Dear Fellow Gym Members,

I seriously commend you on the fact that you are making a concerted effort to get fit, lose those unwanted pounds, fight obesity, build muscle or whatever it is that brings you to the gym early in the morning or immediately after work. I really do! You are doing your part to fight the obesity epidemic. After all, who wants to be a statistic? Not me!

Now that I’ve done my good deed for the day (telling you all how wonderful it is that you are making an effort to do something about your health), I’ve got a rant. But wait, I’ve got one more thing to say. Have you ever noticed how much encouragement we all need? It’s like we are children again. We need to be told “good job,” “you are doing great” or something else along those lines in order to get through any task no matter how large or small it may be. Perhaps, we should head to the childrens’ section of the gym!

Okay, so we may need words of encouragement like young children do when they are learning to read, count or ride a bike, but it is very important to remember that we are not children!

The funny thing about the gym is how everyone treats the gym as their own personal space. The locker room is not your own personal bathroom and the treadmill is not your own personal treadmill. You need to learn to clean up after yourself. Unless of course, you plan on buying mom a gym membership too so that she can trail behind you and clean up your mess.

First, let’s start with the equipment. The treadmill isn’t yours, the stair stepper isn’t yours, the elliptical isn’t yours and neither are the free weights. Are you getting my point? Please remember to wipe down the equipment after you are finished using it. As a germ-a-phoebe, I do not want to contract whatever illness it is that you may have. Also, I do not want to touch your sweat. The only sweat I am comfortable with is my own sweat.

Let’s head back to the locker room. The shower, sinks and toilets do not belong to you either. As a result, you should be treating these items as if they did belong to you. If you treat your own home or your apartment like crap, let’s look at it this way. You are dating a new guy and visiting his home for the first time. Would you leave his bathroom an absolute mess? I’d like to think not. If you’d like your relationship to continue, you’ll probably be on your best behavior.

At the gym, you should try to:

• Clean up your wet towels off the floor.
• If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat. We’ve all seen those signs and honestly they may do some good on the gym wall.
• Don’t leave your hair everywhere. Sure, your hair is long, thick and beautiful but it does not need to be sticking all over the sinks or in the shower stall.

What’s that? You just muttered to yourself that the gym has a cleaning staff to do this kind of stuff for you? Yes, the gym does have a cleaning staff. A cleaning staff that is likely paid minimum wage to do way more work than they initially signed on for. The cleaning staff is paid to replace empty products and make sure the floor and counter tops are clean. This does not mean the very nice cleaning lady is paid to be your personal valet.

The floor is not a garbage can. There are trash cans all over the gym locker room. Do we need to ask gym management to install flashing signs to direct you where to through your garbage? I sure hope not!

Next time you are at the gym and are about to do something a little bit questionable, ask yourself: “What Would Your Mother Think?”

Man, us ladies can get a little messy sometimes!

Sincerely,

Your Friendly Gym Neat Freak and Germ-a-phoebe

P.S. Try Athlean XX for Women is you want to workout in the privacy of your own neat home!