PureGym has sparked fury after launching a workout claiming to be as difficult as slavery to "celebrate" Black History Month.
A branch of the fitness chain has caused a huge backlash on social media after uploading the plan - titled '12YearsOfSlave' - to Facebook.
The now-deleted post said the workout had been named after the award-winning film '12 Years a Slave', adding: "Slavery was hard and so is this."
The fitness plan was posted to social media earlier today by PureGym's Luton and Dunstable branch in south England.
The post read: "Entitled '12YearsOfSlave' (after the epic movie) this is our workout of the month designed by @mattsimpt to celebrate black history month.
"Slavery was hard and so is this.
"The twist to this is 1 rep of your 1st exercise, 2 of the second but before you move on to the 3rd exercise which is also 3 reps you must start at the beginning to move on."
The post was soon by picked up on by social media users and has since caused a huge stir.
Ex-footballer Stan Collymore tweeted: F****** hell @PureGym, this is honking. Slavery was hard and so is this? WTAF?"
Another person said: "Comparing a HIIT class to slavery?! How someone thought this was acceptable is beyond me..."
A third posted: "I genuinely can't believe I've just read this, I can't believe this is real?"
A spokesperson for PureGym said the chain apologised "unreservedly" in a statement.
They said: "PureGym apologises unreservedly for a post made today by our gym in Luton.
"This post is wholly unacceptable, was not approved or endorsed by the company and was removed as soon as it was brought to our attention.
"Each of our 271 gyms has its own social media channels which are run locally.
"We take this matter extremely seriously and are urgently investigating how and why this post was made."
'12 Years a Slave', released in 2013, tells the story of a man born free but sold into slavery.
It won numerous awards, including three Academy Awards - better known as Oscars.
