Hi. I've been reading here for a long time; I registered recently to post this thread.
I've belonged to the same gym since the early 90s. When I travel, I use hotel gyms, which aren't really gyms. A few other times, I've used full-on gyms in other cities/countries, but I haven't done that broadly enough to spot real differences between those facilities and my own. A membership in the gym where I belong is relatively expensive even though the facility is fairly far behind the curve in terms of adopting new trends and offering even remotely state-of-the-art features.
Anyway, I'm surprised in terms of some of the behavior of some of the gym's members and I also have some questions about a few of the gym's rules. A bunch of other people complain about or question these same things and I wonder if these are problems/issues in other facilities as well. Please let me know about your experiences.
. cardio machines. Does your gym impose time limits on cardio machines? If so, what are those limits, how are they enforced, and do people tend to heed the limits? Do you have to sign up for a machine and if so, can you renew it after a given period of time? Are there waiting lists for machines that are in use?
. coughing/sneezing. Do you think it's acceptable for someone to cough or blow their nose into gym-provided towels? (Some people cringe at this; others are much more offended by someone who doesn't do that and who, instead, coughs/sneezes into cupped hands and then holds onto the machines afterwards. Some people are angry when a coughing someone continues to exercise regardless of where they put their coughing and sneezing.)
. spitting. Do people at your gym spit into the water fountains or shower drains or towels?
. reserving machines. Do people reserve machines at your gym (either for their own use or for a friend)? (When I say reserve I mean someone who puts a towel/water bottle on an empty machine to hold it until they're ready to use that machine.)
. cleaning machines. What sort of cleaners and towels does your gym provide for wiping down machines after use?
. hours. What are your gym's hours of operation?
. showers. Do you have stalls and if so, do the stalls have doors, curtains? (I ask this because most of the gyms in the U.S. that I've used have stalls for women and I hear that most in the U.S. offer communal showers for men. A lot of my male friends were surprised to hear that women's showers, here at least, usually have shower doors or curtains. In Europe, I used gyms that had communal showers for women--walls with shower heads and no "modesty panels" between the shower heads. An aside: the water in those European showers turned off every 30-40 seconds and that was by design--to save water. You could turn the water on again each time it stopped. That was interesting to me, especially contrasted against people at my gym who "reserve" showers by turning the water on and pulling the curtain while they use the adjacent baths or saunas.)
I've belonged to the same gym since the early 90s. When I travel, I use hotel gyms, which aren't really gyms. A few other times, I've used full-on gyms in other cities/countries, but I haven't done that broadly enough to spot real differences between those facilities and my own. A membership in the gym where I belong is relatively expensive even though the facility is fairly far behind the curve in terms of adopting new trends and offering even remotely state-of-the-art features.
Anyway, I'm surprised in terms of some of the behavior of some of the gym's members and I also have some questions about a few of the gym's rules. A bunch of other people complain about or question these same things and I wonder if these are problems/issues in other facilities as well. Please let me know about your experiences.
. cardio machines. Does your gym impose time limits on cardio machines? If so, what are those limits, how are they enforced, and do people tend to heed the limits? Do you have to sign up for a machine and if so, can you renew it after a given period of time? Are there waiting lists for machines that are in use?
. coughing/sneezing. Do you think it's acceptable for someone to cough or blow their nose into gym-provided towels? (Some people cringe at this; others are much more offended by someone who doesn't do that and who, instead, coughs/sneezes into cupped hands and then holds onto the machines afterwards. Some people are angry when a coughing someone continues to exercise regardless of where they put their coughing and sneezing.)
. spitting. Do people at your gym spit into the water fountains or shower drains or towels?
. reserving machines. Do people reserve machines at your gym (either for their own use or for a friend)? (When I say reserve I mean someone who puts a towel/water bottle on an empty machine to hold it until they're ready to use that machine.)
. cleaning machines. What sort of cleaners and towels does your gym provide for wiping down machines after use?
. hours. What are your gym's hours of operation?
. showers. Do you have stalls and if so, do the stalls have doors, curtains? (I ask this because most of the gyms in the U.S. that I've used have stalls for women and I hear that most in the U.S. offer communal showers for men. A lot of my male friends were surprised to hear that women's showers, here at least, usually have shower doors or curtains. In Europe, I used gyms that had communal showers for women--walls with shower heads and no "modesty panels" between the shower heads. An aside: the water in those European showers turned off every 30-40 seconds and that was by design--to save water. You could turn the water on again each time it stopped. That was interesting to me, especially contrasted against people at my gym who "reserve" showers by turning the water on and pulling the curtain while they use the adjacent baths or saunas.)
