For those of us at UFE (Urine Feces Everywhere) who have joined clubs…and canceled club memberships shortly after, and for the rest of the 10% of the population who continue to attend, we have seen the good side and the gross side of these gyms first hand.
Our team did a little investigating and found out a few of the habits both men and women performed at the gym. In terms of violators, women actually tend to be worse than men in this whole study. A UFE rep mentioned how women tend to travel in packs of two or three and a few times would forget to wipe down their machines.
In ancient Greece, gyms were used more for educational purposes for young men and even included spa areas and literature for them to read. Sadly, people of today’s world are not as educated as they should be and are missing out on some pretty gross stuff that lingers in the crevices of their local gym.
Below you will find some of the most notorious forms of bacteria that we received from “Men’s Fitness”, so please feel free to read the list or go to the link.
HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS
What is it?
Human Papillomavirus is a virus that you probably know as HPV. It’s the most common sexually transmitted disease… but that doesn’t mean sex is the only way you get it…
Symptoms
HPV usually causes genital warts in both men and women. It can also cause warts in the throat and mouth and even on the feet (known as plantar warts). If untreated, it can lead to cervical cancer in women and (shudder) penile and anal cancer in men. It also results in the inability to land a date ever again.
How do you get it?
You can pick up plantar warts from walking around barefoot in bathrooms and showers.
How do you treat it?
There’s no actual cure for HPV, but there are prescriptions to treat outbreaks.
KLEBSIELLA
What is it?
A bacteria that is usually found in healthy human intestines and stool.
Symptoms
Klebsiella can result in a variety of infections, most commonly urinary tract infections and pneumonia, but in rarer cases blood infections and meningitis. The type of infection you get depends on how it enters your body (i.e. through your nose results in pneumonia).
How do you get it?
It’s spread through contact, so any shared surfaces–cardio machines, workout mats, weights, water fountains and locker rooms–are fair game.
How do you treat it?
Different varieties of Klebsiella are resistant to certain antibiotics, so it can be difficult to treat, but the right antibiotic will clear it up.
E. COLI
What is it?
Escherichia Coli, commonly known as E. coli, is a common bacterium found in the intestines and stool of animals. It’s infamous for almost putting Jack in the Box out of business in 1993.
Symptoms
E. coli infections cause cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and can lead to pneumonia.
How do you get it?
You usually get it from eating contaminated food, but it’s possible to catch it from tainted gym surfaces.
How do you treat it?
Most healthy people just need to drink a lot of water and wait for the gut-wrenching symptoms to pass, but if it escalates, get thee to a hospital. Children, the elderly and people with compromised immune symptoms are especially at risk.
STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS
What is it?
Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph, is a bacteria that mostly causes skin infections.
Symptoms
Staph infections are usually mild and include superficial rashes, pimples and/or boils on your skin. However, if the bacteria spreads and gets deeper into your skin, it can become a life-threatening infection such as pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Recently there have been reports of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a very aggressive form of Staph that’s resistant to antibiotics, in gyms, but it’s extremely rare.
How do you get it?
It’s spread through contact, so it can be picked up through a shared towel or razor, exercise equipment surfaces and grips or skin-to-skin contact.
How do you treat it?
A course of antibiotics should do the trick.
CANDIDA
What is it?
The most common culprit in fungal infections, this yeast-like fungus can lead to everything from athlete’s foot to ringworm to jock itch in men and yeast infections in women.
How do you get it?
Contact. It loves warm, moist areas, so locker rooms, saunas, swimming pools and showers are the perfect environment to pick up some tasty foot fungus.
Symptoms
Ringworm is usually marked by ring-shaped skin rashes, usually on your toes, sometimes on your palms and between your fingers. Athlete’s foot gives you itchy, cracked, flaking and peeling skin between the toes or side of the foot, while jock itch causes a rash on your groin. If it’s untreated, it can escalate to blisters and severely cracked skin.
How do you treat it?
Anti-fungal creams, but if it escalates into an infection, antibiotics will do the trick.
STREPTOCOCCAL BACTERIA
What is it?
A type of bacteria that usually causes upper respiratory infections–strep throat. There are 20 different types of strep bacteria.
How do you get it?
It’s very contagious and is spread through person-to-person contact, airborne droplets, doorknobs and other surfaces. Sweaty exercise equipment, saunas, locker rooms and drinking bottles can harbor strep.
Symptoms
Symptoms can range from mild throat infections to pneumonia. It can also cause skin infections such as impetigo, which causes blisters, and cellulitis, which affects deeper layers of skin.
How do you treat it?
Antibiotics, although minor strep infections, such as a throat and inner ear infections, usually get better on their own. Skin infections are treated with antibiotic tablets or creams, and more serious infections like pneumonia and meningitis require hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics.
INFLUENZA
What is it?
You probably call it the flu. It’s a virus, which causes a nose, throat and lung infection that makes you feel like crap for a few days.
How do you get it?
Through the air, so contained areas like airplanes, movie theaters and gyms are a great place to catch it. Breathe in the droplets from someone’s coughs or sneezes, or get the virus on your hands and touch your mouth, nose, or eyes.
Symptoms
Fever, body aches, coughing, sneezing, chills, dizziness, flushed face, headache, lack of energy and, sometimes, nausea and vomiting that lasts between four and seven days.
How do you treat it?
There’s no cure for the flu, but over the counter drugs help alleviate symptoms. Otherwise, your best bet is a healthy dose of rest, chicken soup, bad television, fluids and self-loathing.
http://www.mensfitness.com/training/pro-tips/the-7-grossest-gym-germs
Gyms are pretty bad unless you go to a nice one. Some of the big ones have pools which (from what I’m told), are cleaned on a regular basis. I used to belong to this gym that had a bunch of classes and I loved the boxing class they offered, but what I hated was the gloves. These gloves just hung on the wall waiting to be picked by a person in the class. Red, Black, Pink, etc. of all colors just sitting collecting germs with each use. The worse time I had was when I picked up a pair of gloves and the inside was wet and cold…not that being warm would be better, but you knew that because it was cold that it had been sitting thier festering.
Oh God!!! We’re all going to die!!
You probably won’t die unless you get hit in the head by a line drive ball, or fall down the bleacher stairs , or slip on urine in the rest room and bleed out from a subdermal hematoma, but you will merely get a bad case of the diarrhea from UFE.
Nice post, I did use the link as well, but it’s nice to have the same info in multiple places. A question though, what can a person be exposed to in different seasons? Is one worse than the other?
Good question Jane. We will get back to you on that!