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Positive ‘Gym Rat’ Influencer Joey Swoll Tackles Sexual Harassment In America’s Gyms

Positive ‘Gym Rat’ Influencer Joey Swoll Tackles Sexual Harassment In America’s Gyms

Joey Swoll

Images from Joey Swoll's TikTok and Instagram.

Fitness influencer Joey Swoll is the self-proclaimed “CEO of Gym Positivity” who’s been using his platform to call out what he sees as toxic gym culture. He often critiques people for unfairly labeling and shaming others at the gym and tells them to “do better.”

However, recently Swoll praised a Florida woman for fighting off an attacker in the gym. In a video posted to TikTok last week, Swoll gave virtual flowers to 24-year-old Nashali Alma, who surveillance footage shows is the victim of an attempted sexual assault by a man she lets into the gym.

Alma said she thought her attacker was “just another dude coming in to work out” but soon realized she was mistaken. “As soon as he was approaching me, I pushed him. I said, ‘Bro, what the eff are you doing? Get away from me! Stop trying to touch me!”

Eventually, Alma successfully fought the man off and decided to share her story, something the local sheriff praised. “I’m grateful that she came forward. I know that her story is going to be an inspiration to other women,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a video clip.

Swoll also expressed his admiration for Alma’s courage. “This woman is an inspiration to all. You are amazing Nashali!” Swoll said in the caption of his video discussing the matter.

“It was very hard to watch, disgusting to see, and right after somebody sent it to me yesterday afternoon, the first thing I did was reach out to Nashali. I wanted to see how she was doing,” Swoll said, adding he also asked for Alma’s permission to share and comment on the video.

@thejoeyswoll

This woman is an inspiration to all. You are amazing Nashali! @nassshx

♬ original sound – Joey Swoll

After confirming that Alma was “doing amazing” and “an incredible person,” Swoll called for an end to harassment and sexual assault in gyms and society.

“As I’ve said before in videos guys, women are harassed in gyms and in this world and things like this happen every single day,” Swoll said. “It is absolutely horrific and it needs to stop. We all need to do better.”

According to a report by Insider, Joey Swoll has come under fire by critics who believe his videos “fuel misogyny” by primarily targeting women who he says unfairly label men as “gym creeps” with his criticisms.

https://twitter.com/RupaliChadhaMD/status/1628146785763078152

However, Swoll pushed back against the accusations in a lengthy caption on a TikTok post on Feb. 8.

“I’ve spent the last couple years creating a platform to do something I’ve been doing all my life – promote a positive gym experience for all,” Swoll wrote. “Sometimes that means highlighting great deeds, and sometimes it means bringing to light toxic behavior. But no matter the subject of the video, it is always done with an attempt to inspire everyone to do better, and be better.”

“However, it is sad that people are trying to use my message to push an agenda I absolutely do not agree with,” Swoll continued. “If you actually go to my page you’ll see I’ve done an equal amount of videos on men and women because gender has nothing to do with it. I have no agenda other than making the gym a safer place for EVERYONE. Period.”