According to the Afghanistan National Body Building Federation Kabul has 70 gyms, five times more than under the Taleban. Gyms have also mushroomed in provincial towns such as Kandahar in the south, once the stronghold of Islamic fundamentalists.

'You can look in every street - you will find a gym,' said Bashir Salimi, a satellite TV technician working out in a Kabul gym. 'This is a time for learning, for studying. Men build bodies for fashion, for style - we want to put away the gun forever.'

Although the Taleban did not outlaw gyms, they enforced a strict dress code, insisting bodybuilders wear the traditional salwar baggy pants and grow full beards.

'They also discouraged the use of western equipment, emphasising traditional methods such as doing push-ups or swinging Indian clubs,' said Mohammed Wahidullah, owner of the Pamir Gym in Kabul.

Gyms were not considered a sound business proposition, as few could afford membership fees.

'An athlete needs money to support his passion,' said bodybuilder Syed Fawwad. 'During the time of the Taleban, people had no money. Thank God there are opportunities now - you can get a job or run a private business.'

Now, the physical fitness industry is booming.

Mr Wahidullah, 39, took up bodybuilding more than 20 years ago, when the communists ruled the country. 'That time was very good, there were lots of facilities for sportsmen.' When he returned from exile in Pakistan three years ago, he knew what he wanted to do. He and a friend invested US$6,000 to open a gym in a middle-class neighbourhood in north Kabul.

As in all Afghan gyms, facilities in Mr Wahidullah's basement operation are spartan - no power-driven treadmills or even showers and water coolers.

Nevertheless, every morning and evening there is a steady stream of young men who pay US$5 a month to grapple with the clanking weights.

'I started here about a month ago,' said Saqi Ahmad, a scrawny but enthusiastic 23-year-old teacher. 'I want to have a good body, but I'm doing it also to improve my health.'

He cannot, however, afford a high-protein diet on his monthly salary of US$60. 'Though I'm a bachelor, I still have to support my family,' he said. 'It's difficult for us to eat a lot of things.'

His friend Ajmal Khan suffers from no such handicap. Mr Khan, an interpreter for the Nato-led international security force, earns US$400 a month, a handsome wage by Afghan standards.

'I avoid steroids,' said Mr Khan, happily showing off his bulging biceps in front of a poster of Russell Crowe in Gladiator, which dominates one side of Pamir Gym. 'But I try to consume at least one box of GMM-4000 every month.'

Such high-protein formulas sell for US$50 or more for a 4.4kg carton. That makes it prohibitively expensive for most Afghans, so Mr Wahidullah does not stock the supplements. What he does sell are malt and energy drinks like Red Bull or Battery Plus. 'I also tell them to eat lots of bananas, potatoes, chickpeas and rice,' he said. 'And meat whenever possible.'

Mr Wahidullah is old-fashioned in another way. He belongs to a generation that idolised Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pamir Gym's most valued possession is a near life-size, black and white poster of Schwarzenegger in the 1970s, when he reigned as Mr Olympia.

Mr Wahidullah remembers the first gym he ever went to, in the basement of a Kabul hospital, was called Arnold. 'There's been no one like him,' he said. 'Today's young may be fans of Ronnie Coleman [the current Mr Olympia], but Arnold has the most beautiful figure.'

Unfortunately, unlike neighbouring Iran, Afghanistan has still to produce a bodybuilder with even an Asian ranking. To boost interest in the sport, the bodybuilding federation organised Mr Kabul and Mr Afghanistan competitions.

Mr Sherzad won the Mr Kabul crown, but the Mr Afghanistan contest had to be called off amid charges that a frontrunner had taken drugs. The federation now says the problem was not doping but biased judges. So for this year's Mr Afghanistan, scheduled for next month, they have decided to get judges from Iran and Pakistan.

But what has really shaken Afghanistan's male-dominated bodybuilding fraternity is the opening in recent months of at least six gyms and martial arts clubs exclusively for women in Kabul and the eastern Herat city.

The federation has welcomed the opening of women's gyms. 'It's a very good development, and shows the keenness for sport among all Afghans,' said its president, Bawar Hotak.

Halima Askari, an 18-year-old working at Kabul's Police Academy, goes to a kung fu and kickboxing club in a western Kabul suburb dominated by Shia Hazaras from the Bamiyan region. 'Women also have the freedom now to take up any sport they like,' said the lanky Ms Askari.

But Afghanistan is still a deeply conservative society, and many men are astounded by the idea of women pumping iron and throwing lethal kicks.

'I never imagined Afghan people would allow women to develop their bodies,' said the TV technician Mr Salimi, as he pumped iron in pursuit of his post-Taleban dream of acquiring a healthy physique.