A gym that caters specially to Muslim women is doing so well after its first year that others want to imitate its combination of modest attire and tough workouts.

All the personal trainers at Hayat in the melting-pot Cologne district of Ehrenfeld are women, but rather than fulfilling make fantasies, there is a serious reason behind it all.
Hayat offers the full range of gym machines, including exercise bikes and devices to encourage firmer thighs.

Crucially it also offers the Muslims a prayer room for the Islamic practice of praying at set times of the day.

A modest workout

This is one gym where you  definitely won't see skimpy shorts, figure-hugging leotards and lots of bare skin. Many work out in head-scarves and joggers

Proprietress Emine Aydemir, 39, says on the first anniversary that her no-men-allowed gym has been a business success.

Emine and her colleague Yasmin give tips or show demurely dressed clients how to work the treadmill and tune in to Turkish pop music over their headsets.

"Many women who wear scarves come here because so many other gyms treat them badly," she explained. "At Hayat, they feel at home and nobody stares at them because of what they are wearing.

Different body culture

"We Muslim women don't envy one another's bodies. We don't stare at one another and compare our figures. The women take themselves as they are," says Aydemir, who launched Hayat (the name means "life" in Turkish) at the start of April 2007.

Currently she has 350 signed-up customers, 90 per cent of them of ethnic Turkish background. The rest hail from Morocco, Tunisia, Romania, Egypt and a few from Germany. "Their average age is 30," the business owner says. Although the gym is obviously geared towards Islamic clients, there are no rules on religious background as a prerequisite for joining.

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