關注社會:英國健身房推出"真人沙袋"

英國倫敦市中心一家名爲Gymbox的健身房日前推出一種“真人沙袋”，平日裏供顧客擊打的沙袋裏面站了一個真人，他可以模仿某些“毒舌明星”用諷刺和侮辱等方式對顧客進行挑釁，以讓他們充分發力，消耗更多熱量。充當“真人沙袋”的人則可以整天奚落人而無需擔心被打傷。率先提出這種健身理念的人名叫安迪•蒙克，他表示這個想法是從“報復觀念”中獲得靈感的，報復被認爲是驅動人類身體動作的十六種動機之一。他所在的Gymbox健身房還通過調查評選出十大“最欠扁的名人”臉孔，被稱爲選秀節目“毒舌評審”的西蒙•考威爾名列第一。目前，該健身房已招募到首位職業“真人沙袋”，並繼續在網上徵集與欠扁名人長相相似的人，爲顧客充當“真人沙袋”。

Gym-goers take a swipe at Simon Cowell look-a-like Andy Monk to mark the launch of the world's first human punchbag.

He is the music industry's Mr Nasty and isn't afraid to give wannabe pop stars a good dressing down, but imagine if you were faced with the wrath of Simon Cowell in the gym?

Andy Monk, a look-a-like of the famous media mogul, stepped into the first Human Punchbag at Gymbox in central London which 'goads' fitness fans to throw jabs and hooks at someone inside the custom designed bag.

The concept is being piloted by the gym in Holborn and aims to help fitness fans burn more calories by egging them on with a series of taunts and insults.

Mr Monk was on hand to launch the new concept as the pop supremo has been voted the 'most punchable celebrity' according to a poll by Gymbox.

The science behind the idea, dubbed 'Goad-tivation', is inspired by the concept of vengeance, one of the 16 identified motivational desires that drives that human psyche.

Unemployed Londoner Adam Bant, 30, from Harrow, has become the world's first professional human punchbag by taking on the role.

The gym hopes to recruit more fearless members of the public via Facebook to be its human punchbags.

Mr Bant said he had been looking for work for about eight months before taking the job at the gym.

He said: 'I couldn't find anything. But when I saw the Facebook ad looking for people to work as a human punchbag I thought 'Why not?'.

'Not only am I the world's first human bit of exercise equipment but now I get to spend the day winding people up without getting a scratch on me.

'The suits are really padded so I don't feel a thing when they hit me'.

Richard Hilton, of Gymbox, said: 'Our members expect us to bring them the latest in extreme workouts but they also have to work from an exercise point-of-view.

'We took inspiration from the likes of Muhammad Ali and Chris Eubank on how they goaded their opponents and added our unique piece of human equipment to provide the motivation.

'It's not every day you get the opportunity to punch someone without ending up in hot water so we think this will be a big hit with members.'

X-Factor mogul Cowell pipped former newspaper editor Piers Morgan into first place on this list of 'most punchable' stars.

Model and reality star Katie Price was voted third most punchable celebrity, whilst one in twelve want to take a swipe at her cross-dressing former boyfriend Alex Reid.

Mr Hilton added: 'It's no surprise Simon Cowell was ranked most punchable celebrity after his unceremonious dumping of national sweetheart Cheryl Cole from American X Factor earlier this year.'