How clean is your local gym?

Usually people are told go to the gym to improve your health, but could the gym be the thing getting you sick? With the flu still a rising problem in the US, how clean is your local gym?

With more and more people hitting up those gyms as part of their “New year, new me” goals. Gyms could be seeing hundreds of people a day. With it also being flu season, it could also be a hot box for germs.

Doctors and nurses, say one way to keep those germs from spreading in public places, like the gym, is don’t touch your face.

“Do not touch your eyes, nose, mouth,” Tiffany Larsen, RN, an immunization coordinator at Eastern Idaho Public Health, said. “That is the number one way to spread those germs.”

When you’re working out, wiping the sweat off your face is hard to avoid.

At Apple Athletic Club, they do their best to keep their equipment as clean as possible.

“We disinfect everything many times during the day and night,” Pam Parris, the Director of Housekeeping at Apple Athletic, said. “We have a cleaning company that comes in at night, after my people are gone and I have two ladies that clean our work out machines, everyday.”

It’s also hard for sanitation staff to see every sneeze or cough that goes on in the gym. They ask their guest’s to do their part and clean off the equipment they use.

“We have and disinfectant in our work out areas,” said Parris.

The guests, for the most part, seem to help out as much as they can.

The biggest thing thing stressed is to make sure that you clean off whatever equipment you are about to use. You have no idea what could be lurking on whatever weight or treadmill you are about to use.

The Eastern Idaho of Public Health also says that you want to make sure you wash your wands before and after you touch anything. If a sink is not near, try to keep hand sanitizer on you at all times. The best way to get rid of germs is a simple washing of the hands.