I put the shit back but I ain’t gonna wipe it!
I’ve found a bit more of a diversity as far as service goes in the U.S. Say… kind of like your public library. Most are great some are scary due to being underfunded.
In Canada, I can use my Y membership at any Y. I’ve also been able to use it in the U.S. but occasionally there’s a branch where I have to kick in a few bucks extra to use my “out of state” membership. Canada’s Ys are also secular now. I don’t know about the various branches in the U.S.
Generally though, because their mandate is very community-based, the attitude is friendlier than a lot of commercial chains where you feel as if the staff is judging you as “duuuuude” or “poseur!” when you walk through the door. The free tour should give you some insight into the general vibe of the place.
Yeah, my doctor and I discovered that MRSA is alive and well on stretching mats. Do not put your bare skin on them. Got the infection from kneeling on the mat and stretching before I went on the elliptical. The infection was a combination of me being stupid enough to use anti-bacterial soap regularly when I shower (killing the good and bad bacteria), ingrown hairs on my knee (that I occasionally scratch) and that unclean gym mat. Caught it early though…Doc only had to dig out about 1/4 inch circle about 1/2 inch down towards my kneecap and then pack it with anti-bacterial medicated gauze for the next 4 days and not submerge my knee in water while I shower/bathe for the next 2 weeks until it was healed over.
Lessons learned:
- Use anti-bacterial soap for hands only! Regular soap for everywhere else!
- Don’t break skin and put it on a dirty mat that everyone uses…including walking on it with dirty gym shoes.
- Get your own elliptical machine and don’t go to the gym.
OK, so I haven’t read the whole thread, and it’s been a while since I’ve been to the gym, but aren’t you supposed to spread your towel on the equipment before you use it? Who works out without a towel?
<===========example of an idiot who caught MRSA at his local YMCA.. I sweat like Larry Holmes (the boxer.. ever see him in the 12th round?) so i always wipe down the equipment after i use it. Sometimes I’m amazed that someone is ready to jump on the sweaty ass weight bench when i’m returning with the paper towel. The MRSA has taught me to wipe down before and after.. and actually its a good thing because sometimes i think i power through my workout with out taking time to enjoy it..
Gym mats are notorious germ factories – they had to throw the old ones out at my high school when the entire wrestling team got ringworm.
Hey, fuck off, Alessan. We’ve got some good ol’ Dope outrage going on here. Don’t muddy things up by bringing logic to this discussion. And shit.
Uhmmmm, isn’t you towell picking up some nasy stuff too?
:eek:
I see it like washing your hands after using the bathroom. It’s just courtesy and common sense.
Again, to most in your gym a slightly moist handlebar and a dry appearing seat does not count as a mess. It is the state that gym equipment is expected to be in. The fact is that you are the outlier in your gym. While no one would disagree that someone who leaves a puddle of sweat behind should wipe up after him/herself, you have a higher standard. You want people to antiseptic spray and wipe down all handlebars after every use and wipe down a seat even if no visible sweat was there. The overwhelming majority in your gym disagrees. Yet you still feel entitled that they all should comply with your standards. Sorry, while there is a reasonable expectation to not have to clean up someone else’s pool of sweat, there is no reasonable expectation to have a sterile surface on the handlebars and the seat. Any more than it is reasonable to expect a bus seat to be sterile.
Why yes I do. In fact I give our office’s OSHA mandated Bloodborne Pathogen training every year and know exactly what the CDC and the WHO consider established means of Hep B transmission. Now I must admit that article was interesting. But while it is interesting that one study has suggested that sweat may be capable of transmitting HepB, that belief is still not generally accepted in the medical community (and the authors recognize that they did not establish that) and their findings have not been replicated. HepB is still considered to be transmissible by exposure through mucous membranes or non-intact skin to blood or sexual secretions. Casual contacts, including kissing (even though saliva has been shown to contain small amounts of the virus) have not been implicated in transmission. OSHA, both America’s and Canada’s*, explicitly advise that sweat and saliva need not be handled as infectious for Hep B. Your potential HepB exposure in gym is to blood or pus left on a surface that you expose to nonintact skin. Wear a shirt.
What you fail to understand is that sweat really is not a significant infectious disease risk; most infections are spread by hands. Door knobs, office keyboards, anything that more than one person handles, are infectious disease risks. The last person before you wiping the seat, or even the handlebar with a towel won’t do anything to reduce that risk. A casual spritz of “antiseptic spray” and a wipe on the handlebar won’t do it either. If you are really concerned about catching something in a gym you really do need to sterilize the handlebars immediately before use, or use antiseptic gel immediately after each time. And be sure you have no broken skin.
I’ve travelled a bit. In some cultures people give much less personal space than do Americans and get pretty close face to face. I’m not comfortable with that but I when I am in their culture I am the one who needs to adapt. If the vast majority of people in the gym are not people who sterilize the handlebar after use, then you are the one who needs to deal with it. You are not entitled to have them all sterilize after each use because you think they should.
Well again, my ilk would tend to wipe down even invisible sweat if I knew that such was local custom or even if I knew a few people really cared. (Honestly I’ve never been in a gym or healthclub in which I’ve seen people routinely wiping down the handlebars with antiseptic solution after each use … I don’t think I’ve ever seen it actually … but again, I don’t use public gyms much … I bike, run, swim, and do weights and other equipment in my own dark stank basement). I’m a weenie (as well established) and we weenies do that because we are polite. Yes, we’ve established that if you see a timid “cow” who does something that you do not like, even if they had no idea that anyone cared and they were doing the same exact thing as 80% of others around them, that you will go directly to being an asshole to her. Probably you would immediately go to pitchfork if you had one. That’s the kind of person you have made it clear you are. The jerk kind.
*FYI:
On the risk of MRSA:
Very seriously, if one is worried about catching something in a gym (not any crazier of a worry than being worried at the bus stop or the office lunchroom), then focus on frequent handwashing and/or antiseptic gel use, and be sure not to have any exposed broken skin. Even your own “thorough” wiping down will not really reduce your risk much and using your own antiseptic hand gel will be much more effective than berating 80% of the other members.
Feh. I’m not wasting any more time on you, you disgusting repulsive sticking slob. You speak for yourself. Your lack of personal hygiene and social etiquette are things that belong in the dark ages and your attempts to defend your smelly comrades-in-arms serve only to make me be sick in my mouth. Also; where did I say I wanted everyone to wipe it if they left no visible sweat you fucking idiot? Stop putting words in my mouth, it makes you look even more foolish than you already do.
Translation - “I am completely wrong, and have been proved such, so I’ll just insult people until they go away”. Much like you did in the gym.
By the way, thanks to DSeid for finding the science to back up my comment earlier that sweat is not inherently gross.
I agree with this.
Let’s go with the “courtesy and common sense” theme.
Well the bathroom analogy is pretty much just wrong because infectious diseases really are spread by poor handwashing and a huge number of diseases spread by a fecal-oral route. Fears of infection spread by poor handwashing are very well justified. Sweat, not.
Let’s go with the issue of courtesy.
Our op is livid that when he comes upon a bit of equipment he can’t tell if it has been wiped down or not, so he is “forced” to give it a “thorough wiping” himself. He is upset that handlebars may be moist. Every piece of shared equipment should come cleaned to his demanding specifications by every user. Moreover is very bothered that other users do not share his disgust that sweat may touch their hands. That is more than is reasonable to demand especially in that particular gym in which it is clear that the majority feel other than he does (which bothers him greatly).
Also in a gym it is reasonable to expect that others who you do not know either leave you alone or approach you in a friendly or at least respectful manner. Our op went up to a “cow” and by his report handled her “gruffly” when she violated what he considers to be expected behaviors that few others in that gym follow. He could have been nice about it and asked if she would not mind wiping after herself even if she does not think she sweat much because “some of us” would really appreciate it. Instead he was, by his own report, a rude prick.
Courtesy. Yes. Our op should learn some. Treated courteously most would start to try to do a better job meeting his standards. Even though many of us think that some exposure to dried sweat or the occasional moist spot is the reasonable expectation in a public gym. We put our towels on the bench, do our thing, and move on. We don’t sweat it. 
Go with the bathroom analogy, justified concern of spreading infection. You see someone not wash their hands. Would any of you feel comfortable “gruffly” asking that person if they were going to wash their hands? Have any of you ever done that? Would expect that interaction to go well?
The guy is just a jerk.
:rolleyes:
Ride! Ride off into the sunset!
Look, the gym is a different beast. There are signs around mine (and most of 'em too) that remind people to wipe down the machines after use. Some machines and benches I don’t care if it’s not wiped down as much (lat pull downs:meh). But on machines like the prone leg curl, I’m putting my face right where someone could have left a puddle. Or there’s this bench where I could be doing curls or chest presses on it by sitting normally, or I could be facing backwards to do reverse flyes or incline bicep curls with my cheek in someone’s dampness or swamp ass.
It’s not an issue of being a germaphobe, but more of being a conscientious user. It’s right up there with people who don’t re-rack their weights. Have I ever confronted a non-wiper at the gym? No. But I’ve really wanted to. What’s funny is, this tends to be a bigger problem in January and February and then I rarely, if ever, see those people again.
And frankly, I think the reasonable expectation is that if you make a mess, you clean it up.
Ditto!
Yeah, yeah. If disliking other people’s stinking personal fluids makes me a jerkass then I don’t want to be … not a jerkass. You’ve proved nothing.
I’ve said all I can be bothered to on this subject to be honest, you can agree or not. Either way is good.
stpauler, of course it was the person who had not wiped after the lat pull down that our op was “gruff” to.
As to your face on the bench. Sorry, sweat wiped off or not people fart there and wipe their noses and then handle the bench. No matter what I’d put my towel between my face and the bench. And obviously I am not easily squicked.
Mr. K., just to be clear. Your dislike of personal fluids is not what makes you an ass.