Trainers Hate Him

About

“Trainers Hate Him” is a quote from an online bodybuilding supplement advertisement claiming that personal trainers are frustrated by a man who uses their product. The phrase is often quoted in fitness-related discussion forums in response to implausible claims related to fitness and bodybuilding.

Origin

The phrase was first used in a series of advertisements for the Force Factor bodybuilding supplement (shown below) that began appearing online as early as August 2011. The ads typically featured a man with prominent upper body muscles accompanied by a paragraph claiming that “Cambridge scientists” had discovered a powerful new muscle-building supplement.

Spread

On December 4th, 2011, Yahoo Answers^[2] member Reef submitted a question asking if people had seen the Force Factor ads. On January 10th, 2012, BodyBuilding Forums^[6] member PuNjAbixxPheNoM posted one of the Force Factor ads in a thread titled “Trainers hate hm.” On February 19th, 2013, a “selfie”: photograph of former professional bodybuilder Andreas Cashling to the /r/pics^[3] subreddit, to which Redditor Juggernaut1 commented “Gym Trainers hate him!” On May 16th, Flickr^[5] user kadigan uploaded a mock Force Factor ad featuring a painting of the fictional character Popeye by Deviant Artist axlsalles.^[4] On August 1st, Sonic the Hedgehog fan blog Not Another Sonic Blog^[8] posted a two-pane image of the character Tails transforming into a muscled version (shown below, right).

Notable Examples

Derivatives

Similar advertisements for other products have circulated online as well, including a “dermatologists hate her” skin product ad (shown below, left) and a language professors hate him" language-learning product banner (shown below, right). Often, these advertisements are created by hackers to lure people into clicking on them and allowing viruses to enter the computer.

Search Interest

External References