Originally Published by The Conversation
A friend of mine, on a recent trip to the gym, declined to use the machine for drying his trunks – that gym equivalent of a salad spinner which removes excess water from your swimming costume. His reason? The amount of “faecal excrement” it was likely to contain.
I went ahead and used it – my own trunks were soaking. It was only later, when I reflected on his comments, that I wondered if he might be right.
A 2020 study, for example, examined the microbiome of skinfolds including the intergluteal cleft – the space between your buttocks. It identified an abundance of different microbes in this area, many of which were likely to have come from faecal contamination.
So perhaps my friend is correct, and the hygiene in communal spaces in gyms is on a par with a bowl of mixed nuts at the pub? You know, the one in which patrons may have dunked unwashed hands on their return from the toilet.
On further investigation, in addition to the hot tub, pool and showers (all of which can have well-known health risks), studies show there may well be other parts of your gym that aren’t as hygienic as you would hope.
Gym equipment has multiple surfaces, nooks and crannies that come into contact with many unclean hands and sweaty bodies. One study analysed all these areas to identify the types of bacteria that could be festering there.
Among these in abundance were the bacteria firmicutes and actinobacteria, many examples of which are normally found in humans. Various firmicuta species make up the microbiome of the gut. I’ll leave it to your imagination to work out how they might have wound up on the handles of the pec deck.
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