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Does the fitness industry need a metoo push?

magnusthenerd
magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
So today I just came across discussion about Bret Contreras's private behavior. It kind of blew up around the time he was making childish responses to a research study that went against his love of hip thrusts to grow glutes - he responded with an article that was kind of DYEL to the researcher publishing it.
That lead to people bringing up his relationship with a fitness industry woman that he forced her to keep private. She around the same time moved out of the place they bought together, saying he was cheating, verbally abusive, physically intimidating, possible even physically abusive (grabbing rather than hitting), and gaslighting her about how he was cheating and flirting with these other women.

This is doubly bad optics as Bret's DYEL response article was published in Alan Aragon's Research Review. Alan Aragon himself has been trying to repair himself and his reputation for a few years because he had a problem with becoming drunk at conferences and making inappropriate advances.

I imagine the two of them are just a tip of an iceberg in terms of how many people (primarily men, but not just men) in the fitness industry that are probably horrible sexual harassers to worse. Does the industry need some kind of movement to bring more of this to light? How does this get navigated - fitness has the unique problems that at times, a person may need to touch rather private areas to guide movement, or assess activation, etc, and the industry is in large part based on critique other people's bodies.

Replies

  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    Right, Novus. It's a Humans problem.

    What if you are inhuman like me? Lol... I have a rule, I don't speak to women unless I know them. Sexist? Yes. Care? Not really..
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    edited April 2020
    NovusDies wrote: »
    psychod787 wrote: »
    Right, Novus. It's a Humans problem.

    What if you are inhuman like me? Lol... I have a rule, I don't speak to women unless I know them. Sexist? Yes. Care? Not really..

    How do you get to know them then?

    I talk to women who are strangers to me all the time. The trick is to have zero sexual agenda and consider if it is appropriate at that time and/or place.

    I encountered a woman yesterday at the store who was visibly distressed and in need of assistance. What she needed was not a great imposition so I helped. It would have been hard if I couldn't talk to her.

    Besides you talk to strangers online all the time. It doesn't have to be that much different.

    They will speak to me usually.... I'm inhuman, not unapproachable... lol..
    I'm speaking purely at the gym.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    psychod787 wrote: »
    NovusDies wrote: »
    psychod787 wrote: »
    Right, Novus. It's a Humans problem.

    What if you are inhuman like me? Lol... I have a rule, I don't speak to women unless I know them. Sexist? Yes. Care? Not really..

    How do you get to know them then?

    I talk to women who are strangers to me all the time. The trick is to have zero sexual agenda and consider if it is appropriate at that time and/or place.

    I encountered a woman yesterday at the store who was visibly distressed and in need of assistance. What she needed was not a great imposition so I helped. It would have been hard if I couldn't talk to her.

    Besides you talk to strangers online all the time. It doesn't have to be that much different.

    They will speak to me usually.... I'm inhuman, not unapproachable... lol..
    I'm speaking purely at the gym.

    That makes more sense. I see more body language I would characterize as "guarded" at the gym from men and women. It is a place the just makes some people feel more uncomfortable and stressed. I still talk to women there but it is more infrequent.
  • _Pastafarian_
    _Pastafarian_ Posts: 25 Member
    The sad thing is I doubt Contreras and Aragon truly believe they've done anything wrong, deep down. Greg Nuckols, on his Facebook page, pretty much disowned Contreras not so much for his treatment of his former partner but just for being a generally not nice person. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, after he'd witnessed Contreras' treatment of homeless people and his ad hominem attacks on the authors of the study that questioned the efficacy of hip thrusts for glute development.

    It seems to me that Aragon and Contreras have formed a little echo chamber of their own, where bro code counts for more than anyone else's word. As others have said, though, that's nothing new and is not unique to the gym environment.



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  • PWHF
    PWHF Posts: 221 Member
    I see the whole gym etiquette thing as subjective to individual situations. The wider question could be - how suitable/appropriate is the gym as a place to meet people? Just like anywhere else I think it comes down to if it's warranted or not. If I make eye contact with someone I like, the type that invites me to go over and say hello - and it's in the gym, I'm gonna do it

    Obviously in the gym there are lots of no nos, just like at the beach, swimming pool and everywhere else. Trick is not to do the no-no's. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being able to approach someone you like anywhere and say 'hi, I'd like to get to know you better'. It's our job as men to do that bit, that's how it works.

    There's plenty wrong with ogling, creepiness and of course anything non-consensual.

    As for the OP I can't comment on the people mentioned as I don't know them - have any women come forward to complain about them?