The Planet Fitness gym in Richmond, California is standing behind their dress code policy after one member claimed that she was told to put a shirt over her intimidatingly toned body, Yahoo News reported.
Recovering from a car accident, Tiffany Austin was getting back in shape with her first workout at the gym, KTVU Channel 2 reported.
However, she was cut short during her exercising when a Planet Fitness employee stopped her.
Austin explained, "She says, you know, 'Excuse me, we've had some complaints. You're intimidating people with your toned body. So can you put on a shirt?'"
Austin, who was wearing a spaghetti strap tank top and capri pants with her midriff exposed, doesn't believe that her attire was inappropriate or out of line, according to Reuters.
"I don't feel like it's anything crazy, but I mean you tell me if it's burning your eyes," Austin said with a laugh.
Reportedly she was initially told that the gym dress code prohibited wearing string tank tops. When she agreed to wear one of the shirts the gym provides patrons for free, the Planet Fitness employee offered to get her one.
While she waited for the tee, she was approached by another employee with objections to her clothings.
Feeling harassed and intimidated herself, Austin decided to get her money back and cancel her membership at the gym advertised as the "Judgement Free Zone" whose policy bans "gymtimidation."
McCall Gosselin, Planet Fitness spokesperson, said that criticizing Austin for being toned, "...is not in line with the Planet Fitness policy whatsoever."
According to their website, Planet Fitness' philosophy of a "Judgement Free Zone," "means members can relax, get in shape, and have fun without being subjected to the hard-core, look-at-me attitude that exists in too many gyms." It's a policy that is attractive to many Americans.
With over 5million members, the gym chain is the fastest growing in the U.S., Chris Rondeau, the co-founder and chief executive, said.
"It's unfair to like, show off your body and that's what they don't want," said a gym-goer to KTVU.
Yahoo! Odd News made a call to the Richmond, California Planet Fitness and was told that while the dress code is not available on the gym's website, signs within the gym explain the policy.
Director of the Athletic Studies Center at UC Berkeley, Derek Van Rheenen, told the station, "In a lot of ways I actually think what Planet Fitness is doing is a positive thing. I think they obviously need to iron out some of these issues. But you know, sport in the United States is by nature discriminatory. It is selective. It is elitist."
