I will like this show and keep watching if it starts to recognize that the physical fitness regime promoted is both ineffective and unhealthy, as well as the recognition that the ML actually has more lifestyle issues as the FL. My hope is that she will change him as much as he changes her. There is a seed of doubt in me now that this will happen, but we'll see.

Also, ep 2 was quite possibly the most fakey weight loss I've seen in a drama. Even Atypical Family's was more believable. I have to wonder why they sped up a process that I expected to take at least a few episodes.

Good decision, DB Staff, to drop recapping this show because it is embarrassing and offensive and not worth trying to make sense of through recaps. The Viki timed comments were me in the first 10 minutes of Ep.1: "What is going on?" "I regret starting this." "I don't know what I'm watching." After that cringe opening music video, I'd wonder if KBS was saving its Wednesday-Thursday time slot for sitcoms only (Kick x4, Villains Everywhere). It is year 2025, and we still have a woman begging a man for sex. In public. Please have some self-respect. In Mi-ran's flashback, I was so relieved her guy friend didn't act disgusted when they were featured on the baseball game's kiss cam. Hyun-joong is not my sense of humor, while Lee Mi-do's character is the only normal character in this show.

All that being said, Ep.2 did calm down, and I am still watching for now.

The humor can't stop me to find their way to address this topic was quite wrong.

But the worst part was the sister who watched her sister trying to loose weight to fit her dress and who took it the D-Day...

As I said above, I THINK (don't know) the show is making humorous commentary on the whole idea central to self-help consumer culture, that you can remake yourself, and make yourself happy, by changing your lifestyle to emphasize fitness and "wellness."

But so far what's totally undermining this message for me is the humor is not just based on sex, fitness, and lifestyle--all worthy of ridicule--but also on extended scenes of characters caught in cringe-worthy humiliating circumstances.

Sure, when described I can see how some people would find the scenes here funny--a woman begging for sex from her boyfriend while sprawled on the sidewalk; a man dressed in a negligee running with a bondage gag ball(?) (don't know what they are called and I'm not inclined to look it up) in his mouth; a seemingly innocuous black dress that has a flourescent "I like sex" when lights go out. But when I was watching these scenes, they just left me shaking my head with a grimace, and they went on way too long.

I would have been fine if the show had confined itself to jokes about gyms, fitness regimens, even the ML's ridiculous ideas about physical health. Also good jokes could have been made about the bizarre narcissism of body building competitions; plus there are a whole range of types in the gym that those of us who attend regularly have all observed, that would be easy to caricature (including the type I now represent, of course, the vain old man clinging to fitness as a way of showing he has not lost it). Perhaps as the show goes on, we will have more of those type jokes.

But right now, its just not that funny, and I'm watching it primarily to see what the moral will be about our contemporary culture's ridiculous obsession with fitness.

I am not ready to give up on it yet, I do like the lead actors, but it's not easy. I was surprised, that the weight loss already happened in the second episode. So what will be next? I really hope it get's better. The actors deserve better. And so do we.

I was ok with the cheesy intro segments (sort of expected them) until we got to the irrational FL with zero self-respect begging for sex in public. I almost ended it there. I barely made it past the sister's S+M boyfriend scene. When we arrived at the FL screeching in the police station, I DID turn it off at that point. I have zero interest in this type of character, male or female. It's over the top and is not at all funny imho.

Later I went back and finished the first 2 episodes because I do generally like to give shows a 4-ep tryout and I'd been looking forward to this one. I'll probably watch the next 2, but I'm not expecting they're going to turn things around substantially enough to make it worth the full watch. "What the f?!" indeed.

This is one of those #ifbeanieswrotekdramas moments. So much more and better could be done with this story. Why is it so tone deaf? Or as the well-missed Seon-ha would often quip: 왜? WHY?!

I thought I saw this on the currently recapping list

The body shaming of this poor lady is wiiild. But I, for one, actually liked the comedy and goofiness? Idk how to feel, will watch for now.

Look, I know they're saying that she has legit health issues. But if someone with Jung Eun-ji's figure is out of shape... What hope is there for the rest of us?

I loved how accurately they portrayed that post workout feeling where walking and squatting to go to the toilet feel like a never ending workout you didn’t sign up for.

I read the David Goggins book and even the other Seals who need to be fit to do their job didn’t feel the need to push themselves to the extremes once they had passed the tests that proved they were good enough to join. Why would normal people dealing with the pressures of adult life pay for a gym director who acts like a stalker and humiliates them?

The female lead could have been the poster girl for the effectiveness of his total life package but because she wanted to prove a point to a loser she will need a new incentive to keep it off. What will the maintenance programme look like? Has she learnt how to enjoy food AND be healthy?

Poor woman overcame the set back of everyone knowing her office romance failed but now has to deal with the bigger shame of facing her colleagues after her and her packed ‘boyfriend’ wore inappropriate clothes to the wedding. She has nowhere safe in her life where she is accepted as a person of value.

I wonder where the writer is hoping to go with this when there are no likeable characters. The neutral gym staff have no depth and everyone else exists just to act as obstacles to the female lead being at peace.

Despite all of the warning signs I will be turning up next week to see whether this will prove to be a low key fun watch.

I just want to if Lee Jun-young wears body suit or it is really his body that big? Too comedic for my taste, I really like Lee Jun-young but still I don't think I'll continue. Wish better project for him in the future.

Though Episode 2.
About a year ago now a drama came on the scene that generated some comment, much negative and that was KBS’s DARE TO LOVE ME (Viki US). Some folks couldn’t believe the premise of the drama that in the enlightened 21st century some in South Korea would choose a philosophically Joseon based life style. I enjoyed the drama.

I mention DARE because of the dramas that I have recently watched that was the most negatively received until PUMP UP. So far I have enjoyed the first two episodes of PUMP UP cringe and all.
I enjoyed Choi Moo-sung’s episode one cameo and I am looking forward to Kim Kwon’s appearance.
I don’t know if they would be considered negative tropes but the Three Witches remind me of the annoying locals in BREWING LOVE and Mi-ran’s office mates remind me of the super annoying coworkers in CINDERELLA AT 2AM.

Episode 3 Spoilers: better than last week, but not there yet. There is still some unnecessary cringe to force laughter from the audience, but it seems a bit toned down.

Our leads are still a maniac and hung-up on their ex, but the seeds for change are there. Mi-Ran discovers her hidden physical strength and Hyun-Joong is slightly nicer to his clients. They even bundle forces to help out one of Hyun-Joong’s clients, and it could be a nice foreshadowing of our OTP combining fitness and foodie knowledge to help others. Hyun-Joong, at least seemed to be equally impressed and disgusted with her restaurant knowhow.

I saved the best for last: Kim Kwon!!!! He owns the gym accross and of course there is some bad history between him and our male lead, and of course our female lead, and every other client who takes fitness seriously for that matter, crosses over temporarily. Literally. Our rival is nothing but oily. From the amount of hair gel to the mix of English and satoori, and let us not forget the sucking up to clients and calling our female lead ‘Baby’. So wrong, it is good!

Week 2
It was good to know that the self centred and disrespectful sister could show her sibling loyalty and step up to defend her sister. Because it’s this type of drama she did it in a ridiculous way but these episodes provided some context to why the sisters live together despite what appeared to be significant differences in their attitudes to life. It was also good to hear a parent acknowledge they were wrong. I was convinced we were going to go down the same route of the parent’s need for their child to be in a relationship outweighing the need for their child to have self respect or happiness.

The three woman who treat the gym as a meet up venue for random eating sessions are so part time in their loyalty.

I liked these two episodes a lot better, in part because they were mostly just silly. The humor was definitely hit and miss, as usual with kdramas, but there were some hits--I liked the competition between the gym directors, and the three women are always pretty funny.

One of the strange things about the focus of the silliness is that they aren't taking on the obvious target--body building as an activity (rather than just fitness and strength) Competitive bodybuilding, in my opinion, should be treated with more humor than it has been so far, as it is the absolute height of the narcissism that often drives people to the gym. I also think that its goals are inimical to health and fiftness. Although they are always very strong, even "natural" bodybuilders take extensive supplements that strain the definition of "natural" (kind of like the way "organic" is defined in the U.S.), and that can be extremely harmful, and overall most bodybuilders don't even claim to be "natural"--still a lot of steroid and HGH use.

I did appreciate these episodes making fun of the puritanical diet faddism of the male lead, and the Skinny Men Fighting club with its one member wanting to become strong was funny. It does seem from the previews that the next episode will continue to take on diet faddism a little bit more, which is another thing I'd appreciate. I have a family member who works out all the time who is still on the "paleo" diet, a fad a few years back which appealed to men who liked to imagine themselves as wild "cavemen" notwithstanding the fact that humans in paleolithic times did eat plenty of carbohydrates.

Anyway, for me these episodes were good enough to continue watching, albeit with low expectations overall.

I'm watching episode 4, and honestly, this show is hilarious. It keeps making me laugh out loud. Both leads are so funny. I guess it was a bit of a rocky start because we weren't sure what it was going to be. It seemed at first that it would be a show about a woman's quest for fitness, but that was achieved at the end of episode 2.

But it seems to have definitively settled on a humorous tone. Who knows if that will change, but for now, it's amusing me.

I'm watching Mi Ran run home due to an emergency (a visit from Mom), and she is outrunning a delivery bike, and the driver thinks that there is something wrong with his bike. It's hilarious!

The moments that make me laugh are the ridiculous haha. Like how the leads are shown singing their thoughts.

3 episodes in: I LOVE this show!

It's so ridiculous, so cute, so sweet, so laugh-out-loud hilarious, with so much heart.

My only regret is starting it too soon because I thought 8 episodes had aired already. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Now I'll hit live-watching and I don't like that at all. Can I stop myself from watching right now before I'm too deep in??