Most people spend long-haul flights trying to sleep, waste the time away watching movies, and waiting for a hot meal to be served.
But one fitness influencer decided to do something slightly different.
Dom Stroh — an athlete and content creator based in Berlin — has gone viral after posting footage of himself completing a 5km run while on board an airplane during an 11-hour flight.
And the unusual workout didn’t take place in the aisle or at the back of the plane. Instead, Stroh squeezed himself into the tiny airplane bathroom and ran the entire distance in circles while recording the moment for social media.
The video, which quickly spread online, shows him tracking the workout using Strava while moving continuously inside the cramped space.
Text over the clip reads: “11 hours flight, but 5k Run on the plan.”
The stats from the activity show he covered a total distance of 5.53km in 59 minutes and 32 seconds, logging the session as a legitimate run despite the extremely unusual location.
The footage also shows Stroh repeatedly stepping onto the toilet to keep the movement going as he circles around the small bathroom area.
While the clip has generated tens of thousands of views online, the reaction has been far from universally positive.
Many social media users were quick to criticise the stunt, particularly because it appeared to involve occupying the bathroom for nearly an hour during a long-haul flight.
One commenter wrote: “yeah let’s take up a bathroom for an hour that other people need to use to make content.”
Another person added: “Fitness dorks can’t act normal.”
Some called for more serious consequences. “I hope he was arrested when the flight landed,” one user wrote on Dexterto’s repost. Another said: “Hopefully he’s banned from that airline.”
And one particularly frustrated commenter added: “Please have this person banned immediately from flying all airliners”.
The backlash largely centred around the inconvenience it may have caused to other passengers during the flight.
On a long journey, airplane bathrooms are already limited, and the idea of one passenger using the space for an extended workout didn’t sit well with many viewers.
Despite the criticism, the video continued to circulate widely across social media platforms, drawing both amusement and disbelief.
However, Stroh appeared to offer a hint about his reasoning in a follow-up meme shared online. The meme shows a cartoon-style dilemma with two buttons labelled “Blocking the airplane toilet” and “Breaking my knees.” The implication suggested that the unusual mid-flight workout may have been less about viral content and more about protecting his body.
Stroh is known as an ultra-marathon runner — a sport that places enormous strain on joints, particularly the knees.
For endurance athletes, long periods of inactivity — such as sitting still on a flight for hours — can cause muscles to stiffen and circulation to slow – especially if they’ve just completed a gruelling challenge.
Light movement during or after intense training can help the body recover more effectively.
Walking helps circulate blood, which clears out metabolites and waste products built up in the muscles.
There is also what athletes call a transition period — a short window of light movement that allows the body to shift from intense physical activity back to a resting state. In many training programmes, this might involve a 5–10 minute walk or very light jog to help the body adjust.
While most runners would normally complete that type of recovery on solid ground, Stroh’s decision to do it inside a plane bathroom during an 11-hour flight certainly isn’t something you see every day. And judging by the reaction online, plenty of people are still debating whether it was impressive dedication — or just a seriously inconvenient way to get some exercise done at 30,000 feet.
Featured image credit: Instagram/@dom.strah (screenshots)
