It's a well-known fact that January is probably the worst month to be a gym member. While it's never fun to share equipment (or space, or smells) with a host of strangers, the discomfort increases tenfold at the beginning of the year, when amateurs sign up for new memberships as part of their New Year's resolutions.
The presence of these newbies can be jarring, and, in some cases, can actually influence people to stop going to the gym for a while. They'll wait to return until the influx subsides and the resolutioners abandon their short-lived efforts. Unfortunately, the January gym folks aren't the only people terrorizing the shared space with their lack of etiquette and general disregard for their fellow fitness enthusiasts. Nay, there is another pox against the fit, and it comes in the form of the TikTok influencer.
Earlier this week, Twitter user @pradasiren alerted us to one such scourge on gymgoers, an unnamed TikTok "influencer" who shared a self-congratulatory video of herself reading a book between sets on a weight machine. The clip is accompanied by the text "Am I the only one….reads between sets?"
The call-out, which simply reads “i can't do this anymore,” went viral, racking up 7,487 retweets, 5,342 quote tweets and 133.9K likes as of writing. While the thought of someone leisurely reading between sets as other people wait for the machine is infuriating, it seems the fact that the influencer is barefoot and leaving crusty foot marks on the equipment is the real issue.
As is usually the case, while we find the influencer's behavior pretty disgusting, we're definitely entertained by the response that @pradasiren's post inspired. May gymgoers, whether they read or not, learn to keep their shoes on while working out.