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Maybe I should clarify what I mean by sweaty gyms. Of course gyms should be sweaty as without the sweat people just aren’t training hard enough but what gets up most peoples nose is using equipment where the previous person has left a nice sweaty puddle for you to sit in.
Of course the easy solution (and what most gyms ask you politely to do) is to towel down the machine after use so that it is nice and dry for the next person. But surely just wiping the machine down is not going to be enough; what about all the germs? Maybe the answer is that all gym users should carry a towel round with them and some anti-bacterial spray. At least this way it will be completely clean. You may get a few odd looks though.
How germ laden is sweat?
According to Birgit Schittek of the Department of Dermatology at a university in Tubingen, Germany sweat actually contains a substance that kills many common types of bacteria and yeast. So we could almost look at sweat as being the bodies very own anti-bacterial spray. The active antibacterial agent in sweat is called “dermcidin” and is used by the body to help in the fight against infections and disease.
How affective is Dermcidin?
They tested it at the university in conditions that simulated human sweat and the skin against E coli, S aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and a yeast called Candida albicans. The results were astonishing; Dermcidin had killed 100% of the bacteria and a large portion of the yeast.
So it seems like sweat is our body’s first line of defence against germs and helps protect our skin from infection.
How does this relate back to the gym?
I am not going to get all scientific about this topic as its relationship to fitness is small; however it does seem that a quick wipe over with a towel to make it dry for the next person is sufficient enough. So if you were disgusted by the sweat before you now know that you won’t catch anything. Maybe it is even safer for you to follow the sweaty person round the gym to stay bacteria free.
This of course doesn’t mean that gyms shouldn’t disinfect the gyms regularly throughout the day. For one a sweaty gym may be bacteria free but it does smell bad. Also because the sweat is fairly acidic after some time it will start to eat at the padding on the machines causing them to appear worn far more quickly than they should.
Summary
If you train and you know you sweat, always go to the gym with a towel to make the equipment usable for the next person.
If you see a sweaty patch on a machine you want to use you don’t need to worry about catching germs. (it’s still disgusting! -Beeble).
If you work in a gym make sure that you regularly clean them because it will start to get expensive on replacement padding.
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