A staff member at gym chain Gymbox has blamed a male visitor's 'testosterone levels' for his aggressive behaviour, following a formal complaint made about him.
Elena Bunbury, 22, had sent an email explaining she'd been put off of returning to the premises following an uncomfortable encounter.
But rather than offer sincere apologies and resolve to take action immediately, the Studio & Operations Manager of the Stratford, London, branch attempted to defend the man in question.
Elena tweeted: "So a random gym goer harassed me and my friend at our first visit to @GYMBOXofficial, this is the response we got.. Glad to see @GYMBOXofficial staff justifying aggressive behaviour because it's never happened to them, and men have testosterone.."
Advert
Alongside the post she included a screenshot of the email she had received, in which the manager said: "I have been working in this gym for 3 years and I haven't had any complain about [name redacted] (sic)".
She went on: "From my personal point of view, it is an unfortunate situation where a guy was rude to you, but it could have happened anywhere.
"We are in a gym where testosterone levels are high especially during workouts. This means that reactions to situations can be a bit extreme especially for men".
Advert
*Eyeroll*
In her tweets, Elena gave some further details of the harassment incident, and shared the original complaint email with her followers.
She said: "I attended the gym for the first time since signing up. I brought my friend Rosie with me on a guest pass as she knows what she's doing and I hoped it would make me feel more comfortable..."
While at first, everything was going well, and her pal was even considering joining the gym full time, things soon turned sour when the man in question approached them while they were using the leg press machine.
Advert
Rosie was talking Elena through the machine and tweaking the weights for her, when the man came over and told them: "If you're going to be taking that long between sets I'll have to jump in".
While the girls stood their ground and explained what they were doing, the man snapped back around furiously after he heard Elena mutter: "What is his problem?"
"What did you just say? Tell me what you just said now," the man is said to have responded.
Before "glaring" at them, and adding: "If you're laughing and smiling when you're doing legs then you're not doing legs. Pathetic."
Advert
"He then proceeded to throw weights on the floor dramatically and huff and puff whilst staring at us and [lingering] around us," Elena told the gym, in her complaint letter.
Wow. Who knew testosterone could make you such a jerk...
Speaking to Tyla about the whole ordeal, Elena said: "It made me feel uncomfortable and intimidated, that a stranger felt they had the right to criticise me for enjoying my workout and getting back into fitness.
"The Gymbox response really angered me, after ignoring my email for weeks to them reply and justify this behaviour because of testosterone, it almost feels like I'm being part of a prank."
Gymbox was set up in 2003, and is known for promoting high intensity exercise with club-like lighting, DJs and music.
Advert
Since the ordeal went viral, the chain has issued an official statement, apologising and promising to retrain its staff.
"We take any incidences of harassment in our gyms very seriously. Everyone should be able to enjoy our gyms without being made to feel uncomfortable, and we recognise that in this instance our response to this customer's complaint has fallen short of what it should be," they told us.
"We expect all members, guests and staff to conduct themselves in a respectful manner and we will fully investigate this incident.
"We have also addressed with the team member involved her response to the complaint, and we will be retraining all our team members on how they handle a situation like this should it occur again."
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/ Elena Bunbury
