How clean is your locker room?

If you have a membership to your local Y, Rec Center or Health Club, frequenting the locker room is no surprise – but what heads home with you after your work out can be a surprise.  While your locker room may look clean with some having onsite maintenance crews cleaning throughout the day, is there any guarantee yourself from infection? The answer is no however there are a lot of ways to reduce the chance of infection. Here are a few tips to consider:

1.     Never….ever…ever walk barefoot in the locker room or anywhere in the club for that matter.  From walking to, being in and walking out of the shower, never allow yourself to be barefoot.  Have a pair of flip flops that are non-slip and are antimicrobial. We recommend the Tide sandal by Vionic (formerly known as Orthaheel).

2.     Use an antimicrobial body wash and a disposable loofah and disposable razors for one time use.

3.     Always use a clean towel whether your club provides towels or you bring your own and by the way, letting your towel dry then using it again does not cut it.

4.     Start the workout with clean socks then change into a fresh clean pair of socks after you finish. It’s tempting to wrap up the workout, grab your items and head out to run a couple of errands. What you are allowing by not changing your socks is a buildup of bacteria in your shoes. This compounded by heat you have a festival of infection just waiting to happen.

5.     Have a cold or nagging cough? Consider at home workouts until your bug is gone. Spreading germs amongst fellow club members just isn’t cool.

Enjoy your health club and dedicate yourself to focused workouts. With a little common sense and awareness, you can be happily healthy as you work on your goal!