From Staff Reports

 FLETCHER — The owner of Blue Ridge CrossFit, Tom Tomlo, apologized for posting pictures focusing on the posteriors of female clients on the gym’s Instagram account on Jan. 12 — a move that triggered hundeds of women expressing their fury via Facebook postings.

The video showed a morning workout session at the gym. It featured women in black workout stretch pants, bent over, performing various body-strengthening exercises.

Tomlo admitted in a WLOS-TV interview that he had added emojis and phrases next to the women’s posteriors, including the phrase “dayumm” above a woman’s rear-end, “blueridgegirls” over another female member’s posterior, and “humpday” with an emoji over another women bent over, with her rear-end in the air

In apologizing, Tomlo said he did not mean to offend anyone or any woman. He told WLOS that the comments and video were meant to be lighthearted and fun. He also said the women in the video knew he was recording them during the workout and knew the video had been posted.

WLOS reported that a member who saw the Instagram story posted several screen grabs of the video on Facebook.

Upon learning that someone had posted the screen pictures, Tomlo wrote a profanity0laced defense on Facebook, saying the person who did the posting had no right to post the stills he says are taken out of context.

Tomlo’s Facebook response is as follows:

“I can’t control the way this is being portrayed, and I’m regretful for it,” Tomlo said. “I feel horrible that people would feel that I would look at a woman that way and do something that would be purposefully demeaning of her.”