Various factors affect why people exercise and go to the gyms (e.g., physical, mental, etc.), or what makes them stay and continue with it. Body-shaming is common in the Philippines even prior to COVID-19, regardless of gender. Body-shaming is defined as mocking someone's body, in which its humiliation causes emotional distress; and, body-shaming among men is rarely discussed. Using the phenomenological research design, this study aims to understand the lived experiences of Filipino young adult gym-going men on body-shaming. Six (6) Filipino young adult men (18-25 years old) residing in Manila were interviewed individually. They are all identified as gym-goers and reported to have faced body-shaming. Qualitative data was analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis. It used a semi-structured interview as collection method in which data were analyzed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results show that the body- shaming experienced by the Filipino young adult men may be a source of motivation to the gym-going participants, despite the negative feelings they have towards body-shaming. The data also reveal eleven (11) themes that summarizes the lived experiences of the participants about body-shaming. This was categorized into two: the forms of body-shaming, and the responses to it.
Keywords: body-shaming, exercise, gym-goers, Filipino young adult men, Sports Psychology