You have to give it to “Pump Up the Healthy Love”;; for making you feel good about exercising. One gets an adrenaline rush as Do Hyeon Joong (Lee Jun Young) makes his clients, jump, curl, lunge, and squat while telling them the merits of eating clean.
Things have gotten a bit tense at Hyeon Joong’s 24-Hour Gym. They don’t have many members, and even Lee Mi Ran (Jeong Eun Ji), who had enrolled for Hyeon Joong’s special training program, wants a refund. To add to the stress, a state-of-the art gym has opened opposite to the 24-Hour Gym and is poaching their members.
Hyeon Joong is in no mood to flex. Is it a case of all bark and no bite? But this time we get to learn about the person beneath all the muscle in the latest episodes of “Pump Up the Healthy Love.”;;
Warning: spoilers from episodes 3 and 4 ahead!
1. Hyeon Joong’s unperturbed face card
Hyeon Joong’s position as director is in jeopardy. The gym has barely any new members and a swanky new gym has opened its doors opposite to theirs.
There’s also Choi Rosa (Lee Mi Do), an employee at the gym. Rosa is known for her people skills and tries hard to bring in new members. She warns Hyeon Joong that if he drives people away and is unable to get in new members, he is out. But he tells her that there will be members. After all, there is no better trainer than hm.
To add to their woes, Roy (Kim Kwon), who owns the new gym, has beef with Hyeon Joong. It is apparent there is history between the two. He is passive aggressive with Hyeon Joong, threatening him about his secret, that the body he so proudly flaunts is not naturally built. Is there something Hyeon Joong is hiding?
He is unfazed and poker faced, and it’s clear doesn’t think much about Roy or his threats. But when some of his members, including Mi Ran, head there for a session, Hyeon Joong is curious to know what the whole fuss is about. He even goes undercover to check on Mi Ran and the facility, and his expressions are comically cute. Hyeon Joong believes in not just talking the talk but walking the walk, and fitness is not a business but a way of life for him.
Mi Do warns him that apart from his high-handed attitude with members, the spartan facilities at the gym make them no match with competitors, but Hyeon Joong does not care. According to the gossip mill, it was also his love for fitness which drove a wedge between him and the big love of his life. Hyeon Joong, being who he is, has also taken that on the chin and moved on... by working out.
2. Taking a chance on people
Hyeon Joong believes in people more than they believe in themselves. The 24-Hour Gym may not have many members, but Hyeon Joong’s focus is to help bring out the best in those working out at his gym.
Kang Cheol Nam (Jo Jung Chi) is underweight and has never been able to exercise in his life. Often bullied by people given his small frame, Cheol Nam joins Hyeon Joong’s gym after he hears Hyeon Joong’s apt assessment of his body composition and deficiencies. Hyeon Joong devotes himself to training Cheol Nam. In his own brusque way, he encourages and pushes him beyond the barriers of his self-imposed limits. It’s so much so that he even asks Mi Ran to help him work on Cheol Nam’s appetite since the man has no taste for food, leading to a hilarious set of scenes where Mi Ran guides him to various delicious restaurants while teaching him seriously.
The strategy pays off, and Cheol Nam develops confidence when he bravely takes on his neighborhood bully. Grateful to Hyeon Joong for his faith in him, Cheol Nam recommends the gym to people, including a well-known heavy weight champion.
Retaining his position as director, Hyeon Joong asks Rosa to quit managing the gym. He wants her to enter the female bodybuilders competition. Though the rest think he is being petty and wants to drive Rosa away, it is anything but that. Aware that Rosa is a qualified trainer, he wants her to upgrade her skills, believing her potential and abilities more than she does in herself. Pushing her to train harder, he is endearing as he helps create the perfect workout ambience for her. He even willingly shares his own insights from the bodybuilding competition with Rosa. A cute moment is when, given his bulk, he is rather fluid in his movements when he teaches her how to pose.
Rosa isn’t impressed with his concerns and rather finds him overbearing and gets constantly irritated. But it is her own lack of confidence which has made her angsty. She is much older than the regular contestants and thinks age is factor which goes against her. Hyeon Joong thinks otherwise—that it is not age but experience and abilities which matter. He is the loudest cheerer as Rosa takes position on stage at the competition.
Hyeon Joong also wins Mi Ran’s vote of confidence. Even though Mi Ran wanted a refund, she changes her mind. She discovers that her once weak body is way stronger after the workouts under Hyeon Joong’s guidance. Comparing him to the flaky Roy, who shows no interest in clients or their workouts, Mi Ran is back at the 24-hour health club, and she thinks aloud that Hyeon Jeong has more faith in people than they do in themselves.
3. The brawny man-child
Given his sheer size and disciplinarian attitude, one wouldn’t want to mess with Hyeon Joong. However, he is a little lost boy beneath his tough exterior and has the most gentle heart. He feels accountable for people, and the only way he can show his concern is making them stick to their diet and exercise since that’s what he knows best.
We see a sensitive side to him when he is upset for Mi Ran after her appearance at the wedding goes horribly wrong. Though he is unable to console her, he tries his best to prevent her from binging on junk food because he doesn’t want her to waste her hard-earned efforts. He cares but cannot express!
Another moment is when his discomfort is obvious after he think he may have pushed Rosa too hard and caused her injury. Even Mi Ran is taken aback to see the stoic Hyeon Joong breaking his clean eating rule and devouring fried chicken. He blames himself for Rosa not wanting to participate in the competition, which he thinks she has a great chance to win. The fried chicken binge is his version of an emotional outburst.
Mi Ran makes another startling discovery about Hyeon Joong. He is real softie and gets easily spooked. Hyeon Joong is scared of the dark and is petrified that the gym may be haunted. She had seen him run for his life when he mistakes her white sweatshirt for a ghost.
The man is also a romantic at heart. Mi Ran by chance discovers amongst his vast volumes of books on fitness, anatomy, and diet that he a is a sucker for love stories. Hyeon Joong is indeed a strange juxtaposition of rough and tough on one side and mild and tender on the other.
He also seems to be warming up to Mi Ran as well as he frequently turns to her for help. As these two buddy up, and with the gym back on its feet, there is a new visitor at the health club. A little boy runs toward Hyeon Joong and calls him Daddy, much to his surprise and those around him. Is Hyeon Joong’s past catching up with him? Has Mi Ran and Hyeon Joong’s romance been nipped in the bud even before it started? We can’t wait to find out in the coming episodes.
Start watching “Pump Up the Heathy Love”;;:
Hey Soompiers, have you watched “Pump Up the Healthy Love”;;? What do you think of the latest episodes? Let us know in the comments below!
Puja Talwaris a Soompi writer with a strongYoo Yeon SeokandLee Junhobias. A long time K-drama fan, she loves devising alternate scenarios to the narratives. She has interviewedLee Min Ho,Gong Yoo,Cha Eun Woo, andJi Chang Wookto name a few. You can follow her on @puja_talwar7 on Instagram.
