by Christian Duque
If you’re on YouTube as much as I am, then you have heard the name Anatoly quite a bit. Whether it’s been the algorithm that has put it in your suggested section or you have stumbled upon him and you just can’t get enough. Odds are once you have seen a YouTube Short or a full length video of his you’re totally hooked.
So who exactly is this humble janitor that puts so many bodybuilders and powerlifters to shame? He doesn’t talk a mean games and he doesn’t draw attention to himself. When you think about the gym atmosphere and all of the jacked bodybuilders and stocky strong men and women walking around, the idea of an otherwise scrawny looking janitor in janitor’s attire really doesn’t raise any eyebrows. Most people just think he’s a guy doing his job but probably doesn’t work out or eat to grow. They figure he’s just a lifelong skinny dude and works his eight hours and goes home.
When people see someone that’s skinny, they don’t ever think he can pull 500 pounds like it was nothing. They would never think that a skinny guy in janitor’s scrubs can put some of the strongest bodybuilders to shame. And that’s what he does on pretty much every single video.
In an age where people are searching for reality in a world that is pretty much all staged, Anatoly provides that fix that so many of us are looking for. I can’t tell you how many series I’ve seen on YouTube that I really enjoy that are supposedly reality-based but come to find out they are all staged. Whether they hire actors, or they get waivers beforehand, pr it’s just a bunch of friends pulling one over everybody watching, it’s alll them same bullshit. It’s lame. There isn’t a lot of reality on YouTube. Maybe it’s because of legalities, licensing, or maybe it’s just because people nowadays fake it till they make it. Sadly, once they’ve made it, they keep faking it. Hence the fake weights, the liver diets, and whatever fad is viral at the moment. I guess it’s just easier to be a hack than to come out with REAL content.
Anatoly mixes it up, but generally his videos go one of two ways.
It usually starts out with him very innocently stumbling upon some of the strongest guys in the gym and with a semi-cheesy icebreaker. Usually the reaction isn’t a good one. I have yet to see him do this skit with women because I feel that women are different from a lot of the jacked guys that he comes into contact with in the gym. I hate to sound sexist, but I think women are nicer. Even the rude women are nicer than the rude guys. So for the most part, I would say that Anatoly approaches male bodybuilders and powerlifters almost exclusively. He usually hits up guys that are usually lifting 400, 500, or more pounds. He primarily focuses on deadlifts but I’ve also seen him do cleans, squats, and even arm workouts with dumbbells. I haven’t really seen him try it with the bench press but I’m sure there’s bench press videos out there. Basically what happens is he will walk upon a group of unsuspecting lifters who are very much focused on their lift. Then he will ask to work in with them. Usually he’s met with laughter or some sort of ridicule. Even the people that are nice to his face end up laughing at him because they don’t think that a skinny guy is capable of lifting what they’re lifting. And it all goes downhill from there – not for Anatoly but for the non-believers and the haters.
Anatoly doesn’t go out of his way to make anyone look stupid. Of course there’s a little bit of that in every video because there’s that level of disbelief. It’s really not that out of the question, either. Not to be redundant, but we’re talking about a skinny guy with big headphones on, pushing the mop around in scrubs. I mean he doesn’t fit the m.o. of a jacked bodybuilder or a bar-bending strongman. Not to sound coldhearted, but he’s so overlooked most of these lunkheads don’t even notice him. That’s the perfect cover!!
So let’s run a couple of different scenarios just to give you an idea of what Anatoly does and why his content is so addictive. And it’s not just me saying so. There are channels out there that borrow (or steal) his content, use different music and special effects, but ultimately they’re relying on his creative mind for their content. Now I don’t know if he reports them or if they have some kind of an arrangement, but a lot of channels are downright using his content. It’s not even fair use. Fair use is usually 30 seconds or less and inspires several minutes of commentary. That’s not this. These channels rely 90% or more on Anatoly’s content. Some of these channels are using entire clips. It could be a minute long, several minutes long, or more. And with the exception of some bells and whistles added in, that is Anatoly’s work. My thinking is that he’s so famous that he is not making it difficult for people that like to reuse his content. As long as he’s seeing the hits and his channels are growing that may be all that he cares about. That’s some pretty Big Picture thinking right there.
So let’s talk about the scenarios. In both scenarios the Anatoly will come up to a group of lifters with his signature mop. This is a mop that he pushes around like any other janitor would. There isn’t really anything too special about it – it’s a mop. Once he has made initial contact it all depends how it goes from there.
For the people that are really rude to him and really laugh in his face and belittle him, he will generally ask them if he can do a warm-up. Now think about it, the people that he’s approaching are doing their maximum set. A lot of them are heaving, grunting, shaking violently, doing just about anything to get that bar up. Some of these guys look like they’re about to pass out. So when this skinny janitor walks up and asks if he can use that weight, their weight, as a warm up – that’s incredibly insulting to them. But it doesn’t stop there. Once they agree to let him lift, he then hands the rudest people his mop. Now I don’t care how strong the person he hands it to is, they’re expecting to be handed a regular mop. Anatoly’s mop, however, weighs 60lbs and when he hands it to them the mop immediately slams to the ground. It’s a miracle that nobody has dropped it on their feet. That would be akin to dropping a 60 lb dumbbell right on your foot at around 2-3 feet freefall. That’s the only part about Anatoly’s skits that makes me think that maybe they’re not real. But believe me, they’re real.
I think the unsuspecting lifters are totally unsuspecting and once they take hold of that 60lb mop, it just drops. A lot of these guys can’t lift it from the floor because they’re trying to use their biceps to pick up 60lbs of dead weight in a way that they’re not accustomed to. It’s not a dumbbell, it’s a mop. And everyone who thinks they’re so strong is left dumbfounded that they can’t even move the skinny guy’s mop. The same mop he’s been pushing around the whole gym floor.
To further shame these guys when they ask Anatoly what’s in the mop, he just picks it up like you or I would pick up any normal mop, and asks them if they’re messing with him. Then he proceeds to mop the floor. It makes these guys look absolutely ridiculous – it makes them look like weaklings. Then he proceeds to rep out their max weight like it’s nothing. Those are the best videos. Those videos are almost emasculating because these guys are just totally defeated. You could see it in their faces. On the one hand, their minds have been totally blown away, but on the other, their massive egos have been reduced to nothing.
For the guys that aren’t necessarily super-rude, he may not hand them the mop. Or he may hand it to them in a more joking type fashion. But I have also seen him totally destroy these people’s egos even if they’re halfway decent to him on the initial approach. I have seen him pull 500 lb and rep it out, I have seen him do a helicopters where he just moves around in a circle with 500lbs like it’s 50lbs. The incredulous faces on all of these unsuspecting bodybuilders and powerlifters is surreal. Especially the bodybuilders because you have to figure these guys are running all sorts of gear and they see this skinny janitor who seemingly has never lifted a weight in his life and there he is lifting their maximum weight that they’re grunting and heaving and slamming the weight down like it’s nothing. Their egos are totally destroyed. They don’t know how to make heads or tails out of it. Some will even approach Anatoly in disbelief and feel his arms. They can’t understand why a guy with maybe 16 inch arms is way stronger than them with 24 inch guns. And that my friend is why Anatoly is so entertaining to watch. And the fact that he barely speaks English or that his English has such a heavy accent adds to the character. He’s also very so softspoken. He’s just a really nice guy in character, even taking calls from his nosy mom who he adores. But mind you, he takes the calls while lifting crazy poundages. He is in a very real way like a silent killer. You don’t see him in the gym and you don’t expect him to be strong. He just walks up to these gymrats and totally destroys their PR’s. It’s almost like he’s bored with their numbers. Sometimes he’ll even ask if they’re using fake weights. These guys don’t know how to react. How can they get mad? They’re the experts after all, right? It’s HILARIOUS!
And that right there is why Anatoly is so popular. People like to see bullies reduced to nothing. He provides almost an equalizing factor with his content. It’s almost like sweet revenge factor. I can’t really put my finger on it, but if you look at the view counts on his videos and all of those videos that are either borrowed from him (or stolen), it paints a very clear picture. This guy is going to become one of the biggest names in social media. He’s already well on his way. So if you have not watched an Anatoly video yet, I highly encourage you to do so. Who knows maybe a couple of them will be included with this article.
The only danger as far as I can see is that eventually everybody’s going to recognize him. He’s going to have to change his appearance completely. I have seen him go into the gym as an elderly man with a walker, but that really isn’t something he does very often. So unless he is able to find a really good bodysuit, there will be a point in time when’s immediately recognized in any gym he decides to inconspicuously clean. In the meantime, I would say check him out and enjoy some of the best content you’ll find on YouTube – real content, not staged, not paid with actors, either.
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my article, here, at IronMag. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. I guarantee you it’s going to turn some heads and get some lively responses.
