“or ignore the sheer physical pleasure that exercisers get from moving and activating the body, recognized by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham as ‘the pleasure of health, or, the internal pleasurable feeling or flow of spirits which accompanies a state of full health and vigour’. The gym also gives its members a sense of personal empowerment and agency that might not be available to them in other areas of their lives, as well as a sense of achievement when they accomplish the physical challenges they have set themselves. On the social level it gives them access to a ready-made community of like-minded people who are potential friends and partners. My conclusion, therefore, is that for the convert minority, the gym has once again become a quasi-religious space”