Ok, I just need to vent a tad so don't mind me...

I know there have been several posts all over the forums about minding your manners at the gym. It seems every time I go I see one extreme or the other.
On side is those that never wipe off any machine they're using... ever. Seriously, it's not hard to use a towel.

But last night I saw the other side. These two women were taking a casual stroll on the treadmills for about an hour. When I say stroll, think about 2 mph. They were more engrossed in their conversation than actually sweating. Then, when they moved to the weight machines, they felt the need to clean them first, even though I just did that! Then they'd do one set of a few reps then clean it again. And I'm not talking about a wipe down, but it seemed like they were trying to make it clean enough to eat off of.

Now, I don't care if you want to spend more time chatting and cleaning equipment than using it, but they looked at me like I was a five headed chupacabra for not feeling the need to do the same. I can't spend an hour of my work out sterilizing the equipment. Meh!

OK, I feel better. Next time I see them I'm just going to the other area rather than the women's only.

I love my gym. LOL!

The basic standard is that no one wipes down the weights because we aren't supplied with materials. Everyone wipes down the spin bikes after class. Everyone wipes down cardio equipment after use with the exception of the treadmills. If your hands touched it or if you dripped sweat, you wipe it down. Otherwise, you're good to go. Most of us don't touch the treadmill anyway, so I don't see any need to wipe it down and I've noticed no one else does either.

LOL..too funny...if they are looking at you funny for that they seriously don't need to be in the gym..they need to be in therapy!

There is a guy that goes to my gym that sweats absolute bullets. It is so disgusting. First off he is short, stocky and hairy--barf. On top of that he watches himself in the mirror his whole workout. The other day he got off the stair climber thing I passed by it and looked down--it looked like there was a leak somewhere it was so wet. SO disgusting.

A few years back I actually had the pleasure (blech!) to walk into the sink area to find a woman drying her pubic area under the dryer.

Oh holy crap! You win. I probably would have said, "Takes a while to dry that thing out huh?" then walked off.

I don't know which is worse, your George Castanza in a pool of his own sweat or these ladies giving others crap for not doing it right when they haven't sweat a drop!

I go to the gym with the understanding it's never ever in a thousand years going to be sterile. I just want others to make sure if I use the machine after them I'm not going to sit in a puddle of whatever bodily fluids they may have left behind. Eeeewwww!

This forum is FULL of women who are intimidated about sweating in public because someone's going to laugh at them or tell them they're doing it wrong or not athletically enough.

And here's a thread confirming every one of those fears.

Interesting. I've been intimidated by the gym previously only because I didn't know how to use certain machines effectively. I've never known anyone to fear sweating in public, but maybe I'm of a different generation. I'd rather sweat from a workout than sweat from being too damn fat in the hot Texas summer.

I don't mind them cleaning the equipment after I already have or spending more time cleaning than exercising. The only thing I do mind is the crappy attitude. There are crappy people all over the world but I'm not going to let it keep me from going to the gym, grocery store or anything else. If they're not crappy about the gym, they're crappy about something else. You can't fix crappy so I'm not letting it keep me from doing what I want to do but sometimes venting is needed just to remember that people are who they are and it doesn't have to affect you.

Yes, this was a very crappy post.

Eliana, that is exactly what happens at my gym, no one in the weight room wipes down their equipment, unless they really really sweated on it... plus they don't supply anything in the weight room to wipe the equipment down...I don't sweat much when I weight train maybe just my face... when I weight train I never touch my face because of bacteria ect...but wash my hands throughly before leaving the gym... Most people will wipe down the cardio machines with a towel that is provided, a towel that is used and reused umpteen times, so it has more germs on it than what I could ever put on a machine in one session... When the towel is too icky I don't touch it at all....

Oh and they also have the cutest special needs person going around cleaning the equipment. He's the hardest worker there, what a sweety!

My gym is on a military base. I love my gym, so stress free. They provide us the wipes and we use them if needed. If we didn't sweat on something enough for it to need it then we just walk away and nobody says anything or gives us an evil eye.