The Dirtiest Things at your Gym
People touch a lot of things when they’re in the gym and it can be difficult for you to ensure cleanliness without a stringent routine. Keeping surfaces clean is difficult enough, but maintaining an elevated level of hygiene is more challenging during the winter months when bacteria, fungi, and viruses can be more prevalent. To keep patrons safe, pay special attention to the dirtiest things at your gym.
Buttons and Rails
Everyone touches the buttons and rails on equipment ranging from cardio machines to treadmills. It’s easy to overlook these essential areas when cleaning. It’s important to make a special effort to wipe down and disinfect these areas regularly.
Strength Training
The equipment used in strength training is highly popular and gets a significant amount of use. Keeping kettlebells and free weights clean is essential. It’s important to wipe them down after each use, but it can be difficult to maintain due to the speed with which people switch among them.
Swimming Pool
A swimming pool is one of the most overlooked features in a gym when it comes to hygiene. The incidence of infections ranging from the skin to the intestinal tract has been on the rise and simply adding more chlorine to the water isn’t a good solution. Have pools checked and maintained regularly by a pool specialist.
Water Fountains
Virtually everyone uses water fountains to grab a quick drink or fill their water bottles, thereby substantially increasing the potential for spreading illness and disease. Water alone won’t wash away infectious contaminants, making regular disinfecting critical.
Yoga Mats
Communal yoga mats can be one of the dirtiest surfaces in your gym and a prime spreader of communicable infections that includes staff bacteria and athlete’s foot fungus. They should be cleaned properly after every use.
Other Sources
Shoes, gym bags, water bottles and locker rooms are mobile disease vectors. Clothing and other items are often left in gym bags longer than they should be and the result is an atmosphere in which bacteria can flourish. The same is true of water bottles. Meanwhile, shoes are in constant contact with the ground where they can pick up fecal matter and bacteria that causes E coli to pneumonia. They’re often just tossed in lockers without a second thought.
As a gym owner, there isn’t much you can do about shoes, water bottles and gym bags, but you can post reminder signs throughout locker rooms that encourage cleanliness and precautions. Being aware of the problem is half the battle and you can initiate cleaning routines – or hire professional cleaners – that will help alleviate the spread of multiple diseases and illnesses.
At Crown Products, we create high-quality, focused products that, in essence, improve the quality of life for everyone who uses your facilities and public spaces. Visitors benefit from a cleaner space and resources to keep it clean, staff can focus on important maintenance rather than cleaning up litter and waste, and you can enjoy a pristine and appreciated space!
If you’re an existing distributor, you can place an order here to restock your inventory. If you’re interested in becoming an official distributor of Crown Products, learn more and apply here. And if you’re interested in purchasing Crown Products’ goods for your facility or public space, you can find a distributor here.