“Indian Version of Captain America”: Viral Gym Clip of Young Boy’s Leg Workout Creates Storm Amongst Bodybuilding Fans

Bodybuilding coach Greg Doucette is famous for his natty or not videos. However, the IFBB Pro also digs up some shocking short videos to post on Instagram. Doucette recently posted a video that went absolutely viral and garnered varied responses from the bodybuilding community. The video showed an Indian boy doing hack squats with two spotters and a trainer.

However, the shocking part of the video was how the trainer ensured that the boy would squat until he couldn’t do a single rep. “He definitely trained to failure, and beyond,” wrote Greg Doucette while sharing the video on Instagram. He also credited the original poster, Shivam, who is a young bodybuilding and Olympic weightlifting enthusiast from India.

In the video, the young weightlifter was training legs on a machine that bodybuilding icon Tom Platz made famous, the hack squat machine. However, nearly everyone in the comments section questioned the trainer’s methods of making the boy work out till reaching muscular failure. In a bid to replicate Toma Platz-like intensity, the trainer hit the boy’s quads with a weight belt.

Every time the boy tried to give up, the trainer compelled him to do a few more reps. The spotters also assisted the weightlifter with the final few reps. While coach Greg thought the boy went beyond failure during his leg day session, he didn’t give his opinion on the method the boy’s coach used. Surprisingly, this isn’t the first video of its kind that Shivam posted.

The bodybuilding enthusiast posted a similar video on 31st March 2024. Other videos on the boy’s Instagram show that the boy’s trainer regularly uses this method, and not just when he does hack squats. While Greg Doucette didn’t give an opinion, the fitness community had no issues making their feelings known.

The bodybuilding community wasn’t pleased

“That’s not even how you train till failure,” commented one disappointed follower. “What you talking about, he had at least 10 more,” wrote another follower. He also added an eye-roll emoji indicating his sarcasm. “And then he won’t move for weeks,” wrote another bodybuilding enthusiast. Many others also pointed out how going to such extremes wouldn’t help grow muscle.

The comments section wasn’t devoid of jokes either. “They are creating the Indian version of Captain America,” wrote one netizen. One bodybuilding enthusiast noticed the second spotter, he made sure the boy wouldn’t lose his footing. “The dude sitting in front of him is there to stop him from running out of the gym,” joked the follower.

While the original poster seemed to be accustomed to such a brutal training method, most bodybuilding fans didn’t agree with what he had to go through.