Sheffield gyms: City's largest women-only gym set to offer an escape from male harassment

Aaliya Malik is converting Waverley Works on Effingham Street into a gym which “reclaims safety, space and power” for women.

It comes after a career in the industry which saw women confide to her they had been watched, touched and followed by men.

Aaliya said the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer in London in 2021 “solidified everything.”

She said: “I’m not saying all police officers are like that, but it was a horrifying reminder that women’s safety can never be an afterthought. It has to be a priority. Always.”

The gym - Her Time Out (HTO) - is set to open on August 2 after a renovation to create a “full-building facility, with every floor dedicated entirely to women” and spaces “built not just for fitness but for freedom.”

Aaliya, who now lives in Clifton, Rotherham, said she started running and keeping fit aged 14.

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At 17 she became a qualified personal trainer and started working in gyms and leading classes. Later she studied sports development and coaching at Sheffield Hallam University while juggling three jobs to save up for her dream.

She said: “That was the sacrifice I made to create a space that I knew was needed.”

Aaliya said she opened a small women-only studio in Sheffield, Her Time Out, and had an “overwhelming response.”

Now, eight months later, she is taking a much bigger step.

She added: “It’s not about excluding men, it's about finally including women in the ways the fitness industry has failed to do for too long.”