Joey Swoll Continues To Educate On Unorthodox Lifts, Addresses ‘Toxic Gym Culture’

Joey Swoll has used TikTok to call out those who criticize others for their workout routines.

TikTok is a social media platform that can be used in many ways. Joey Swoll has been using his platform to callout and educate others who might be critical of lifters in the gym performing unorthodox exercises. Recently, he shared a video after a woman claimed a man was “ego lifting” in front of her.

Swoll does not take to the platform in a disrespectful way. He takes the time to explain what lift is being performed and the benefit of the movement. He also has taken the time to speak against “toxic gym culture.”

In this particular video, a man is seen with heavy dumbbells in front of the rack performing partial reps of lateral raises. The female in the video describes them as “half-ass reps” but Swoll explains that this is the purpose and it is extremely effective.

“The key to this workout is to only do about one-third the range of motion of a side lateral raise and to also go heavy and high rep. A lot of great bodybuilders love this movement, it’s great for size. The late great John Meadows, one of the best to ever do it, rest in peace to him, he loved this exercise.”

This is not the first time that Joey Swoll has done this. In January, another female was criticizing a man performing drag curls with dumbbells because of the strange-looking nature of the lift. Also, Swoll has been calling for gym culture to improve as a whole.

On Saturday, Joey Swoll shared a video where a woman was recording a man on a machine next to her. The point of the video was to try and prove that the man was staring at her while she was working out. Swoll provided his opinion on the video.

“This man did nothing wrong. He’s at a public gym, minding his own business getting a great workout in and you decided to film him and make him look like a creep to get likes and attention on social media. You’re literally on a piece of equipment that’s only a few feet away in his peripheral and you made some noise and he looked at you for a millisecond.”

The overall culture of public gyms has been in question after some recent viral videos, especially on TikTok. Joey Swoll believes that it must be fixed and all gym-goers have the right to exercise anyway they want.

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Greg Patuto
Greg has covered the four major sports for six years and has been featured on sites such as Sports Illustrated, Fox Sports, SB Nation, NJ.com, and FanSided. Now, he is transitioning into the world of bodybuilding and strength sports.