Gymbox tells woman ‘testosterone’ is to blame for man’s aggressive behaviour

A staff member at Gymbox told a female customer ‘testosterone levels’ were to blame for a male customer’s rude behaviour towards her.

Elena Bunbury was attending her first session at the Gymbox in Stratford with a friend when she encountered the aggressive behaviour and earlier this week posted on Twitter the gym’s response to her complaint.

She 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..”

In an interview with Buzzfeed Elena said the two women were at a leg press machine and changing over weights when a man approached them and said: “If you’re going to be taking that long in between sets I’m going to have to jump in with you.”

The women then explained they were alternating sets and the man apparently: “Laughed, eye-rolled and walked off while muttering something under his breath.”

Elena said she turned to her friend and quietly asked what the man’s problem was. He apparently came storming over and said to the women: “If you’re laughing and smiling when you’re doing legs, then you’re not doing legs. Pathetic.”

Elena also commented that the individual would then follow them around the gym, use the machines next to them and stare at them.

She said she didn’t complain to Gymbox to make a judgement but because she hoped they would have their own systems in place to stop the kind of behaviour she experienced.

She said: “It was really intimidating how he was just getting up in my face and shaming me but I’m not here to be judge and jury, that’s not why I complained.

“I complained in the hope that they would take it into their own hands and they would have policies in place to deal with things like this.”

After putting in her complaint on 1st January Elena then received the email yesterday detailing the staff member’s justification for the incident. The email said: “Hi Elena, Apologies but I never got your first email. 

“It is unfortunate you had such an experience in our gym, I have never had similar issues with members. I understand that what was said was inappropriate and rude. I have been working in this gym for three years and I haven’t had any complain about (blanked out individual’s name).

“I will bring this up with my manager and have a discussion with him. 

“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 mean that reactions to situations can be a bit extreme especially for men. 

“Please let me know if you need anything else from me.”

Elena said she was disappointed the female staff member was justifying a man’s behaviour and the experience had made her reconsider what she thought of Gymbox’s ethics.

She said: “The entire tone of the response email was just wrong. I just think an apology was needed from the guy but for the woman to go ahead and sort of justify what he did was quite sickening.

“They’re essentially just telling me to get on with it and get over it. I just really think this really made me question the entire ethos of Gymbox.”

When she posted the tweet yesterday, Gymbox’s official Twitter account replied and apologised and asked her to send them a DM so they could investigate further.

In a statement to Buzzfeed, Gymbox said they had spoken to the staff member in question and will be retraining all their staff so incidents like this one do not happen again.

They said: “We expect all members and guests to conduct themselves in a respectful manner and we will fully investigate this incident.

“We have also addressed with our 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.”

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