Spanish gym offers nude exercise sessions to win back business

A struggling gym in northern Spain has launched nudist workout sessions in a bid to win back customers.

Liberal-minded customers in the northern town of Arrigorriaga are invited to burn calories in the buff at Easy Gym, which provides towels for comfort and to "prevent slippage on the equipment."

"We knew we had to innovate because we were losing clients," the Courier Mail quotes gym owner Merche Laseca as saying.

"Times are hard. There is a crisis. I need the money. I am not a nudist myself, but I don''t mind it at all," she said.

Laseca said she hit on the idea of nude exercise sessions after a survey of 600 members of the Basque Nudist Association (ENE) revealed that 90 percent would be happy to exercise, as well as sunbathe, in the nude.

However, critics claimed the nude gym sessions might be unhygienic and uncomfortable.

"I think the managers are stupid to do this just to get money. They want me to be hygienic, with clean shoes, towels etc ... but when I go there now and sit on the exercise bike what am I going to find?" said Julian Lopez, a member of the gym.

Other local gym owners also suggested it was not beneficial for women who needed to wear sports bras.

To which Maite Vicuna, the president of ENE, said "If a woman doesn't feel comfortable, she can put on a bra."