Men-only Christian gyms designed to help members avoid women, temptation and alleged infidelity have attracted widespread mockery online.
The concept gained attention after Baptist News Global published an opinion piece examining Proverbs 27:17 Fitness in Oklahoma City and a planned Denver facility known as the Remnant Gym.
The article described the ventures as “lust-free” gyms created by figures within the Christian manosphere who believe men need to strengthen their bodies and faith away from women they consider distracting.
“The Christian manosphere believes men need to be in top physical and spiritual shape. So one way they’re proposing to accomplish that is through ‘lust-free’ gyms,” writer Rick Pidcock said.
Oklahoma Gym Links Fitness With Fidelity
Proverbs 27:17 Fitness was founded by Jeff Hambrecht as a men-only fitness and ministry centre in Oklahoma City.
Hambrecht has claimed that ordinary gyms create opportunities for cheating and affairs.
“In a nutshell, one of the number one places that affairs and infidelity occur, cheating, is the gym. A byproduct is someone who had an affair in my previous marriage. Doesn’t work out well for you fellas,” he said.
The facility takes its name from the Bible verse: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”
Proverbs 27:17 Fitness describes itself as a space for “men tired of lukewarm faith”, “men who know they were made for more”, and those ready to “train hard, pray harder, and walk boldly”.
Hambrecht’s personal story is central to the gym’s branding. Its promotional material says there was a period of his life “marked by homelessness, addiction and spiritual emptiness”, while he has also spoken publicly about experiencing a pornography addiction for almost 20 years.
He has presented the gym as an environment where men can exercise without what he calls the “distractions” and “temptations” of women.
“So what did God do?” Hambrecht said in one promotional video. “He took what the devil meant for evil, turned it into good, put it on my heart to start this men’s fitness and ministry centre where there are no distractions. There’s no temptations of women walking around fellas.”
Denver Facility Promises a Christian “Base Camp”
A second men-only facility, the Remnant Gym, is being developed in Denver by Mitch Parsons through his organisation Youth Group for Men.
The gym is promoted as a “base camp for Christian men” combining fitness equipment with religious teaching, communal spaces and what its website calls daily spiritual formation. It is expected to open next year.
“I quit four gyms before I built one,” Parsons says on the gym’s website. “I realised the problem wasn’t the gym. It was that no one had built what I actually needed, or what I wanted.”
Parsons describes that ideal facility as “a place where a man can train his body without having nakedness shoved in his face”.
He also wants “a place where he doesn’t have to decide between honouring the Lord, honouring his wife, and guarding his eyes and submitting to cultural norms”.
“I was tired of having nakedness shoved in my face every time I walked into a gym to train,” he said. “I had to choose between honouring the Lord, honouring my wife, and guarding my eyes, or training my body. So I quit four gyms.”
The Remnant Gym’s proposed membership rules extend beyond exercise. Members will reportedly be required to sign a covenant affirming beliefs including marriage between one man and one woman and the existence of two genders “given by God at creation”.
Its website says: “Christian authority is enforced through ownership, contracts and the courage to hold the line.”
Critics Question the Focus on Women
Pidcock argued that the founders’ framing placed responsibility for men’s thoughts and behaviour on women simply exercising in shared public spaces.
“It’s notable he doesn’t mention honouring the women at the gym,” Pidcock wrote of Parsons. “In his mindset, God and his wife deserve to be honoured. But women working the kettlebells don’t seem to cross his mind as worthy of honour.”
He also questioned what Parsons meant by repeatedly encountering “nakedness” at Denver gyms.
“Despite how often Parsons mentions having nakedness shoved in his face at the gyms in Denver, it’s unclear what he means by that. Gym policies across Denver require their members to wear shirts at all times. And Denver public indecency laws prohibit exposing one’s genitals in public.”
Neither gym appears to have offered evidence supporting the broader claim that removing women from fitness spaces will prevent affairs or resolve compulsive sexual behaviour.
Instead, the projects present separation, male accountability and religious instruction as solutions for men who say they struggle with temptation.
Social Media Users Find the Concept Ironic
The Baptist News article quickly circulated online, where users mocked the idea that adult men needed an entirely separate gym to avoid looking at women.
Some joked about the intensely male environment and the unintended homoerotic undertones of muscular men gathering to “sharpen” one another.
Others questioned why women should be treated as the problem when the founders were openly discussing men’s behaviour, pornography use and inability to exercise alongside women without feeling tempted.
The reaction also highlighted a contrast with many women-only gyms, which are commonly marketed as environments where women can exercise without harassment, unwanted attention or concerns about their physical safety.
The founders, however, see their gyms as the beginning of a broader movement.
Parsons has described Denver as a test for a concept he hopes to reproduce across the United States.
“Denver is the prove-it. The model scales nationally,” he said. “Houston. Nashville. Dallas. Atlanta. Every major American city has Christian men quietly breaking under what their cities are doing. Every one of them needs a base camp. We’re building the first one. Then we’re building the next.”
Whether the model expands remains to be seen. For now, its greatest workout may be the heavy lifting social media users are doing to turn the concept into a punchline.
