An Oklahoma woman says her gym banned her from using equipment – because she was “too fat.” According to AOL Health, Sandra Ruiz says she joined Mademoiselle Fitness Center to lose the extra weight she gained while she was pregnant with her now 5-month-old son.

But during one of her visits, she was told by a gym employee to get off a stationary bike because she was overweight.
“The lady said I couldn’t get on the machines because we are overweight,” Ruiz told News 9. “Everybody was watching seeing what was going on, and I got very sad because I’m so emotional about my weight right now.” Get this: the worker said she could walk in the fitness center’s aerobics room instead, which Ruiz shot down because says she can do that outside for free.

“If y’all didn’t want big people to get on your machine, y’all would have told us, and if we would have known, we wouldn’t have come here,” she said.

The gym claims that they did tell Ruiz that there were certain machines she wouldn’t be able to use because of weight restrictions.

(Ruiz denies that she was ever informed.) The fitness center’s owner also said staff created a workout regimen just for Ruiz that included water aerobics, but said she was “like a kid in a candy store” with the gym’s machines and wanted to try them all immediately.

I don’t know who’s telling the truth here, but I think this story does highlight everything that’s wrong with gyms. They’re often so concerned about selling memberships that they’re not really focused on exercise, weight loss or changing the lifestyle  of their customers. Was Ruiz properly informed? Did anyone take her around the gym and specifically point out which machines she could use, and which she didn’t? If the worker told her to go walk in the aerobics room, I doubt it. This woman was excited about working out, and now she’s less likely to keep up her fitness.

Working out already brings up our insecurities…gyms should make it easier, not harder!