A personal trainer is being praised after sharing the moment that she addressed a “creepy” man who was staring at her while she worked out.
Last month, Heidi Aragon, a fitness coach who goes by the username @fit_with_heidi on TikTok, uploaded a video in which she can be seen exercising at a gym while another gym patron stared at her.
“This creepy old guy at the gym kept coming over and staring at me,” Heidi captioned the video. In the clip, she can be seen working out as a man in a green shirt walked over and sat down on a piece of nearby gym equipment.
According to Heidi, she informed her husband that the man was making her uncomfortable, at which point her husband stood next to her. However, she then noted in the video that, even after her husband came over, the man “CONTINUED to stare”.
“I decided to stop working out and stare back,” Heidi continued, with the TikTok showing the moment that she paused her workout, turned around and proceeded to stare back at the man.
Heidi then noted that she “thought he got the picture,” and resumed her set, before getting “fed up” and deciding to address the man.
While the conversation between Heidi and the man was not captured by the video, the personal trainer said that she told him “if he’s going to work out in this corner, he needs to stop staring and making me uncomfortable”.
According to Heidi, the man initially denied that he had been staring at her and claimed that he was just “looking around”.
“I then told him that I record my workouts and I have him on film. He shut up real quick,” Heidi concluded, adding in the caption: “Don’t sit there and tell me you’re not doing something when I have proof.”
The TikTok, which has been viewed more than 17.3m times, has prompted an outpouring of supportive comments from viewers, with many applauding Heidi for standing up for herself.
“Normalise yelling at creeps in public,” one person commented.
Another said: “The staring back was so powerful. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
“Why do men assume if we are in public they are allowed to stare at us like this? We don’t exist for you to fantasise about,” someone else added.
Others defended Heidi from viewers who blamed her for the interaction, with one viewer noting: “All the men saying it’s your fault. That attitude is the problem.”
The Independent has contacted Heidi for comment.
