Berlin & online
Your coach
Hi, I am Coach Nici
(they/he)
Transmasc trainer, sports sociologist, and co-founder of Safer Sex Berlin. I hold a Master of Education in Sport Science from the University of Hannover, where I also worked in sports sociology, researching the politics of the body, gender, and identity in sport.
Today, I bring that academic foundation into real-world practice: I've been working as a personal trainer and group fitness coach in Berlin since 2023, currently coaching at BEAT81, Lifted, SHA-LA Studios, and EDEN Private Gym. I also lead small-group, gender-affirming training sessions, creating safer entry points into fitness for beginners, transmasc, and non-binary folks, along with anyone who's felt excluded from traditional gym culture.
Beyond the gym, I work as a freelance designer and facilitator focused on queer inclusion and accessibility — always driven by the same goal: helping people feel better, more seen, and more connected to their bodies and communities. To that end, I also lead B2B workshops on gender inclusion in fitness, present at conferences, and work across advocacy initiatives to push for more inclusive sports systems. Whether through coaching, activism, creative work or thought leadership, I'm here to make fitness joyful, transformational, and unapologetically queer.
Coaching Philosophy
Why we do this.
Studio Gay emerged from my desire to make fitness fun. To make it affirming, sexy, and cute. However you define those words, I want you to feel them in your body. The one you have now and the one you're working toward. Because no matter who we are, our bodies are always in transition. Why not enjoy the ride?
At Studio Gay, I want to help you achieve the change you want while also embracing the process of change itself. Having goals can be motivational, even inspiring; but it can also generate pressure and produce feelings of failure. I want you to grow – without obsessing over outcomes. To challenge yourself – without destroying yourself. To explore your body – without judging it. And I want you to do it all in a way that lowers the stakes a bit – a way that feels fun, relaxed, and chill.
My focus is strength training, but I always incorporate breathwork, mobility, and stretch. Together, we'll define goals, leverage data, and chart progress. But we'll also celebrate where you're at in the present. Vibes are energetic, communicative, and earnest. Music is clubby. Coaching style is a mix of pushing you hard and building you up. The ultimate aim is to help you feel more confident, flexible, and joyful in your body.
Also, of course, to gay up your workouts 🍑
As a bisexual trans masc coach in a dude-dominant industry, I know all about the policing of genders, bodies, and sexualities. At Studio Gay, we throw the scripts out the window. I want to empower people, especially queers, to invent their own unique visions for physical joy, then help bring those visions to life. To that end, I always hold space for real talk about gender and sexuality – the stuff that actually shapes fitness culture, but rarely gets said out loud. How are your fitness goals related to your (or other peoples') ideas about femininity, masculinity, attractiveness, and desire? How do certain movements make you feel? What is actually driving your desire to get fit? We definitely don't have to talk about this stuff – but I strive to be a trainer you can talk to about it if you want.
The first queer fitness community‑meets‑consultancy.
Studio Gay creates fitness programs and training communities that center and celebrate queer people. Through 1:1 training, small-group fitness and hybrid coaching, Studio Gay helps people build strength, move with joy and feel great in their bodies.
It's a cold, hard world out there. Too often, we're made to feel insufficient – not big enough, not thin enough, not buff enough, not fit enough. Studio Gay is all about celebrating what you've got while helping you work towards what you want. The point is to get fitter, yes, but also to experience more pleasure in your body. Blending sport science education with lived queer and trans experience, Head Coach Nici creates workouts that are playful, sexy and accessible while building real strength and sustainable routines. And it wouldn't be called Studio Gay if the playlists weren't 🔥
Beyond helping clients figure out and achieve their individual fitness goals, Studio Gay offers queer folks a chance to sweat together outside da klerb (or the sauna 😏). Through hybrid training communities that blend in-person and online interaction, it allows people with different needs, schedules and lifestyles to connect, motivate, bish and dish. Studio Gay wants you to celebrate yourselves – and each other.
Also on offer are queer-coded training plans, fitness retreats, workshops and more. In addition to its own programs, Studio Gay also shares knowledge and tools with other coaches, gyms and companies, helping to create a fitness culture that is truly inclusive, accessible and empowering for all.
Hard workouts, cute crowds. Community is everything. 🍑
- 1:1 online coaching
- Hybrid Training
- In person coaching in Kreuzberg and Neukölln, Berlin Coming soon
- Training Plans (Fisting Forearms, Bubble Butt, Down to Flex – you get the idea 😉)
What we stand for
Our values
Queer Joy & Pleasure
Training should feel good. We build strength AND unlock more confidence, sexuality, and joy in your body. Movement is playful, serious, and unapologetically pleasurable.
No Binaries!
We reject gender binaries, rigid programming, and fitness dogma. Studio Gay is vers—hard workouts with compassionate coaching. Evidence-based training that adapts to real, messy queer lives. We meet you where you are.
Come As You Are (But Make It Sexy)
Vulnerability is strength. Confidence comes from showing up, not perfection. We create space for beginners and gym rats, party gays and shy guys. Flirty, tender, weird, subversive—bring it all.
Sustainable Routines…
beat perfect plans. We tell you what actually works. No toxic positivity or Instagram filters. Evidence-based training delivered with empathy and lived queer experience.
Community is Everything.
Hard workouts, cute crowds. We sweat together, hype each other up, and hold space for struggles and wins. Online, in-person, hybrid—you're part of the Studio Gay fam.
Get into it
Everything you want to know.
Hard workouts, cute crowds.
Space to celebrate yourself and your body.
Queer coded language and gay slang. You will work your bussies, girls & shake your tatas, boys. You will be asked, at least three times a week starting January, if you're going to Whole next year. You will be motivated and encouraged using gay cultural references. You will be among yourselves. You will channel queer joy and queer rage – together, alone, together alone.
Trans and bi joy. Studio Gay is inclusive; allies are welcome. But love for trans and gender-nonforming folks is at the core. So is space and care for our struggles. Founder and Head Coach Nici is transmasc and bi and brings their lived experience to all facets of Studio Gay.
A Head Coach who lives an out 'n proud, Berlin club-kid life. Does that mean Studio Gay is only for ravers? Hell no, babes. It means you get a coach who lives and understands marginal lifestyles and subcultures. It means you'll be met with empathy, grace and really good tunes. It means you'll get training plans suited and adaptable to your life – not rigid plans that expect you to fit into cookie-cutter molds and adhere to normative schedules. Whether you lead a highly routinized or highly spontaneous life, whether you're a struggling artist or a corporate gay, Studio Gay wants to help you build sustainable routines. That means routines that fit to your (constantly evolving) life, needs and goals. You are always encouraged to ask for adjustments and adaptations if something isn't working for you.
Studio Gay is not going to define gay for you. Studio Gay is for anyone who's feelin' the vibes. If you use certain words to describe your gender and sexuality, Studio Gay will use those words. If you don't give a f*ck about your gender and sexuality, Studio Gay don't give one either.
Studio Gay is affirming and inclusive. It invites people to move together regardless of gender or sexuality, while also creating spaces for those who prefer to train with their tribe. In concrete terms, that means: all training groups are queer, but some are mixed, and some are TIN*-only. Buyer's choice.
Studio Gay is for newbies who've never worked out as much as for gym rats who want something new. Studio Gay is for shameless queers who like to have fun, friendly gays who like a little mess or shy guys who need an extra push. Studio Gay is for all genders, no boundaries. It's for those who know they'd like to be among their own. And for those who are already moving but haven't yet had that aha moment – "oh wow, this is so much better if I do it with the queers!" It's for those who maybe haven't even realized how much they're putting their guard up at the gym, but sense that it might be really cool to work out among their tribe.
And yes, Studio Gay is also for the straights – sometimes. Personal (1:1) training is for anyone. Groups is for anyone that identifies with the label queer, gay, dyke, trans or bi.
Personal training is always tailored completely and wholly to the individual. Training groups, on the other hand, are co-created by the people in them. Studio Gay sets the tone and tries to match people who complement each other. Sometimes the groups are organized around coaching styles (e.g. Soft versus Hard); sometimes they're organized around tribes. The vibes are different, and the following examples are not exhaustive. Studio Gay sets a tone, but the group vibes emerges from the people who make the group. Here are some of the training groups, programs and plans on offer:
Party Gays
A generic gay training program that provides you with a 5 day/week workout plan? Ain't nobody got that time. If you're a professional gay in Berlin, you've got capacity to hit the gym – what? Probably max 2 days/week. You're probably consuming a lotta joy on the weekends, going 48 (er, 72) hours without sleep. Then there's recovery, your complicated supplement regimen, your dating life. Oh, right – and your $$$ flow, aka job. You need a fitness program that fits your lifestyle – and a coach that gets your lifestyle.
Shy Guys + Neurodivergent Crowd
Studio Gay is neurodivergent friendly! It's also beginner-friendly. Super shy about your body? Navigating a transition? Sensitive to sound? Intimidated by the gym? You've come to the right place. Coach Nici has a ton of experience working with folks with ADHD and autism. They've also had periods of their life where getting to the gym felt so impossibly hard that they just stayed home. This group is for anyone who needs a little extra gentleness, a little extra patience, a little extra care.
Tboys, Tgirls, Bi Babes, Dykes
If you work hard and sweat hard, it's considered masc; if you move slow and are graceful, it's considered femme. Studio Gay celebrates the binaries and also rejects the binaries. (Yes, it's possible. We're queer, we make up the rules.) Studio Gay can be masc, it can be femme, and it can also be super vers. Let's say you're transmasc and want to build muscle, but feel ashamed because you don't want to reproduce clichés. Studio Gay says: don't be so hard on yourself! If that's what you want, it's OK. Or let's say you're femme and want to bulk up, but worry it will make you too masc. Studio Gay says: let's take it one step at a time, and reassess along the way.
Coach Nici has gone through various physical and gender transitions themselves and bring that lived experience to everything they do. Their definition of "gender affirmation" is expansive, and they love working with each client individually to figure out what it means to them. As a coach, Nici is never going to assume what their clients want. Instead, they work with clients individually to explore the question together – then come up with a plan to execute and get it done. The core principle is to encourage clients to own their desires, goals and dreams. F*ck boxes, f*ck labels. It's OK to pursue a change in your body without feeling bad about it. Along the way, you might find even more love for your body as-is.