• last year
Credit: SWNS / Elle Sampiere

A gym-goer was shocked after noticing barbells had been labelled - by gender.

Elle Sampiere, 23, was working out at a gym in Lacanau, France, when she noticed that light weights were labeled for women and heavier weights for men.

Elle, a fitness influencer and pro surfer, had never seen barbells labelled before and was "surprised" to see the words "women" and "men" painted on the wall.

Elle, from Solana Beach, California, USA, said: "I'm not a super strong feminist or was offended in any way by this.

"I was more just surprised that that was still on the wall here in France.

"I was raised in a gym environment where we were not supposed to call it the girl bar.

Elle posted the video on TikTok and some social media users pointed that this was common practice in the weightlifting world.
Transcript
00:00 Oh my god.
00:02 Actually, wait, what?
00:03 Women, 15 kg.
00:05 Men, 20 kg.
00:07 Is that a [beep] joke?
00:09 France has not got the memo.
00:10 I'm not a super strong feminist
00:13 or was offended in any way by this.
00:16 I guess I was more just surprised.
00:17 I was raised in a gym environment
00:19 where we were not supposed to call it the girl bar.
00:22 I know that they make 20 kg barbells
00:25 and I know that they make 15 kg barbells
00:27 and I know why they do that.
00:29 However, I've never seen it labeled as women and men.
00:34 If you're gonna label the bars, just label it 20 and 15.
00:37 Being an influencer, if you wanna call it,
00:40 and inspiring younger girls to either go to the gym
00:43 or go surfing,
00:44 kind of started to feel a bit more sentimental for them.
00:46 So when they message me and they're nervous to go to the gym
00:49 or they don't have the confidence,
00:50 they're saying that I inspired them to go there,
00:53 I think about them and what they might think
00:55 when they go to the gym and they see something like that.
00:57 (upbeat music)
00:59 (upbeat music)

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