Several weeks back, I posted pictures from 4 weeks out and asked for feedback. I did this on both Get Big and Mayhem. I talked about some frustrations that I had with my gym’s policy of not letting guys use the empty yoga room to pose, but girls could. Shirtless men are apparently offensive to some members, but the gym is going to start a Cardio Stripping class… Did I miss a memo? Anyway, I made a post in anger and someone saw fit to print it and give it to the GM of the gym.
These are the threads:
http://www.musclemayhem.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42717http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=101357.0Apparently some things that I said on Mayhem got me into hot water with the management. I got a call this morning from the GM of my gym asking for my home address. When I enquired why, he said to mail me a refund for my October dues. My first thought was “they must have double-drafted me”. He said he was going to cancel my membership. I immediately thought that it was a friend or someone put up to messing with me because the contest is only 5 days away. I replied “If you’re calling from the gym, then you can get my address from my contract.” I laughed it off, thinking somebody came up with a great prank.
Curious, I called the number on my caller ID to see who exactly called me. The person on the other end was the front desk person at my gym! I was like WTF?!?!?! I asked for the GM and he assured me that this was no prank; he was canceling my membership. I asked why. He said that he read on the ‘net that I said some negative things about the gym and couldn’t have me posting things about him and my “which steroids I’m using”.
HUH???
I was working, and couldn’t get to the posts to accurately defend myself. On my lunch, I went home and looked up the posts in question and printed them out. After looking over them, I could find nothing about steroids…just diuretics, which are legal. The only objectionable thing that I could find was a comment that the GM of my gym was an ass… The ironic thing was that I didn’t even know who the GM was at the time, and was actually referring to the AM that had run us out of the yoga room when we were posing. He was an ass to us. He was curt, short, condescending and unprofessional.
I went by the gym later this afternoon to talk to the GM face to face, to hopefully settle what I thought to be a small thing like reasonable adults. I went over the posts with him and explained that I had done or said nothing illegal, immoral or unethical and I didn’t understand what the problem was. “You called me an ass.”, was his reply. I explained to him that I didn’t even know who he was. “Then you called my AM an ass.” He went on to say that he was not backing down and I was out of the gym. I asked him to show me where in the contract it was stated that comments made outside the gym could result in my expulsion. I reiterated that I had NEVER named names or mentioned the gym where I trained. I didn’t matter. I was out! There is a clause in most gym contracts that states management can amend the rules blah, blah. So basically, they have a back door to cancel a membership for any reason.
The moral of the story: Don’t be too quick to speak your mind, you might have to find a new place to train. FIVE FREAKING DAYS OUT FROM A CONTEST!!!!!
P.S.
To the coward that saw fit to rat me out: Man up. What are you, sucking up to the boss? Did I wrong you in some way and you are too callow to say something to my face? At least have the testicular fortitude to show yourself.
