Not sure which category this belongs in

mhwitt74
mhwitt74 Posts: 159 Member
edited November 17 in Fitness and Exercise
Please tell me that I am not alone in thinking most people at the gym are disgusting. I constantly watch people use machines and just walk away. They don't clean up after themselves at all. I clean the machines before I use them just because of this revolting behavior. And I always clean the machines after I am done. I rarely get sick but in the 2 months I have been at the gym I am now sick for the third time. Think I am canceling my membership and just buying the equipment for my house. Please chime in on this rant to let me know how you feel when you see this happen.

Replies

  • annacole94
    annacole94 Posts: 994 Member
    People are gross. I own kettlebells for a variety of reasons, but you just hit on a big one.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    You should complain to management but who knows if that will help.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,227 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    I wonder if gym equipment is actually any more germ-ridden than anything else or if people just think that.

    Think of how many people don't put the lid down on the toilet before flushing and spraying urine and fecal matter all over their towels and toothbrushes.

    Or who set their purses on the walked-on-by-dirty-shoes floors in various places and then on the kitchen table or counter where food is prepared or eaten.

    I once took my then 3 year old daughter shopping, which of course involved several bathroom stops, and glanced at her in the rearview mirror on the way home, only to catch her licking the bottom of her shoe.

    I worked in a cookie factory in college. When a machine was down, we'd grab brooms to sweep up a bit. Machine would come back up and we'd leave the brooms to get to our stations to handle fig newtons or Ritz bitz sandwich crackers or nutter butters with our unwashed hands.

    The world is covered in filth and I'm fine with it. I'm not too bugged by other people's sweat. If it was an actual pool of sweat I might think yuck but I've never run into that.

    I'm very much the same.

    Though I did do a trial at a gym which provided cool towels to wipe your face, used them once and woke up with pinkeye. Never again.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,571 Member
    I put a towel down. Our gym doesn't wipe down weight lifting things unless we are really sweating. But there are also people cleaning 24/7 and it is an unwritten law to place a towel down on everything.
  • diggydog2
    diggydog2 Posts: 107 Member
    mhwitt74 wrote: »
    I will readily admit that I am a bit of a germaphobe. But on top of it being gross it just pisses me off that people don't have the common decency to clean up after themselves.
    Ditto
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    edited April 2017
    the only thing that gets me is the people who are so precious they won't let their bums touch the seat of a public toilet. and somehow that preciousness apparently makes it okay for them to leave their OWN piss behind for some stranger to deal with . . . . that's so narcissistic, so self-absorbed and so flat-out hypocritical that it's just rage.

    aside from that, i'm in the hardy camp. i wipe benches because i think it's rude not to and partly because headlice is a thing i can get behind fretting about. and i keep my shoes on in public gyms. but wiping down bars, not so much. i just can't work out where the final limits are meant to be. like, logically i can't see where the line is. am i supposed to buff the spots on the plates that i touched as well? should i polish my shopping cart handle once i'm done at the grocery store? my money before i give it to somebody else? the strap or the bar i held onto when i was riding the bus? how about the button you push to get the street light to change?

    i'm not being pissy just for the sake of it. and the fact that there are people out there who really are immunocompromised complicates things. it's just that i honestly don't grok where 'considerate' ends and 'pandering to flat-out neurosis' starts up.

    it probably has something to do with the fact that i grew up mostly in africa. it often seems to me like north armericans don't have any real sense of gradation where 'germs' are concerned. it's like all germs are equal or something. but where i came from there were real distinctions. there were germs that could kill you, and germs there was no point in fretting about 'cause the sun would kill them.
  • DietPrada
    DietPrada Posts: 1,171 Member
    I don't go to the gym. People are gross. Sweating half naked people are even grosser. Or I should say sweating half naked strangers. Going to the gym is annoying and time consuming. I've also found it is not even remotely necessary to losing weight. There are plenty of other cleaner, cheaper ways of being active. But some people like it, so good for them.
  • kimothy38
    kimothy38 Posts: 840 Member
    I wipe down machines after I use them BUT what about the mats, swiss balls, dumb bells etc? They don't get wiped down do they. Would it look creepy odd wearing surgical gloves.....lol.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,222 Member
    canadianlbs wrote: »
    the only thing that gets me is the people who are so precious they won't let their bums touch the seat of a public toilet. and somehow that preciousness apparently makes it okay for them to leave their OWN piss behind for some stranger to deal with . . . . that's so narcissistic, so self-absorbed and so flat-out hypocritical that it's just rage.

    aside from that, i'm in the hardy camp. i wipe benches because i think it's rude not to and partly because headlice is a thing i can get behind fretting about. and i keep my shoes on in public gyms. but wiping down bars, not so much. i just can't work out where the final limits are meant to be. like, logically i can't see where the line is. am i supposed to buff the spots on the plates that i touched as well? should i polish my shopping cart handle once i'm done at the grocery store? my money before i give it to somebody else? the strap or the bar i held onto when i was riding the bus? how about the button you push to get the street light to change?

    i'm not being pissy just for the sake of it. and the fact that there are people out there who really are immunocompromised complicates things. it's just that i honestly don't grok where 'considerate' ends and 'pandering to flat-out neurosis' starts up.

    it probably has something to do with the fact that i grew up mostly in africa. it often seems to me like north armericans don't have any real sense of gradation where 'germs' are concerned. it's like all germs are equal or something. but where i came from there were real distinctions. there were germs that could kill you, and germs there was no point in fretting about 'cause the sun would kill them.

    Even when I was immunocompromised (chemotherapy), I didn't much worry about stuff like this, FWIW - though I did go out'n'about less often when my counts were worst because I felt like <bleep>. There were no bad consequences (I recognize that luck was a factor).

    I figure that if we don't give our immune system work to do, it's just going to get freaked out and go all allergic, or auto-immune, or somesuch thing, just to stay busy (P.S. this is not an utterly unscientific concept). I fear that people who over-sanitize their children's world are doing them a longer-term disservice. (Their call, though.)

    I'd rather people wiped down machines when gyms have the supplies for doing so handy, and I'd appreciate it if truly sick people stayed home (from pretty much everywhere, if possible) or at least were compulsively careful about spreading their illness, but that's about it.
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
    I'm immunocompromised so do have to take care,but I do that myself when I'm in public places ,by keeping my hands washed and away from my face. The only thing that annoys me is people who sneeze and cough- in my face - without covering their mouths!
  • Sara1791
    Sara1791 Posts: 760 Member
    edited April 2017
    Wiping a dry bench with a gross used rag seems like sanitation theater to me. It also can't be good for the treadmills to be spraying them with liquid. I don't usually bother. If I actually leave sweat behind, I find a paper towel from the other side of the gym and use that.

    ETA: But I also keep my hands away from my face when I'm in public, use hand sanitizer on the way home, and wash my hands immediately upon entering my house. It's something I've trained my children to do as well. And yeah, close the toilet before you flush. ;)
  • cessi0909
    cessi0909 Posts: 654 Member
    jemhh wrote: »

    The world is covered in filth and I'm fine with it. I'm not too bugged by other people's sweat. If it was an actual pool of sweat I might think yuck but I've never run into that.

    Ditto. I touch things other people touched all day and it doesn't bother me. I also don't focus on it but light switches, door handles, elevator buttons, etc. all touched by people same as the gym equipment. Some are sweaty, some have not washed their hands, etc. It is part of life IMO.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    I'd rather have a new bicycle than pay for gym membership.
  • crackpotbaby
    crackpotbaby Posts: 1,297 Member
    Maybe it's your immune system. Exposure to these germs may help build it.

    Also, hot tip - wash your hands before putting them in your mouth, nose or eyes, particularly if you've been touching items other people have touched. Hand washing is the number 1 way to prevent spread of pathogens.

    Alternate hot tip - being immunised against hepatitis b if you're touching things random people have sweated on is a sensible idea, as is having a yearly influenza vaccine if you're in busy contact environment.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    *shrug* People are gross.
  • hesfeld
    hesfeld Posts: 95 Member
    I got something that looked like ringworm on my inner thigh following leg day after using my college's gym. I now wipe the machine down before and after and use the hand sanitizer regularly.
  • mhwitt74
    mhwitt74 Posts: 159 Member
    lizery wrote: »
    Maybe it's your immune system. Exposure to these germs may help build it.

    Also, hot tip - wash your hands before putting them in your mouth, nose or eyes, particularly if you've been touching items other people have touched. Hand washing is the number 1 way to prevent spread of pathogens.

    Alternate hot tip - being immunised against hepatitis b if you're touching things random people have sweated on is a sensible idea, as is having a yearly influenza vaccine if you're in busy contact environment.

    Look, I am only pointing out that people at the gym are slobs. And I do wash my hands. Your response is a little condescending.
  • mhwitt74
    mhwitt74 Posts: 159 Member
    Sara1791 wrote: »
    Wiping a dry bench with a gross used rag seems like sanitation theater to me. It also can't be good for the treadmills to be spraying them with liquid. I don't usually bother. If I actually leave sweat behind, I find a paper towel from the other side of the gym and use that.

    ETA: But I also keep my hands away from my face when I'm in public, use hand sanitizer on the way home, and wash my hands immediately upon entering my house. It's something I've trained my children to do as well. And yeah, close the toilet before you flush. ;)

    Our gym doesn't use towels. They provide paper towels and spray disinfectant all around the gym. Just saying people should use them out of common courtesy.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Meh. No one wipes down anything at the powerlifting gym I use. Doesn't bother me.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    There's usually 6-10 of us training bench on Sunday mornings. We only wipe down the bench if we're leaving sweat on it. I got sick earlier this year, but it wasn't from anyone at the gym - it was something I caught from my wife.

    And, like jemhh mentioned above - there are plenty of other things (probably more likely to cause problems than an unwiped machine) to worry about.

    IOW: it doesn't bother me at all, unless something is obviously left behind. That said, I usually wipe things down when I'm completely done.
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
    You can't contract hepatitis b - or any virus as far as I'm aware- from sweat. You're also unlikely to get headlice at the gym unless you're in close head to head contact with someone else who had them.
  • ItsAllMental819
    ItsAllMental819 Posts: 68 Member
    I'm not to concerned about this for the most part... But it does really piss me off when people use equipment and don't wipe it down! Especially if they're sweating profusely! It's just common courtesy and if I see it happen I'll say something...

    Don't let others being inconsiderate keep you from working out and bettering yourself though. Imo the workout you can get in the gym is so much better than at home.
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