Men-only gyms seek to protect Christian men from lust

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Apparently, walking on the treadmill next to a woman is too much for these guys.

“I was tired of having nakedness shoved in my face every time I walked into a gym to train,” Parsons claims. “I had to choose between honoring the Lord, honoring my wife, and guarding my eyes, or training my body. So I quit four gyms.”

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How can men survive the daily grind of being around women and become the warrior kings the Doug Wilsons and Mark Driscolls of the world want them to be?

To reach that peak, 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.

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“Why are we men’s only? Who are we?” asks Jeff Hambrecht, founder of Proverbs 27:17 Fitness in Oklahoma City. “In a nutshell, one of the No. 1 places affairs and infidelity occur, cheating, is the gym. Byproduct is someone who had an affair in my previous marriage. Doesn’t work out well for you fellas.”

According to the gym’s website, “There was a season of his life marked by homelessness, addiction and spiritual emptiness.” In another video, he admits, “I had a pornography addiction for almost 20 years.”

Mitch Parsons, founder of Youth Group for Men and Remnant Men in Denver, had a similar experience. “I quit four gyms before I built one,” he says on the Remnant Gym website. “I realized the problem wasn’t the gym. It was that no one had built what I actually needed, or what I wanted.”

According to Parsons, men are “breaking” under all the pressure. “I know because I’ve lived it,” he admits. “Eating disorder. Unemployment. Debt. Health failure. Recovery. The full spectrum of a man’s struggle and the faith that carried me through.”

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