Jeff Hambrecht, from Oklahoma City, US, has opened a men's only Christian gym, Proverbs 27:17 Fitness, to help men in recovery find hope, faith and strength. He says there is no 'temptation of women walking around fellas' at the gym.
Addiction and recovery
When Hambrecht was involved in a car crash, he was prescribed opioids and rapidly developed an addiction to them. He said this dependency exposed other 'addictions' in his life, including lust, temptation and pornography.
Now four years clean, and divorced after his wife had an affair at a gym, he has established the all-male Christian gym for men to 'support each other and hold each other to a higher standard'. He is training to complete a 12-hour marathon to raise funds for his new enterprise, reports the Express US.
No 'temptation of women'
Jeff said: 'At his gym there is no temptations of women walking around fellas. Its not that I created this gym because we can't control ourselves in the world. When you're at gyms these days, basically people are showing up half naked anyway and if you are in a spot where you're dealing with lust anyway - your wife and girlfriend is probably not with you and temptation is everywhere.'
'If I am married, I don't need to be having conversations with women on a daily basis.'
When questioned about what he thought of women who might feel uncomfortable knowing the gym is a place where men observe them and sexualise them, Jeff responded 'that's what i just call reality.' He continued: 'If you don't think that's happening at a gym - you're relying on men who have been raised in households that don't emphasise that stuff. I'm not even blaming that stuff - I think every female knows that there's some guy gawking or staring - that's why I thought of the idea. I'm not saying it's for everybody - but even from a safety standpoint- gyms can be open 24 hours and what if a man follows you to your car. I would feel better if my daughter was working out at a strong Christian gym.'
Plans for women's section
Looking ahead, Jeff wants to open a women's section within his fitness facility. He said: 'Women have become so objectified these days - you should be able to go out in the world and see females and not go and talk to her for maybe a reason I shouldn't be talking to her. These guys who are addicted to porn are seeing women in a targeted way.'
'I am not looking at women the way I used to be looking at women and now you just see them as beautiful creatures - I am just saying what other guys are thinking. My favourite thing is when people say I didn't have an affair because I didn't act on it - but the bible said the thought itself is the sin.'
Jeff said on his GoFundMe for the project: 'I've struggled in recent years with lust and a lack of accountability of my actions has meant that I've constantly ruined everything.'
Training and mission
Speaking about his training regime, which includes an intensive week of strength conditioning and endurance running, he maintains it pales in comparison to the agony of addiction. Jeff said: 'A lot of people who used to be addicts are used to suffering. I don't mind being out there training in the heat - others may not enjoy it but I do.'
Now four years clean, Jeff's crash left nerves in one of his legs damaged, but he explains 'I never got nerve damage back but god allows me to run on one leg.' He says: 'The 2019, a car accident changed everything for me. It led me down a dark path of pain pill addiction, and I lost everything I had. I had been a gym owner for a long time - competing professionally in cross fit and playing collegiate soccer 100 to zero and the vivid hit. I'm a very big people person so it all piled on. Once covid hit I finally fulfilled a pain prescription. It became one pill a day to two pills and then it became 3 pills a day. From a psychological standpoint I was a totally different person. I was angry and upset and it basically made me appear numb.'
Jeff says he launched Proverbs 27:17 Fitness 'to help men in recovery find hope, faith, and strength. Our gym is more than just a place to work out-it's a community where men are led to God and shown how to become leaders in their own lives.'
Jeff's previous marriage collapsed in divorce, but he argues the plummeting marriage rates since the 1950s are just another sign of a society fixated on convenience. He said: 'I could order a takeaway right now in the middle of this interview.' He argued that people splitting up at a young age creates damaging patterns. 'My grandparents didn't have social media and look at them!'
When questioned whether this might stem from women's growing independence and workforce participation, rising living costs and improved understanding of healthy relationships, he dismisses these as mere 'excuses.'
Nevertheless, Jeff emphasises he met and knows nothing of Mitch Parsons, a Christian gym where he claims women are 'thrusting nakedness in his face'. Jeff said of Mitch, 'that's his garden to grow, I'm not here to judge, but I don't know that man. If I was judged on what I did I would be in a world of hurt.'
Jeff also revealed he battled pornography addiction for nearly 20 years. He explained: 'For young men what's not talked about is you start right about 14 and its harmless to you. The best way I heard it described was in a sermon one time: in Alaska, to stop some of the wolf population from killing wild stock they take a sharp blade and cover it in animal blood. The wolves lick it thinking it's just blood, but it's so cold they don't notice that they are cutting their tongues and they lick themselves to death. Before you know it something is a dopamine release. I carried that over into my regular life and intimacy became more like a drug - all of a sudden sexual feelings just became a desire to fulfill a fantasy. I would say that is the number one thing I help guys get over. The devil likes to live in shame -if you release the shame you release the addiction.'
Mitch, from the Remnant Gym in Denver, claimed men are 'breaking' beneath all the strain. '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. I was tired of having nakedness shoved in my face every time I walked into a gym to train. I had to choose between honoring the Lord, honoring my wife, and guarding my eyes, or training my body. So I quit four gyms.'
Both male-only gyms draw inspiration from Proverbs 27:17, which says, 'As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.'
