There’s been a lot of buzz over functional fitness lately. What’s the point of being shredded or losing weight if you can’t carry all your groceries inside in one trip or rearrange your furniture whenever you feel like it? For most people, this concern means focusing on exercises that might actually benefit them in real life. But for one guy on TikTok, it means using an ab roller on a moving treadmill with a couch on his back.
Matthias Mckinnon, a fitness influencer and personal trainer, continuously posts himself doing outrageous feats in the gym. In one TikTok, he lifts an entire squat rack overhead while doing a lunge balanced on a Bosu ball. In another, he’s doing full-body pull-ups with an office chair chained to his waist. He really seems to love couches, too — in more than one video, you can find him doing arm or arm exercises with a leather couch strapped to his torso.
Why exactly he does this is unclear — the general message seems to be that he’s exhausted all the usual avenues of working out, and has since incorporated random objects into his routine for more variety. Again, though, the idea of functionality is at play. I can’t think of a reason why he would have to pull himself over a ledge with an office chair attached to him, but were he ever in that situation, he’d be able to do it. I imagine he’d be great at helping people move as well.
More than just “why,” his videos also beg several other questions: How do the people who work at his gym feel about him constantly using their equipment for purposes they’re not intended for? Did he bring that sofa from home? Whose office chair is that? Aren’t there plenty of weights in the gym that would be easier to use than furniture and benches that probably weigh more, too?
Despite myself and several others asking these types of questions in the comments of his videos, Mckinnon never reveals his secrets. Instead, he just keeps the stunts coming. And honestly, he looks great. Whatever he’s doing, it’s working. Still, another common sentiment expressed by viewers is that they absolutely do not want to go to whatever gym he’s at. Some have even made parody videos of themselves walking into the gym, seeing him lift weird shit while riding a stationary bike, and then walking straight out. Mckinnon often seems to post these videos under the guise of “motivating” others, but they’re so ludicrous that they often have the opposite effect.
At the very least, though, he’s proof that you could probably finagle a workout with just about anything in your home. Trying to make an excuse that you can’t workout because you don’t have any equipment? Bro, your refrigerator is right there.
Magdalene Taylor
Magdalene Taylor is a staff writer at MEL. She covers internet culture, sex and the online adult industry. She lives in Brooklyn but is from God's Country, Western Massachusetts.
