‘I don’t come to the gym to be sexualised’: CrossFit trainer faces backlash over Instagram video

ONE of three women whose video was posted to Facebook by an unremorseful gym owner has come out swinging.

A CROSSFIT trainer has been accused of treating his female clients “like pieces of meat” after filming their backsides during a workout session and uploading the video to Instagram.

Tom Tomlo posted the video of a morning strength session — which featured three clients wearing black stretch pants, bent over with their backsides in the air, overlaid with “peach” emojis and captions including “dayum” and “humpday” — to the Blue Ridge CrossFit Instagram account last Friday.

A female member who saw the Instagram story took screen grabs and posted them to the North Carolina gym’s Facebook page, writing, “This is not okay.”

Mr Tomlo initially posted a furious, expletive-filled Facebook rant at the woman, accusing her of taking the images out of context. “It has been brought to my attention that some people chose to get butt hurt today and make a public post in this group also some other bulls*** in private,” he wrote.

“You must have lost your f***ing mind if for one moment you think this is a platform or community for you to create some bulls*** like that. No one in this establishment has the green light on that.

“I do not play those games and we do not acknowledge that type of petty, feeble minded garbage. If there is something you disagree with so tremendously you feel the urge to make it public or choose to be offended etc. you have two choices, one set a meeting to discuss with myself or find a place that is a better fit for you.”

He went on to urge the woman to “quit, write a negative, emotional, irrational review” and “tell your three friends how horrible your experience was and find a place that is accepting of degenerates”.

After the story went viral, Mr Tomlo was forced to apologise. In an interview with local TV station WLOS, he said he didn’t mean to offend anyone or the woman who complained.

A member took screenshots of the Instagram story.

Mr Tomlo apologised for the expletive-laden rant.

He added that the video was meant to be lighthearted, and that the women knew they were being filmed. “We were having fun, we were videoing, talking about booties that day,” he said.

“We have a thing called Tank Top Thursday for the guys and we’ve been talking about Booty Short Friday for the girls. We were having fun with that, it was a harmless story we were doing. The girls were laughing about it, we do it with guys, we do pictures of guys’ butts around here.

“We just have an informal, loving family and it’s not a negative thing, but ... someone took offence to it, they took a picture of it and they’ve put it in a way that I can see how it can be misunderstood.”

Mr Tomlo conceded he crossed the line with the Facebook post, and said he was “sure” the gym, which he described as “probably 65 per cent female”, would face a backlash. He added that he could “absolutely” see how the video “could be taken the wrong way” in the current climate, but did not apologise for the video itself.

“These are athletes that I’ve been coaching for a long time that I care deeply about,” he said. “I treat the women and men with equal respect. I can’t control the way that this has been portrayed and I’m regretful for it.

“I feel horrible that people would feel that I would look at a woman that way and do something that would be purposefully demeaning of her. We celebrate our women around here.

“I’m sorry that this has been misunderstood. I can’t say I’m sorry for the videos because it was just a funny thing. It’s just a thing that people do on Wednesdays. It’s hump day. We were being silly, ‘Hey we’re talking about booties today.’”

Mr Tomlo described the gym as a “very tight” group. “I think because we have that tight bond we’re loose around here,” he said. “Guys take their shorts off, girls are in sports bras and booty shorts, that’s the environment we’re in. We celebrate their achievements and their bodies.”

Two of the women in the video have since spoken up, one in defence of Mr Tomlo and the other criticising him. “Yes, a mistake was made by posting pictures to Instagram,” Elizabeth Wilson wrote on the gym’s Facebook page.

“However, this was done in a lighthearted moment and never meant to disrespect us. It was never intended to be posted to Facebook or go ‘viral’. We’ve all made mistakes. Can we not balance it with the good he’s done for us and the community.”

But in an interview with WLOS, Amanda Turlington hit out at her former gym. “We come to the gym to work out and to be surrounded by people that we care about. I don’t come to the gym to be sexualised,” she said.

“I don’t come to the gym to have my body on display. When you show women in vulnerable positions like that and sexualise it with hashtags and various inappropriate emojis, you are taking a strong athlete and demeaning her to a piece of meat, and that is something that I will never be okay with.”

The gym has been flooded with hundreds of negative comments and reviews on Facebook. “Your clients trust you to help them,” Hayley Evans wrote. “Instead, you treat them like pieces of meat.”

Cheyenne Bowman said she didn’t know a single woman “who wants to go to a gym only to be sexualised and blasted on social media by the owner”. “You are not a photographer or some type of porn producer, you own a gym ... learn your place,” she wrote.

Nicole Kott accused Mr Tomlo of putting his clients in danger. “It’s not only rude to post sexually suggestive pictures of your clients, you are endangering them by posting a sexually suggestive picture that coincides with a regular location with regular class times,” she wrote. “Women don’t work out to show their asses off for your enjoyment.”

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