A GYM-GOER has shared an ‘uplifting’ video of the moment a stranger approaches her with simple but heartwarming advice to help her conquer her goal.
Sandhya Sivakanthan was doing an upper body workout at the PureGym in central London two weeks ago when she decided to try and challenge herself with pull-ups.
The 20-year-old explains how she has always struggled with the exercises, but was left touched after a kindhearted stranger approached her with advice consisting of just two words.
The video begins with dental student Sandhya looking baffled as she stares up at the pull-up bar looming over her.
She turns to ask her friend “How do you get up?”, to which her fellow gym-goer simply replies: “You jump.”
She then tentatively prepares to try and jump up to the bar but gets repeatedly overwhelmed at the thought and cannot conquer the mental block to do it.
Then, in the background of the video, a man spots Sandhya’s struggle and looks over as he stops his exercise and removes his earphones.
He approaches Sandhya, simply saying “High-five,” as holds his hand aloft.
She replies “Okay,” and cautiously gives him a high-five.
The unidentified man then requests a high-five from her again, this time raising his palm higher forcing her to jump a little.
After a third request for a high-five at an even higher height, the man then simply points to the pull-up bar and says: “High-five.”
Sandhya realises his tactic and squats in preparation to make the jump, before leaping up and managing to grab hold of the bar successfully.
Whilst dangling off the ground she screams: “Oh my God, shut up! Thank you!”
She then completes a full pull-up before landing back on the ground and thanking the man again as he returns to his exercise with a simple nod of acknowledgement.
Sandhya then turns to her friend, mouthing “That guy is the sweetest – I love him,” and makes a heart shape with her hands towards the camera.
Sandhya uploaded the video to social media last week with the caption: “Jumping up to the pull-up bar is genuinely one of my most irrational fears but trust me, watch it all the way through, my heart literally melted.”
The video has since received more than 3 million likes and over 6,400 comments from users left touched by the anonymous man’s simple guidance.
One user wrote: “That was so wholesome.”
Another commented: “I love the high-five approach, that was so sweet.”
A third said: “That was so simple but effective. Next time, try using a dumbbell or stool to step on if jumping doesn’t work.”
Another replied: “I’m crying, stop why did this feel like a movie.”
A fifth user wrote: “It’s giving dad energy.”
Speaking today Sandhya said: “My heart was just warm to be honest, I always just use a box or a step to get up to that bar and jumping up to it is a worry that not a lot of people understand, but I deal with mental blocks a lot.
“I was surprised that he understood but I was also just so appreciative of that understanding and his approach.
“He didn’t make me feel stupid, even though I felt so stupid, he just rewired my way of thinking and it’s something I know I can do myself from now on.
“The thing is, there are a lot of negative videos but the gym is genuinely so much more of a positive environment than that.
“The only reason there seems to be so many negative videos is because they get the most attention.
“When that happened I felt so happy because it reminded me that the gym is genuinely a place where everyone wants the best for each other and to better themselves.
“I started the gym in February last year when I was deep into disordered eating and in a really dark place and the gym was a way for me to detach, but motivated me to eat more, get stronger and feel better as a result.
“I haven’t seen the man since but his girlfriend reached out to me on social media and said he felt so happy that he could make someone’s day.
“Honestly I was so lucky that both me and my friend were filming an upper body workout that day because that was a moment I literally rewatch all the time now, it made my day.
“95% of people have said that they loved his approach because he didn’t just push me up but rather he knew i was in my head and used it as a teaching moment.
“People said it eased their anxieties about the gym being a scary place. the gym girls that had the same mental block about jumping up to the bar felt seen.
“The 5% are just people that dont believe it’s true because there’s two camera angles (mine and my friends), which I was just lucky to have.
“It wasn’t planned, I literally don’t know this man’s name. I wish I did, he deserves all the hype.”
