing people, sexually or otherwise — was called out on the spot? Not just by staff members, but by patrons? Not an hour later online, but right there in public for everyone to know what was going on? Straight up, no cameras, no filters, no glamour or narrative — it is what it is, and everyone’s going to know.

Heels need to get put in their place, on the ground. If you need to step on others to get a better view, you can fix it or GTFO.

Let’s imagine, that in such a place influencer tripods were replaced by clusters of people discussing real training principles, or even just checking in on and chatting with each other? Maybe there are “bros” flexing in the mirror with utterances of “looking big king” and the ladies are doing the same, unafraid of a bench press, pull up bar, or squat rack.

Maybe, per chance, unsolicited advice is never given because everyone already understands that everyone else is there to get better regardless of how that’s defined. Perhaps this would also be the kind of place where respect is demonstrated rather than avoidance legislated, where people cheer for each other when the encouraged effort is demonstrated and warrants such attention.

Now, also imagine a different place where we have to implement “judgment free zones”; where there are no standards and no accountability. Everyone has to feel “safe” and “comfortable” — so we remove deadlifting platforms, definitely don’t allow overhead lifts, and don’t have a dumbbell larger than 45 lbs. In this new place, let’s also induce the bureaucracy of passive-aggressive signage.

This is the fitness equivalent to a corporate employer assuring you that the staff are “family” — which mean you can reasonably expect there to be very poor boundaries, unpaid work and calls on the weekend, PTO is marginally approved if not outright shamed, and if the company doubles or triples its profit you’ll get a pizza party like a third grader.

This isn’t progressive, it’s culture rot. We’ve seemingly traded communal respect for surface level politeness. In reality, this isn’t even polite, it’s coerced ignorance via isolation. “Lunk alarms” aren’t protecting your feelings, they’re hiding the fact that outliers are bad for business.

Globo-gyms care about as much about your satisfaction as a buffet does about making your food to-order. It’s complete corporate moral posturing.

We mandate that one gender’s anatomy be covered while explicitly selling attire to make very specific parts of another gender’s anatomy more visible — for marketing purposes fueled by selective outrage.

I’m not writing about conservativism any more than corporate gyms are concerned with “equality.” I’m writing about the hypocrisy of using the sterile perception of safety to mask exploitation and brand management.

Furthermore, only in recent years has there been a (curated and contrived) association between fitness “culture” and “right wing extremism.” This is shoe-on-the-other-foot prejudice at its finest — that stereotypical outliers become representative of an entire population.

This slippery slope fallacy ignores the massive benefit that people — frankly of all ages, genders, and races — can build in terms of confidence, physical efficacy, socialization, and mentorship particularly compared to what else a (young) person might be influenced by on the street or online.

"Miss Muscle Beach" contest, 1951 | Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961/University of Southern California Libraries | Los Angeles Examiner Negatives Collection, 1950-1961/University of Southern California Libraries

There were plenty of “bold and badass” women in the silver era of bodybuilding (cue Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton), and action movie “muscle mommies” of the 80’s and 90’s (Linda Hamilton, Lucy Lawless, etc.) to follow them.

It’s quite another topic for a different day, but as women (rightfully) got their you-go-girl / boss-lady revived identity (and yes, there are still problems there), young men were and are left in the dust somewhere between “drink your feeling into your grave” boomers and the “liberal shame” of arguing (and sometimes bragging) about who has it worse.

Sport and fitness used to be places where people came together explicitly despite their differences.

This is particularly true on an international level (e.g. The Olympics).

This decay has descended to local levels — there are signs in gyms that warn you to not “grunt or yell too loudly” — in other words “don’t try hard, don’t exert yourself, definitely don’t try to be better than the person next to you because that might hurt their feelings.”

You don’t have to eat chalk, scream after every rep, and pound the walls any more than you need to photograph yourself in public in your underwear — trying to defend both positions as “not for attention.”

For the record, no one deserves to be harassed over their clothing. A person’s chosen attire isn’t any more of a problem to me than their taste in music. It’s the entitlement and attitude that make a difference.

I’ll take the ups and downs of genuine human interactions over political manifestos any and every day. The personal is the political, so start on the inside and with yourself. Then, move on to the places you frequent and the people you associate with.

You cannot guarantee safety any more than you can legislate morality.

Real change always has been and always will be an inside job. Empowerment through bureaucracy is a zero-sum game, which means someone has to lose for someone else to win. Empowerment through agency means we get better together.

Stop playing a role and stop playing games. Play to win. Train hard. Check in on each other. And for God’s sake, re-rack your weights.

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