A PURE gym personal trainer has apologised after his ‘slavery’ workout was criticised on social media.

GB Olympian Dina Asher-Smith tweeted to express shock and disappointment at the post. 

The ‘12 Years a slave’ workout was posted on the Luton and Dunstable PureGym Facebook page on Tuesday morning.

The post listed 12 different workout activities with the caption: “Slavery was hard and so is this.”

Matt Simpson, who is Black described it as an ill-judged post. 

He said: “I apologise, wholeheartedly, to everybody that has felt in any shape or form, angered, upset or racially abused indirectly or directly.”

He described his behaviour as a racial attack, and added: “I 110% apologise… [that] was never my intention.” 

Simpson said he is a proud of his race.

According to him, his thought process was to mix his history with his fitness passion.

An Instagram user commented on the post, saying: “Your problem is thinking Black history starts with slavery.

“Your second problem is thinking like them, and thinking it’s okay to trivialise the issue.”

PureGym Luton and Dunstable also issued an official apology across their social channels.

It read “PureGym apologises unreservedly for a post regarding Black History Month that was made today by our gym in Luton & Dunstable.

“This post was wholly unacceptable, was not approved or endorsed by the company and was removed when it was brought to our attention.”

They added that they were taking the incident seriously and would be investigating.

PureGym also thanked those who brought the issue to their attention. 

The original workout post has now been deleted.