Muslim businesswoman has exercise covered

[Ms DD]

Muslim businesswoman has exercise covered

By Janice Podsada | Tribune Newspapers: The Hartford Courant

 

October 11, 2007

 

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Mubarakah Ibrahim has to work a bit harder than most personal trainers to convince her clients that she's serious about exercise.

 

"When they see my assistant, Leanora Harper, they think fitness. She wears tight clothes, she's toned," said Ibrahim, the owner of Balance Fitness in New Haven. "I have to prove myself."

 

The contours of Ibrahim's body aren't as readily apparent: She leads her exercise classes clad in a headscarf, a long-sleeved tunic that falls to her knees and long black pants -- traditional Muslim attire.

 

In March 2006, after spending four years coaching clients in their homes, Ibrahim opened a personal training studio that caters exclusively to women.

 

"A lot of people think that Muslim women stay home and stay to themselves. We are out there doing just about everything, which includes owning our own businesses," Ibrahim said.

 

Sweat equity works

 

With $50,000 in savings and a healthy dose of sweat equity from her four children and her husband, a New Haven police officer, Ibrahim transformed a former falafel restaurant into a spacious-feeling lavender and white studio.

 

"We Sheetrocked the walls ourselves. We have pictures of the kids sleeping on the floor at 2 a.m. while we painted," said Ibrahim, 31.

 

Almost 18 months later, Ibrahim, who is certified by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, employs three assistants who teach various classes. Although she would not disclose her revenue, Ibrahim said the business is profitable.

 

Unlike some exercise studios, where clients can be glimpsed huffing and puffing astride a stationary bike or a stair-stepper, Ibrahim's customers are shielded from the eyes of passersby. Floor-length drapes cover the windows. Removable curtains cover the door to the studio.

 

"I have Muslim clients and I have some Orthodox Jewish clients who are concerned with modesty," she explained.

 

When gasoline prices rose a few years ago, and the cost of driving to her clients' homes increased, the notion of opening her own studio became more attractive. At the end of 2004, Ibrahim crunched the numbers, but "they didn't crunch well," so she waited another year.

 

"I crunched the numbers again in 2005 and said, 'I can do this,'" Ibrahim said.

 

In January 2006, she signed a lease for a vacant storefront in the city's Beaver Hill neighborhood. A day later, disaster struck: A car smashed into her new space, breaking the windows, crushing the bathroom wall and cracking the floor. The mishap delayed the studio's opening by three months.

 

While the owner made repairs, Ibrahim passed out notices at coffee shops and beauty shops announcing her studio's opening, as well as the summer exercise program she started three years ago.

 

Since 2004, hundreds of women have attended her "boot camp." Many of the women who participate in the up-with-the-sun exercise classes at New Haven's Bowen Field are not Muslims. They show up three times a week for an hourlong workout wearing sleeveless T-shirts and shorts or capris. It doesn't seem to matter that their instructor is covered head to toe.

 

In a gentle, but authoritative voice, Ibrahim exhorts them to hoist that 5-pound weight a little higher.

 

"Even lifting it an extra inch counts," she says.

 

"My goal was to be able to run non-stop for a mile," said Katurah Bryant, 55, a nurse and family therapist who attended Ibrahim's boot camp this summer. "I can run six times around the track without stopping -- a mile and a half. It has made me strong. I've come down at least a dress size."

 

Bryant heard of the program through Alpha Kappa Sorority Inc. The non-profit service organization contracts with Balance Fitness to provide exercise classes to its members.

Ibrahim's love of exercise began early.

 

At the beach

 

"My sister and I would go to the beach when we were kids in full scarves, long shirts and pants and run into the water. The lifeguards would just stare at us," said Ibrahim, who was born in Georgia but grew up "in every state in the Northeast."

 

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