Viral Fitness News: Marijuana Gym, YMCA Gator Grab, Tank Top Tussle, NFL Player Kicked Out

Club Industry's Viral Fitness News highlights recent popular stories about the fitness industry circulating on social media. Do you have news to share with us? Send your news, tips or story ideas to [email protected]. You can also connect with us on Facebook, on Twitter @clubindustry and on LinkedIn.

Power Plant Fitness plans to open in San Francisco this November as the world's first cannabis gym, according to a media release posted to The Weed Blog. The gym is co-founded by 420 Games founder Jim McAlpine and former NFL star Ricky Williams. The gym will use cannabis as a tool for focus and recovery, McAlpine told Tech Insider.

Not all YMCA guests are welcome at the YMCA of Beaufort, South Carolina. On May 14, the staff at the Y called the fire department for assistance in removing an unwanted "guest" who was lounging at the bottom of the deep end of the pool. "Guest" may be misleading, as the unwanted swimmer was a 3-foot-long alligator that staff spotted as they prepared to open the pool for the season. Firefighters harnessed the alligator with a lifeguard rescue, pulling him to the surface where a wildlife official secured the alligator and took him to an estuary for release.

A woman who was ejected from her health club says she may sue the club, Movati Athletic, Orleans, Ontario, Canada. The club has said that it ejected Jenna Vecchio because she violated its dress code by wearing a tank top. However, Vecchio told the Canadian Press that others in the facility were wearing similar tank tops, but she was told that she couldn't wear her tank top because of her chest size.  Vecchio alleges in a Facebook post that a supervisor of Movati Athletic told her that her tank top was making the staff and other gym members uncomfortable. The club said that it investigated the incident, which occurred on May 14, and that it stands by its decision to remove the member from the club due to a dress code violation.

NFL free-agent punter Steve Weatherford claims he was asked to "tone it down" and was "kicked out" of a Chicago-area Planet Fitness for "excessive breathing/grunting," according to an Instagram post. Weatherford, who last played for the New York Giants, vented about the incident near the gym's front desk in the May 23 post that has received more than 29,000 views and nearly 1,000 comments.

Two Crunch gyms in San Francisco have started offering AntiGravity Cocooning programming. The nap session that suspends participants from a hammock has received positive feedback in its first month, Michelle Opperman, Crunch group fitness director, Bay Area region, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

30/60/90 founder Kristi Molinaro was recently interviewed by the Huffington Post, which also takes a look into the HIIT-style class offered at an Equinox club in New York.

Zumba instructor Yulissa Arescurenaga recently taught classes in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of a trip sponsored in part by the Alaska Chapter of the National Down Syndrome Congress. Arescurenaga, who has Down Syndrome, became a certified Zumba instructor in 2012 and regularly teaches in the San Francisco area. Read more in the story from the Alaska Dispatch News.

At age 100, Eugene Kahn maintains his three-day-a-week exercise habit at the Sport&Health Ballston location in Arlington, Virginia, according to an ARLnow report. Kahn, who has been a Sport&Health member since 1980, said he owes his longevity to "incredible good luck" and making healthy choices.

SoulCycle instructor Heather Peggs became an instructor at the boutique studio chain after losing 60 pounds, according to a story from CBS Los Angeles. Her weight grew to 220 after making a life decision to become sober, and she lost the weight after a year of attending SoulCycle classes.