three women with smartphones in gym clothes

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses, including gyms, had to figure out how to protect their employees and gym members. Unfortunately, one of the main obstacles gyms face is related to ensuring gym members’ adherence to hygienic measures. Namely, while exercising, people tend to forget or neglect gym safety regulations. For this reason, we will discuss how to stop gym germs before they harm your members.

Enforcing strict sanitary measures is the most efficient way to ensure your gym members do not contract easily transmissible diseases. Also, it is not only the coronavirus that can endanger the health of gym users. Gym equipment, machines, mats, and other gym elements can be sources of E. coli, flu, and MRSA. In this respect, providing access to hand hygiene sanitizer dispensers alongside other preventive measures is something that can immensely help you in your effort to keep your clients safe in the gym.

And remember! Healthy clients raving about your dedication to keeping them safe is the best way to boost your gym’s reputation. In light of this, let’s look at which preventive measures you should introduce to your gym.

Spread out sanitation notices all around the gym

You can begin your sanitation mission by providing helpful information about hygiene all around your gym. Sometimes, people catch diseases in the gym simply because they are not adequately informed. To prevent such unfortunate oversights, you should tape down easily readable sanitation instructions in key spots all over the gym.

Aside from text, follow up the brief instructions with pictures or catchy warning phrases. Try not to write the warnings using complicated medical terms and long sentences. Instead, go for short, impactful, memorable, and even humorous notifications. For example, you can write something along the lines of:

• ‘Sanitize your hands all day and keep the Covid away’
• ’Don’t touch the machine if your hands aren’t completely clean’
• ‘CLEAN ME PLEASE’

Be sure to place the instructions in the locker rooms, toilets, machines, next to weights, mats, equipment, etc. Basically, wherever a lot of touching or human contact happens.

Warn people that they need to clean yoga matts before and after use.

Alt: a woman doing a plank on a clean yoga matt

Instruct gym-goers they need to be careful with water bottles, door knobs, lockers, etc.

Your fitness instructors, personal trainers, and other gym staff may also spread information about prevention techniques. In line with this, instruct your employees to draw gym members’ attention to what things they should avoid doing. So, point out places and surfaces in the gym they always need to disinfect before and after use.

Although your staff and your clients may think this is redundant, it is best if you do not leave anything to chance. One reason why hand sanitation is so crucial in the gym is that exercising makes people forget themselves. In other words, no matter how conscious and responsible the gym-goer is, moments of inattentiveness happen to the best of us.

People forget about their surroundings when they exercise.

People forget about their surroundings when they exercise.

So, whether they are weight-lifting, doing cardio, or yoga, they should always pay attention not to touch their water bottle cap unless they have sanitized their hands and the cap first. The same applies to lockers, locker keys, boxing gloves, and other often-touched pieces of gym equipment.

Also, it makes sense to choose automatized devices such as soap and sanitation liquid dispensers or lockers you can open remotely, or with a card. In this way, gym members are not exposed to germs since they do not have to touch anything.

Place hand sanitizer dispensers and other sanitation products everywhere

Be sure to provide easy and ample access to everything gym members need to sanitize their hands and equipment. In fact, you will see that people tend to make use of clean paper towels and hand sanitizer dispensers all the time if they do not have to search for them. So, if a hand sanitizer is within reach, there is a greater chance that you will stop gym germs before they harm your members.

Of course, other things can be used to supplement hand sanitizer dispensers in the gym. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed what hygienic standards in the gym look like. Antibacterial sprays, wipes, free masks, and other sanitation products have become indispensable when it comes to enforcing new precaution measures since the start of the pandemic.

Do not neglect feet protection in the gym

Interestingly enough, showers, locker room floors, and yoga mats are germ paradises because they are stomped on all the time. And by a lot of people. This means that ensuring hands and equipment are disinfected is, unfortunately, not enough. People can also spread contagious diseases through footwear.

Gym equipment should be sanitized before and after use.

Alt: a man holding a barbell in a gym.

Yes, that means that you have to encourage people to use disinfectant liquid not only on their hands but also on the soles of their shoes or feet if they exercise barefoot. Aside from this, the floors need to be wiped with strong disinfectants and cleaning solutions at least once an hour.

Another way to stop the spread of diseases is to deny entry to the showers without slippers or flip-flops. Gym users may start complaining, so instruct your staff to explain that even a micro-cut on their foot is enough to allow diseases into the bloodstream.

Smartphone sanitation

Contrary to popular belief, one of the greatest gym germ allies is not our hands. It is our smartphones. People make use of smartphones all the time while they are exercising. They might listen to music, follow a training session online, monitor their heartbeat or running speed… As useful as they are, smartphones are generally very unsanitary and, what’s more, rarely sanitized. To stop gym germs before they harm your members, make sure you draw attention to smartphones as carriers of disease.

The post How to Stop Gym Germs Before They Harm Your Members appeared first on Doctorclean.

Hand disinfection is considered the most important tool for infection prevention in hospitals and clinics. Awareness of the benefits of hand hygiene in public spaces is also on the rise due to the novel coronavirus.

Research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that 20% of respiratory infections (e.g., the common cold) can be prevented through handwashing. Precluding these everyday illnesses through handwashing can also have a much broader positive effect on overall wellbeing, as reducing infections helps avoid overuse of antibiotics, which is the leading cause of antibiotic resistance around the world. As health and well-being are intricately tied to personal hygiene, long-term care facilities should continue providing proactive solutions for an environment that is less conducive to spread.

cdc, prevention, healthcare, infection, hand washing, sanitizing

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The problem related to hygiene that we find in school gyms does not differ much from that in conventional gyms or sports centers.
The type of public is one of the main differences and, after all, determining to carry out the cleaning and disinfection.
Another conditioning factor is that the gym is integrated within the school complex. So, in the same way that we try to preserve optimal levels of hygiene in the classroom, we must do the same in school gyms.
Next, we differentiate the cleaning in two areas: the gymnasium or sports center itself (where the activity takes place) and that of the changing rooms.

Ecological cleaners and disinfectants for the gym area
In the gym area it is important to clean and disinfect both the elements intended for sport (balls, bars, ribbons …) and the most common surfaces.
In these cases, cleaning and disinfection of the soil frequently makes school gyms healthier spaces since, this is the perfect seat for dirt and germs generated.
For cleaning the use of ecological cleaners is recommended, while for disinfection we must opt ​​for a product with low levels of toxicity.

Disinfectants composed of quaternary ammoniums are a good option.

Fungicides in changing rooms

For the cleaning and disinfection of changing rooms we can also opt for ecological cleaners.
But as regards disinfectants, those that represent the best choice are those of a fungicidal nature.
Body sweat added to the moisture in showers and changing rooms are the perfect breeding ground for the appearance of germs in general and fungi in particular.

Odor eliminators and air fresheners in school gyms

How could it be otherwise, both the gym area and the locker room tend to present odoriferous contamination.
In previous articles we already commented that the continuous exposure to bad odors results in headaches and lack of concentration.
Microdor is an odor eliminator with low levels of toxicity that, unlike air fresheners, eradicates bad odors.
On the other hand, we can also use air fresheners to prevent odor pollution.
Personal hygiene in school gyms

Personal hygiene is an aspect that does not depend on the staff in charge of cleaning but that conditions, in one way or another, the hygiene of the space itself.
Therefore, it is important to provide soaps for showers in changing rooms and adequate equipment for personal hygiene.
In this sense, hand hygiene also plays a very important role.

If you need to comply with hygiene information in other areas of the school you can consult our guide for cleaning and disinfection in schools.

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