If you’ve put your gym membership to use this year, there’s a good chance that you’ve encountered added precautions when it comes to cleaning and sanitising. As gyms began to re-open and pandemic restrictions lifted, it was imperative for studios to take their cleaning precautions to a new level. Many facilities implemented newer, stricter sanitising guidelines, while others altered the structure of their gym to minimise the spread of germs or illness.
The pandemic forced many studio owners and even gym goers to take a closer look at ways to improve cleanliness. Despite many facilities returning to more normal structures, it’s safe to say that sanitisation will remain a top priority moving forward.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the best cleaning protocol for shared gym spaces as we move toward normal fitness environments.
Exercise is an essential part of living a healthy lifestyle. But ironically, gyms can also be an extremely common place to encounter infections or spread germs. This is due to a number of considerations, with sweat and bacteria in hightouch spaces at the top of the list.
It’s important for gym staff to identify these hightouch, shared areas of the facility and have set cleaning procedures in place to keep everything safe for their members.
Like any restroom area, a clean gym bathroom will be a space that is frequently cleaned and disinfected. However, a fitness facility will need to take extra precautions and proper cleaning steps due to the nature of their facilities. Employees should spend time throughout each working day tending to bathroom areas.
Here are a few best practices to implement in daily cleaning of gym bathrooms:
Similarly to bathrooms, locker rooms need special attention in gym facilities. Common areas like locker rooms can become a place for gym members to linger before and after workouts, making it a hightouch area. Because this is a high touch area, this can mean more sweat, germs and bacteria. Locker rooms should be cleaned and disinfected at least once per day.
However, it’s wise for a gym owner to make note of slow and busy times of the day and throughout the week. Having a general idea of when there are large amounts of members coming in and out helps cleanliness in two ways. First, it gives employees a good idea of when extra sanitisation is needed. When traffic through locker rooms is high, it’s helpful to have an extra round of gym cleaning, while knowing when locker rooms are used the least offers a good time for deeper cleaning.
Here are a few locker room considerations for gym owners to keep in mind when creating cleaning guidelines:
In general, all gym equipment should be cleaned and sanitised regularly throughout the day. This can be done by designated cleaning staff, gym employees or trainers as a part of their shift duties. In addition to that, the studio should make it easy and accessible for members to disinfect and clean their own exercise equipment as well - specifically with workout mats and other soft surfaces.
Places where clients lie down, sit or stretch encounter higher amounts of sweat, germs and bacteria. They also happen to be the surfaces that hold on to large amounts of moisture or body fluids. Gym facility owners should make cleaning products, such as microfibre cloths and cleaning solution sprays accessible near benches, mats, stretching areas and anywhere members tend to sit for exercises.
Each gym will have different needs depending on its size, equipment and facility accommodations. While cleaning at the end of the day is crucial, cleaning guidelines should also note that sanitising as needed is equally as important.
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