Very minor rant, but this one really brings my piss to a boil.
I go to the gym about 4 times a week, quite a good way to de-stress - or so I thought. That’s until I see fat, ugly, mutton-faced wobbly rice-arsed old cretins finishing using a machine - usually the cycling machine or epileptic trainer. They wander off, never to return and wipe off their foetid perspiration.
I’ve taken to giving the machines a thorough wiping before and after use, now that I can’t trust that people will wipe them down. It’s not as if it’s hard either, the gym has ample sprays and paper towels as well as signs to remind them.
What’s more, it’s not like this is rare either - I’d say about 80% of the thoughtless dirty bastards don’t bother.
First time I saw it I actually spoke up to the stupid inconsiderate cow who had just finished using a weight machine - one of those pull down ones for the biceps. She got up and moved straight to the bench press, whereupon I somewhat gruffly asked her if she was going to wipe it down. She looked at me baffled, and asked why she should. I replied that unless she didn’t sweat she ought to, but she laughed nervously and said “…not on that one.” Yeah, right. At one point on the rowing machines I even discretely warned the next user that it hadn’t been wiped - the handles were visibly wet, but he didn’t give a shit. Who’d want someone else’s disgusting sweat being rubbed into their hands? Unbelievable.
I’m getting so sick of it I’m thinking about putting in some kind of formal complaint in with the management to get these jackasses to clean up after themselves, since if I went around reminding everyone it’d take for frigging ever.
Nordictrack pretty much invented them. They are something of a cross between a treadmill and a stair-climber–the ‘peddles’ go in an ovular motion to reduce stress on the knees that you can find in a treadmill. The primary innovation came about by accident. As Norditrack was experimenting with display screens that showed more information, an errant short in the circuitry made the screen start rapidly flashing, giving the first truly epileptic workout.
Would it matter if besides you, the only other gym patrons were really hot swimsuit models and Playboy models, who were all as sweaty as the people you describe?
I always figured I’d just wipe it down anyway, regardless of whether the person before me did or not. That way, I know it got done.
And, based on the coordination of some of the elliptical machine users I’ve seen, “epileptic” machine isn’t very far off.
Actually, yes - if I ever see a nice-looking girl wander off without wiping down her sweat my mind immediately lumps her into the ‘disgusting skank’ category. Until they’re sweating rose water or something, I don’t care what women who do it look like.
Related rant: At my gym, all of the equipment is in one very large open room. There are 3 or 4 paper towel dispensers around, and that’s also where the spray bottle are kept. There may be 10 bottles in all. Most people will go get a paper towel or two, spray them there and leave the bottle for the next person. There are some people that feel the need to take the bottle with them to their equipment before starting to use it, and keep it with them the whole time. Come on people, do the math. There’s not a bottle for every person!
Note, in this bigots little world, only fat, ugly, old people are inconsiderate. Actually, I found that the young & fit are just as often as rude as anyone else.
Okay, I admit I have a home gym set up and rarely use public gym facilities, but honestly, I have no problem with putting my hands on something someone else has sweated on, nor would it really bother me if my shirt pushed up against someone else’s sweat. No more disgusting to me than my own sweat is. Why is that lack of disgust so unbelievable?
I understand your desires and when in a public gym would conform and wipe after myself, but, what kind of cooties do you think you might catch from someone else’s sweat?
Mr. Kobayashi, you should be aware by now that one of the many rules here at the SDMB is when ranting about someone who has angered you, it is wholly forbidden to reference that person’s physical appearance in any way, as doing so means you think the person is wrong/irritating/bad because of said appearance. Please remember this for future rants.
If everyone wiped the equipment down PRIOR to using it, then everyone would be happy. The germophobes would have sterile equipment on which to plop their sweaty asses, and the lazy skanks would use equipment that hasn’t been sterilized. As is fitting.
Aesthetics of the sweat producer aside - there is a grossness factor of the sweat itself. If I sweat a LOT, the seat is actually wet. I am not high on the wiping-down-the-equipment scale (and neither is the rest of my gym) but I do assume that if it is wet enough that I don’t want to sit in it, no one else will either. That would be just as true for me if it were rose water and not sweat. I mean, it is a puddle of fluid, who want to sit in that?
I dunno, leaving the equipment sweaty after your workout isn’t just inconsiderate for the next person to use it, but for the gym users in general since sweat and germs left uncleaned will start to stink up the place, wot?