Hit reality shows often bring ordinary people to celebrity status, and the contestants of Netflix’s game show Physical: 100 are no different.
For fitness model Im Jeong-yun, he started getting more attention from women on social media after his appearance on the show.
He said in a recent YouTube video on teammate Shim Eu-ddeum’s channel: “Most of my followers on Instagram are men, but after Physical: 100, more women started to follow me.
“They sent me a lot of direct messages (DMs), and I’m grateful, but there were a lot of people who asked for my hand in marriage. I’ll say, ‘Oh my, thank you’ and they’d say, ‘I’ll make all the money, so let’s get married’.”
Teammate Bang Seong-hyeok, a physical trainer, bemoaned: “I also want to get DMs from female fans. My Instagram followers have increased a lot, but when I look at the DMs I’ve received, I see a fighter from overseas, a powerlifter from overseas, all foreigners with huge arms.”
Eu-ddeum also invited her team leader Tarzan and fellow contestant Jo Jin-hyeong onto her YouTube channel to discuss their time in Physical: 100, and the former shared a recent trauma he had developed after the second challenge of the show.
The challenge involved teams building a bridge with planks and transferring bags of sand across to the other side. Team leaders stood on the bridge during the announcements of the results and those who were eliminated were dropped into a safety net below, and that was unfortunately Tarzan’s fate.
“Just looking at bridges makes me unable to walk,” the 23-year-old admitted. “I’ll have to go around it.”
Jin-hyeong quipped: “If you’re driving and you see a bridge, do you go around?”
Though, he also admitted to having a fear of heights and water, which meant that the pre-challenge was difficult for him.
In it, contestants had to hang from bars while lifted above a pool of water, and Jin-hyeong placed 99 out of 100 players, despite eventually making it to the final five.
“When you fell down, I thought you liked water, since you fell down with your arms in the air,” Tarzan retorted, to laughter from his fellow contestants.
‘You should join strongman competitions’
A Physical: 100 gathering would not be complete without some metaphorical — and literal — flexing and the two biggest men of the group, strongman Jin-hyeong and personal trainer Seong-hyeok, showed off their fitness with push-ups and squats.
“Please show off your three records, tell us while doing your half-squats,” Eu-ddeum insisted.
Seong-hyeok replied: “For squats, when lifting a lot, I do 300kg, bench press 200kg and deadlift 300kg,” which left Eu-ddeum shocked.
After some discussion about gym records, Eu-ddeum proclaimed that she had to try lifting Tarzan.
Despite being a petite woman compared to the men, she not only managed to lift him on her back, proclaiming: “He’s light!” but also managed to put 72kg Jeong-yun into a bridal carry.
When it came to Jin-hyeong, Eu-ddeum lifted him with seeming ease and even tried to do some half-squats with his hulking frame on her back.
“Whoa, her strength. Her muscles are so firm,” a flabbergasted Jin-hyeong said, while Eu-ddeum carried Seong-hyeok, who weighed a staggering 130kg, next and walked around with him on her back.
“You should join strongman competitions,” Jin-hyeong added.
In an Instagram post that preceded the YouTube video, Eu-ddeum wrote: “Jin-hyeong and Seong-hyeok weigh about 2.5 times what I do, and are three to four times bigger than me, but both of them have a cuteness that doesn’t fit their size.
“Please stay this size and never lose weight.”
With her deceptive strength, it comes as no surprise that Eu-ddeum managed to beat Singaporean contestant Elaine Wong in their head-to-head deathmatch.
While other contestants taunted one another with threats like, “I’m going to kill you” or “I’ll make you regret choosing me”, Elaine told Eu-ddeum when she got picked: “Hi, I know you’re very strong, can you just be gentle with me? Thank you.”