In case you are looking for a reason to skip the gym today, here’s a good one: Health clubs are described by doctors as breeding grounds for bacteria. Everything from MRSA to toenail fungus can be readily picked up at the gym and brought home.
The study by the fitness equipment site FitRated.com finds, after swabbing 27 pieces of gym equipment at three different gyms they found that, on average, each machine was teeming with more than one million colony-forming units (CFU) of bacteria.
This will make you want to take a long shower:
- Exercise bikes are on average 39 times dirtier than a cafeteria tray
- Treadmills contain 74 times more bacteria than a public toilet faucet
- Free weights house over 362 times more bacteria than a public toilet seat
Free weights have an average of more than 1.1 million colony-forming units per square inch. In comparison, the National Sanitation Foundation says you’d find 172 CFU per square inch on a home toilet seat.
But treadmills and stationary bikes were even worse offenders, with about 7,752 times more bacteria than a home toilet seat. That’s even more than these objects with more bacteria than a toilet. Yikes!
Touching a surface with bacteria won’t necessarily make you sick. Some bacteria aren’t harmful, and others won’t do any harm in small amounts. But the fact that 70 percent of bacteria from the tested equipment FitRated.com tested were potentially harmful isn’t very comforting.
If you tend to skip wiping down your workout machine, take that extra 30 seconds before and after you use the equipment. Even if you’re not a germaphobe, you’ll be doing the rest of us a favor.
And since you can’t control what everyone else does, avoid getting sick by waiting to wipe your sweaty brow until you’ve washed your hands.
“Your best defense is to be aware of washing your hands post workout and before eating or touching your face,”
Kelly Reynolds, microbiologist and associate professor at the Zuckerman College of Public Health in Arizona, tells HuffPost. Oh, and don’t you dare rewear your sweaty clothes without doing laundry.
Source: RD.com & FitRated.com
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Yes and i love it its called ANTIBODIES
So does your keyboard and cellphone. . Pff don’t lick it and your swell
i wash my hands and dont lick my fingers so……
Weightlifters are probably the most resistant to bacteria than anyone else due to years of our immune systems being strengthened to fight off any bacteria on gym equipment. I never get sick and workout in a big gym 5 days a week.
Finally someone who gets it!
I have had a shit year this year! Been ill loads, no idea why could be the gym equipment and I train 6 days. Strange things is so one else in my family has gotten ill.
Yea most don’t realize the over use of hand sanitizer and cleanliness is what causes people to get sick more often
right…how many bodybuilders or casual regular gym goers do you know that gets sick much if at all? No one I know. Our immune systems are strong as f***.
Right? I hooked up with a girl who has all kinds of STDS…I’m pretty much immune to all of them now. Healthy as ef now!
No need to worry about catching STDs anymore!
Come to think of it I cant think of the last time I woke up really really reall sick and I hit the gym 3-4x a week PLUS working in a hospital.
Christian Abreu because exercise keeps us well
You might be on to something??
I was going to say the same thing?
I hit the gym 5 to 6 days a week for years. I still get sick a couple times a year. Lol
My doctor hasnt seen me in 3 yrs
True, i never get sick
I just grow lol
Tons of Dbags don’t wipe down the equipment after they use
I wipe it down with my nuts.
Maybe that’s why gym rats never get sick, because we come in contact with germs all the time so our bodies adapt to it
Marc Heley no wonder u spend all your time cleaning
Been in my gym bag for years
no body know how to use the gym any way
And who cares about that…?
This is true, i never wore gloves and at some point my hands had some type of fungus and it was because of the fucking weights, took me weeks to get rid of it.
Lifting for 35 years, never had any skin condition and haven’t had the flu in 20 years
Scott Jacobsen i don’t have any skin condition either, but weight equipment is exposed to many people with who knows what kind of condition plus their sweat, and the germs or bacteria in the air. As soon as i started wearing gloves it went away slowly. 20 years? No flu? Wow, your inmune system must be out of this world.
Jason Greenslade
So when you workout you strengthen your immune system too.
Maikel Alyt Larissa Ram
Ieeeeuw
Haha hier ga je sowieso aan denken de eerstvolgende keer dat je iets aanraakt in de sportschool
Schwarzenegger should close that big gaping mouth of his particularly the crap that spews out these days.
He is a disgrace to the bodybuilding community with his liberal pussy attitude
Says the faceless keyboard warrior ???
10 friends ??????even Trump wouldn’t want to know you??????
Well at least your Natty more than I can say for that drug bloated Schwarzenegger
Craig Eyerick Arnold has inspired generations of bodybuilders, he set the standard & he is a decent human being, he is a Republican who actually stands up for what real republicans stand for unlike the majority of the right wing nut jobs in the house & senate today, take your hatred filled Trump loving ass somewhere else, last thing America needs is more people like you, America use to be a country looked up to, now it’s a laughing stock
You’re political acumen is certainly not laudable.
You know so very little about the real Arnold all you see is the public media image he wants fools like you to swallow Hook Line & Sinker. Arnold is a very greedy New World Order liberal.
I grew up and competed in the age of Schwarzenegger the man is a joke. Once he walked into Vince’s gym in Studio City and announced himself and Vince promptly said I don’t give a f*** who you are get out of my gym
Troll
Craig Eyerick swing from a noose
It’s fun you ought to try it
Craig Eyerick to be fair he has achieved nothing in anything he has done so far and he is a poor role model, you grew up and competed in the same era and in my eyes are a much better role model to look up to….. one slight problem is who the fuck has ever heard of you……hater, cop and get a life and try not to be so bitter with those that have done what they set out to achieve in life.
Elijah Jackson
I’m sure it’s a ploy by the gym glove manufacturers. To get people to buy gloves. Sorry, not falling for it.
Good point
Um I’d say this one is actually accurate not a ploy. Buy a travel size pack if Clorox wipes.
Alex Lewis-Jackson I am not buying a travel size Clorox wipes to use at the gym… I might as well use workout gloves, and carry that around with a purse… nope. Lol
Fine. Don’t come crying to me when you have a fungus on your hands ??
Elijah Jackson I could picture that!!! I would never workout with you again
Cory Talbott never lol
Just why you wipe down things before and after you use em. Simple courtesy. The other answer is don’t be a bitch and play in the dirt a little.
Unless you are using desinfectant when you wipe then you are just moving bacteria from side to side
I know that. I always wash my hands after a workout. Even before I hit the shower.
Or maybe mutha fuckas shoukd be hygienic and clean the equipment after use… dirty muthafuckas
Chico Geen
Scott Davidson its heritage! Not bacteria!
Humans have more bacteria than toilet seats, about five pounds each.
Ylva, samen sporten op de wc?
And this surprises anyone?
Albin Alija, säger ju att det inte finns nått äckligare än ett gym
We all family anyway.
This just in, hand sanitizer doesnt work either
The gym is dirty as hell I’ve gotten ring worm on more than one occasion. That shit takes like a month to go away.
Jonathan Boivin eurk
Ouais mais les siege de toilettes sont fait pour eliminer les bacteries de la facon qu’il sont concu, alors ya aussi la fausse croyance qui autant de bacteries sur un siege de toilette, mais effectivement cest assez deg lol
Timara Essetta
I wash my hands first thing when I’m finished my workout. People are disgusting and lord knows what they touch before the weights you use
Umar Farooq
Ha to haath dho lete hain gym ke baad.
It’s good for the immune system 😉
Bianka Jayne see what I am saying!!! It’s fucking gross!!
? ? ?
This article proves that weights might also affect your ability to execute the English language
Exactly why I wear gloves fuck that there’s some nasty mofos probably use the bathroom scratch a nut and not even was their hands
I wish people would realise just because there is alot of bacteria, doesn’t mean it’s worse than piss and shit, idiots being scared of bacteria, there’s definitely more bacteria in your mouth or intestines than on a toilet seat….
No shit ,public toilet seats are designed to keep bacteria away , pretty sure no one does gvt the sitting on the thrown.
Cincidering hand sanitizer is carcinogenic… I’ll pass and just wash my hands.
Lick my fingers after every rep for super powah
Mitzel Braza Ledesma Brimar Oadal Jerome Jan
Haha
Bro study finds – deal with it and don’t be a bitch , bring a towel and wear gloves if you wana be a pussy
Briony Gene
Told you
So do cell phones.
Casey Truelson lol
Hahaha..no matter how clean a gym is, it’s still gross..
Jimmy Drarig
Bacterias be trying to make them some gainz maaaaayyyn