The article presents part of the research of men exercising at the gym, which is based on the quality strategy. The aim of the article is to present and popularize the anti-positivist methods, qualitative research approach, referring to the methodology of the humanities and based, among others, on the philosophical foundations of phenomenology. The subject of the research presented in this paper were narratives about men's perceptions of masculinity, how they create their own male identity (what kind of action they take, how they create their own visual identity). This paper presents the diagnosis of the process of perceptions and creations of male identity by men working out at the gyms. The questions asked and then the data examined were intended to distinguish categories of respondents (types) and in the final stage to answer the main problems. The author shows how qualitative strategies helped to discover the way the respondents see the world. The interpretation is presented as a process of reconstructing mental models, which interlocutors use in everyday life. In the first part the author presents the theoretical assumptions, methods and a research group. The second part is the relation of actions to be taken to analyse the data - building the typology, interpreting. It also presents the selected conclusions.