Whitefield women’s-only gym helping community cohesion

It’s an experience that will be familiar to many women. You’re at the gym, minding your own business, maybe belatedly trying to put some of those new year’s resolutions into action.

Pictured is Nazia Maqsood, 57 from Whitefield.

But the weight machines are dominated by burly men. Guys keep stealing glances, or worse, staring unabashedly at your body. And you’re left having to power through your work-out feeling embarrassed and annoyed. 

More than 60 per cent of women feel intimidated in mixed gym environments, according to surveys carried out in the UK and US. 

And more than half of women experience some brand of harassment at gyms, according to data from RunRepeat. This includes reports of inappropriate touching and sexual harassment, most of which are not reported to police. 

It’s perhaps unsurprising, then, that the appetite for women-only fitness centres is on a meteoric rise. That’s certainly true at Total Fitness in Whitefield, where one of Greater Manchester’s newest ladies-only gyms reached full capacity just 16 months after opening. 

But the gym is doing more than just providing a ‘safe space’ – it seems to be breaking down barriers and building communities. 

Jess Griffiths pictured, 34-years -ld from Whitefield.

“I left all my friends and family behind when I moved from South Manchester to Whitefield almost ten years ago,” Jess Griffiths, 34. “And I’ve always been at home with my family. I have friends I go and see now and then, but it’s hard to make friends locally. 

“But from going to the gym, I’ve now got my own friends in the local community that I see multiple times a week.”

Griffiths started going to the women’s-only classes after trying mixed fitness gyms.

“It’s lovely because it’s so small, it’s not overwhelming, it’s not an intimidating environment. It’s just full of women of all shapes and sizes. 

“In mixed gyms, there are just some men who do stare at you, or there’ll be groups of teenage boys huddling around one machine. It just never felt like a safe space. It makes you feel self conscious when you’re wearing tight clothes, throwing yourself in awkward positions around men.” 

Nazia Maqsood, 57, also feels like ‘big bulky men’ working the weights area put her off trying out certain types of exercises. The accountant and mum-of-four has always been sporty and previously attended mixed gyms and football clubs. 

But after she started going through menopause, it was at the women’s gym where she felt she could start getting into strength training – which some studies suggest helps maintain muscle-mass and balance hormones during this time. 

She found the gym also made it easier to speak about the hormonal and bodily changes she is going through, and find others going through the same process.

For Maqsood, who is Muslim and sadly often faces discriminatory abuse at gyms, the mixed community at her gym is also a breath of fresh air. 

“There’s a narrative out there that Muslim women like me are oppressed and they’re not fit and they’re not healthy,” she said. “Then you come into the gym and see a lot of Muslim women come there. 

“There’s also a lot of non-Muslim women, young girls and older women, there are women covered up and not covered. And it doesn’t make a difference because you walk in and it’s a group that feels like a family. Culturally we’re different people, but when you’re talking you realise you do all get on. 

“You see Jewish women come in and we just chat. It’s nice. It’s easy for groups to have stereotypes about each other. The Muslim community has them [about other groups] too. 

“But when you’re training with people, it dispels the ignorance you have of different groups by getting to know each other. There’s more acceptance.” 

Another local mum, Louise Parkinson, 45, agreed there was a ‘real sense of community’ that crossed cultural barriers. 

The delivery manager at Co-op, added: “It’s a great opportunity to just have a go at things you might feel embarrassed about trying in a mixed space. I don’t mind working out in a mixed space but this is just a completely different vibe. It feels like women building up other women. 

“I also get to stop thinking about being a mum for an hour. It’s a chance to clear my mind as well as exercise. It’s my way of getting mental clarity.”

The growing trend for women’s-only spaces has not been uncontroversial. Total Fitness itself sparked a minor backlash when its Whitefield gym first opened due to the £12.50 extra charge it placed on memberships to access the new facilities. 

Others have critiqued the overall concept as a ‘stop-gap’ solution that doesn’t address the underlying issue of women experiencing harassment or feeling intimidated at mixed centres.

But for women like Griffiths, Maqsood, and Parkinson, the case seems clear-cut. 

“For most of our working lives we operate in male-dominated spaces,” Maqsood said. “Women juggle so many balls and when you’re at the gym, you get to leave all that behind. So, I think it should be embraced that we get our own space for fitness.”