An Anytime Fitness location in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, has issued an apology after the gym posted an “I Can’t Breathe” workout regimen, a reference to some of the last words uttered by George Floyd, the 46-year old African American man who was killed after a police officer pushed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
The workout regimen appears to have been posted on a whiteboard sign, and featured a group of exercises along with the words “I Can’t Breathe,” the words Floyd repeated as he was on the floor with a police officer’s knee pushing against his neck. The sign also had a stick-figure type person kneeling on the floor, and the bottom of the sign shows the words “and don’t you dare lay down.”
The intent was to create a workout to depict #GeorgeFloyd’s final moments… and they thought this was a fitting tribute Anytime Fitness Wauwatosa Wisconsin pic.twitter.com/PG2zVS0w9N
— Innocuous Dove (@DoveInnocuous) June 10, 2020
“I deeply apologize,” co-owner Jen Dunnington told TMZ in an interview, who reportedly said the idea was thought up by a trainer who wanted to “honor” Floyd’s memory. She also claimed that the intent of workout was to make it “so hard that we felt what he felt,” and suggested she was unaware of how the sign appeared until it was brought to her attention.
“I didn’t read it in that way, but I do definitely apologize that those words were on there,” said Dunnington, who also mentioned that “the line on there should not have been on there.”
Anytime Fitness told CBS News in an email the franchise location’s owner and “entire staff have volunteered to be the first ones to participate in the antiracism training that we announced last week and are providing for all franchise owners across our portfolio of brands.”
The fitness company also posted its own apology to Twitter, saying that they were “shocked and devastated” that a franchise would choose to post an “I Can’t Breathe” workout.
“As leaders of Self Esteem Brands and the Anytime Fitness brand, we were shocked and devastated to see that one of our franchise locations chose to offer an ‘I Can’t Breathe’ workout,” said the fitness company’s corporate office. “No matter the intent, we absolutely do not condone the words, illustrations or actions this represents.”
“One of our publicly-stated commitments to antiracism work is to bolster education efforts for our franchise owners to lead with empathy, love and respect,” said the company. “This incident makes it clear that we have work to do in this space; immediately, we are sharing this incident with our franchise owners worldwide as an example of what not to do, why it is offensive, and what locations should be doing instead.”
A statement from Anytime Fitness Co-Founders and Brand President regarding Wauwatosa, WI incident pic.twitter.com/qUmeaeQ5eT
— Anytime Fitness (@AnytimeFitness) June 10, 2020
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