Fitness bro slammed for Instagram rant about defiantly working out at cordoned-off pull-up bar

A fitness bro has been accused of being reckless and irresponsible in his quest for upper body strength amidst heightened measures against the coronavirus outbreak here. 

Facebook user HuiMin Lian went on Facebook on Good Friday (April 10) to expose an individual who went on a warpath on Instagram Stories about residential estate fitness corners, which have been cordoned off by the authorities during the circuit breaker period. 

Basically, the man believes that pull-up bars are “essential for the upper body” and shouldn’t be blocked from public use. 

The man started off his rant with an anecdote about getting reprimanded by an elder Malay woman (who he terms as “machik” even though it’s actually spelt “makcik”) while doing some pull-ups. He definitely knew that he wasn’t supposed to, but he did it anyway. 

“…of course I didn’t give a single f*** to the blocking of the fitness corner,” he wrote on Instagram. 

According to him, the makcik screamed and lectured him from her HDB flat window, telling him off for ignoring the taped-off area. The man defended himself, asserting that he was working out by himself and that she should have spoken to him nicely first.

“So I gave her the finger and hope she doesn’t fall over hanging her clothes for not minding her own business,” he wrote. 

But it seems that his grievances go deeper beyond the makcik. Another post on Instagram Stories had him urging for an end to public fitness corners being blocked off. He went even as far as to call for Muay Thai gyms to re-open. 

“What can running alone do?” he argued. 

There are viable reasons why public fitness facilities and private studios are shut down during the ongoing circuit breaker period, which is set to end on May 4. Elevated safe distancing measures have to be enforced to flatten the curve and severely reduce the rates of Covid-19 transmissions between members of the public. The National Parks Board (NParks) — which manages fitness corners at HDB estates — closed its facilities to prevent groups from gathering. 

Plus, there’s bound to be a lot of sweat and body contact on the workout amenities. And since the coronavirus carriers can transmit the disease without showing any symptoms, it would just make sense that NParks take the safer route by shutting it all down for now. 

But somebody get the memo to Angry Fitness Bro because he really does not like it when the authorities are stopping him from his precious pull-ups.  

Not to mention that nobody’s stopping him from maintaining his body and health — members of the public can still exercise on their own around their immediate neighbourhood in open, uncrowded places. Not that anyone can tell him about this, since he took down his Instagram account after getting exposed. 

Last Wednesday (April 8) Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong asserted that people have to comply with the measures “very strictly” for the instituted circuit breaker measures to be effective.

Far too many people weren’t taking the measures seriously enough, and now, authorities will no longer issue written warnings to anyone breaching the measures. Instead, they’ll immediately be fined $300, even if they’re first-time offenders. 

"The health and safety of Singaporeans are at risk. It is, therefore, our top priority and collective responsibility,” said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli.

ilyas@asiaone.com