Pregnant fitness influencer kicked out of gym after owner’s wife complained about her outfit
A woman has shared the outfit she alleges got her kicked out of her gym after the owner’s wife claimed it was too revealing.
Emi Romero, a US influencer, said she was “dress coded” at the body building facility she recently joined for wearing a pair of leggings with a tank top.
The fitness fan, who is five months pregnant, claimed she was aware of the gym’s workout policy which prevents women from exercising in just their sports bras – but stressed her outfit didn’t breach the rule.
However, the top – which didn’t reveal Emi’s stomach – seemingly proved too much for the wife of the gym owner.
In a TikTok video filmed in her car outside the fitness centre, Emi said she noticed the owner’s wife “staring” at her while she worked out, before she was approached and told to cover up.
“So I’m wearing this tank top today, right?” she states in the clip, adding she’s “finding it hard” to dress as her bump grows.
“And the owner’s wife is staring at me the whole time I’m working out. And [the] owner kind of walks [over] halfway through my workout. … He’s like, ‘Listen, my wife has an issue with what you’re wearing right now. We don’t allow sports bras.’”
Ms. Romero said she explained to the owner she wasn’t wearing a sports bra. He responded: “No, see I agree with you, but my wife, it’s really hard to differential between what’s a sports bra… so you’re going to have to either leave or put on a top.”
The mum-to-be said she felt “embarrassed” by the situation, claiming there were other women working out in “super tiny” tops around her, adding the walls were also adorned with photos of competitors in “tiny bikinis and their little man underwear”.
“I don’t feel like I’m wearing a sports bra, so I don’t understand what the problem is here,” she said she told the owner.
“You’re a bodybuilder gym. You have all these photos up of people half naked, which is cool, but like I can’t wear a tank top?
“I was trying to be respectful but honestly it was pretty offensive. It was the craziest thing.”
Eventually the conversation concludes with the gym owner stating his facility wasn’t the best place for Ms. Romero to have a membership.
She agreed, stating: “I don’t want to work out where I feel like this anyway.”
Ms. Romero, who said the whole experience left her “shocked” also shared a video of her outfit once she got home.
In the clip, the expectant mum wore black pants with a tie-dye pattern on, with a brown top that sat flush with the top of the leggings.
The video quickly attracted hundreds of comments after it went viral, with many blasting the gym for having a strict dress code for women.
“Why is there even a dress code, it’s 2024, come on,” one said.
“The outfit is beyond appropriate,” another argued.
As one claimed: “Am I the only person that feels like they were discriminating against you because you were pregnant and working out?”
One woman also chipped in, revealing she’d posted a video last year stating she’d been “dress coded” by the owner at the same gym.
“Literally happened to me at the SAME gym,” Eryn diZerega wrote.
In Ms. diZerega’s video, posted to TikTok at the end of last year, the fitness fanatic revealed she’d been told her onesie was “inappropriate” attire.
“I’ve been going to this bodybuilding gym recently and they have this rule about no sports bras, which I thought was a little weird, but I really liked everything else about this gym so I signed up anyway,” she said.
“But the owner comes up to me and he’s like ‘Hey, do me a quick favour would you just throw on a sweater over that?’
“I was very respectful and told him I’d put on my sweater.
“I put on my sweater and finished my workout. By that point, I already knew I didn’t want to keep working out there.”
Ms.diZerega said the staff at the gym still seemed to be determining where to draw the line when enforcing their dress code rule, deciding the brown romper – a popular style of workout gear – was deemed too much.
The video, like Ms. Romero’s, went viral and racked up thousands of likes from people who thought there was “nothing wrong” with the outfit.
“Don’t you literally wear underwear in competitions? I’m confused how what you wore is inappropriate for a literal bodybuilding gym lol,” one commented.
“I didn’t think there was anything wrong with what you wore,” another wrote.