This is no joke! Please read!

SaveTheDrama

Just another reason I am glad I have a gym set up in my own home!

HealthyChanges2010

Might seem a little alarmist but I always think better safe than sorry...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/health/03brod.html?src=me&ref=general

Am I the only one that gets a NY times subscription box that pops up and asks for you to subscribe or sign in?

rcatr

man. i can't wait for the day i have the funds and the room! to set up my own gym in the house!

Azdak

I think you also have to keep this in perspective. First of all, you are exposed to many of the same germs whenever you do out in public. Unless you want to be like Howard Hughes or the boy in the bubble, you have to go out in the big world sometimes.

Secondly, for all the data reported in the story, given the tens of millions of gym visits that occur each year, the number of infections is still relatively small.

Obviously, it's something that we all want to be aware of, and you want to improve your odds, but I also think obsessing about it can be just as bad.

I work in a fitness center and have the unenviable task of picking up after all the privileged little yuppie larvae who think I am paid to be their cabana boy. As a staff, we debate amongst ourselves whether or not to wear gloves when picking up used towels. It's impractical to do so for every single towel--I will wear them when cleaning up after a large group in the gym, but use the "fingertip pinch" method when doing routine pickups on the fitness floor--and liberal use of the hand sanitizer.

Our members are very good about wiping down the cardio machines after they are finished, but not so much with the strength. I am always amazed at guys who would never dream of walking away from a dripping treadmill, but who don't think twice about leaving greasy, sweaty "head stains" on the pads of the strength equipment.

cparter

The issue at hand is preventions that are readily available in most gyms today. If your gym does not have hand santitizer and disinfectants to pray before and after you are done choose another gym.

There is no use in spreading fear about gyms when you can remind people to be wise when they go. Now we have people here trying to remove the bulge with one less outlet because of the fear of catching MRSA which is not that high of an occurence. When you look at 1 out 1k to 2k people catch it at the gym is that a high percentage? No. If you follow the common sense practices you will be protected in most cases. Heck when you take a dump do you wash your hands or just leave the bathroom. If you are the one who just leaves you are probably the one who do not want to go the gym because you are not conscious enough of others or yourself.

Other than that. Choose as you will but do not shut the door so quickly before you reassess where you are, where you are going and see if that risk can be minimized.

Stay strong and live long.

Carlos

questionablemethods

With the exception of public bathrooms, I am totally NOT a germ-a-phobe -- almost to the point of being too cavalier about the prospect of infections. I suppose I should work on that.

hill242

With the exception of public bathrooms, I am totally NOT a germ-a-phobe -- almost to the point of being too cavalier about the prospect of infections. I suppose I should work on that.

Ironically, the keyboard in front of you is probably more germ-infested than a regularly cleaned public bathroom.

aippolito1

I work at a bank and come in contact with lots of germs!! I use my hand sanitizer anytime I take anything from a customer, touch the money in my drawer, handle tickets, etc. and of course before I eat. I try to wash my hands every hour or so as well.

naturebaby

I think you also have to keep this in perspective. First of all, you are exposed to many of the same germs whenever you do out in public. Unless you want to be like Howard Hughes or the boy in the bubble, you have to go out in the big world sometimes.

Secondly, for all the data reported in the story, given the tens of millions of gym visits that occur each year, the number of infections is still relatively small.

Obviously, it's something that we all want to be aware of, and you want to improve your odds, but I also think obsessing about it can be just as bad.

I work in a fitness center and have the unenviable task of picking up after all the privileged little yuppie larvae who think I am paid to be their cabana boy. As a staff, we debate amongst ourselves whether or not to wear gloves when picking up used towels. It's impractical to do so for every single towel--I will wear them when cleaning up after a large group in the gym, but use the "fingertip pinch" method when doing routine pickups on the fitness floor--and liberal use of the hand sanitizer.

Our members are very good about wiping down the cardio machines after they are finished, but not so much with the strength. I am always amazed at guys who would never dream of walking away from a dripping treadmill, but who don't think twice about leaving greasy, sweaty "head stains" on the pads of the strength equipment.

Wow! Are we just a little resentful and in need of moving on to a place of happy??

thumper44

Ironically, the keyboard in front of you is probably more germ-infested than a regularly cleaned public bathroom.

So true. I just remembered a Mythbusters episode. A light switch is really bad as well.
I just got the details from a website.


Many objects that people touch every day are dirtier than a toilet seat.
confirmed

Adam and Jamie chose a total of 8 objects to test for cleanliness: toilet seat, money, kitchen sponge, hotel room remote, computer keyboard, light switch, cell phone, and shopping cart. They swabbed each surface for 10 seconds and created Petri dishes from the swabs that incubated overnight. Their first method of measurement was to count the number of microorganism colonies on each dish. They found that the toilet seat sample actually had the fewest colonies, while the kitchen sponge sample had more than they could count:

kitchen sponge (most colonies)
money
light switch
computer keyboard
hotel remote
shopping cart
cell phone
toilet seat (fewest colonies)

However, they always wanted to account for the “nastiness” or harmfulness of the types of organisms on each Petri dish, so they had a microbiologist re-rank the samples. The list was as follows.

kitchen sponge (most nasty)
money
light switch
computer keyboard
toilet seat
cell phone
shopping cart
hotel remote (least nasty)
Finally, Adam and Jamie decided they needed a larger sample size to provide better results. They enlisted a group of biology students at UC Berkeley to collect more samples from the top five dirtiest surfaces. After collecting and analyzing these samples, the final list was as follows.

kitchen sponge (most dirty)
money
computer keyboard
toilet seat
light switch (least dirty)

HealthyChanges2010

I'm not quite caught up on my reading on this but something came to mind I had read that really surprised me. The most germy place in the bathroom isn't the toilet seat, or the hand faucets, or the door knob (public bathrooms is more what this topic was referencing) but of all things the handle to flush the toilet!!

It was shared it wasn't neccesarily from a persons hand but from their feet. Wha?????/ Yea that's what I thought, but so many ppl flush by putting their foot up there instead of their hand (thinking it's germy so they don't want to touch it so use their shoe instead) it shared how walking all over the place, how much crap we pick up on our shoes. Also suggested always remove your shoes at your door and not wearing the same ones you wear outside in your home due to anything from lawn chemicals, to yadda x 3.

It just peaked my interest when I read it is all, because now adays they don't make toilet flush handles low to the ground like they used to in all the bathrooms when ppl actually DID use it as a foot flusher (? lol). So the concept of using your shoe nowadays to flush was hard to wrap my mind around.

Sorry if this was already shared: On the germie specials I've seen like 20/20 etc. they suggest the work place desk is by far the grossest germ wise. Ppl sit there, eat there, etc. the swab tests they dd were well GROSS. lol

questionablemethods

With the exception of public bathrooms, I am totally NOT a germ-a-phobe -- almost to the point of being too cavalier about the prospect of infections. I suppose I should work on that.

Ironically, the keyboard in front of you is probably more germ-infested than a regularly cleaned public bathroom.

Exactly. I'm not grossed out by the places/things that are ACTUALLY germ-covered. It is more just the idea of the public bathroom that grosses me out -- not the actual data.