Gyms and fitness centers see a lot of people over the course of a single day. Now more than ever proper gym cleaning and sanitation are the keys to a fitness centers success. Clients and new customers step through the door expecting the utmost level of cleanliness while they work out, as well as shower and get dressed again. Ensuring that you are meeting your client’s expectations as well as all local safety codes can feel daunting.

In this guide, we will take a closer look at how to properly clean gyms, fitness centers, and exercise areas to exact standards. This includes meeting your client’s expectations as well as any pertinent health and safety regulations.

Dangerous Or An Improperly Clean Fitness Center

Since so many people come and go on a given day a gym, locker room, and shower area can become a repository for a wide range of potentially harmful pathogens and diseases. Many of which thrive in the warm moist environment of a fitness center. This includes things like:

  • Athlete’s foot
  • Fungal diseases
  • Mold
  • Mildew
  • MRSA outbreaks
  • Influenza
  • Staph infections
  • Dermatophytes
  • Diseases carried by bodily fluids
  • What Fitness Center Clients Expect

The sweat and body odor of a gym is just one of the more obvious things that need to be dealt with on a regular basis. While these things need to be taken care of, many gym-goers also expect other hygiene needs to be met in a gym or fitness center. This can include things like good lighting, and sufficient deodorizing. It also means properly maintaining bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower areas that are free of things like mold and pervasive mildew.

Dealing With Bacteria

Bacteria is a constant problem in gyms and fitness centers. While it can reside in sweaty gym equipment it is even more rampant in locker rooms and showers. Even if your gym requires members to wipe down a piece of equipment after using it, chances are good that not everyone will abide by the rules 100% of the time. Keeping attendants in the exercise area, both provide a presence and a person who can closely look after exercise equipment after a member is done using it.

Dealing With Mold & Mildew

Mold and mildew can be a major problem in just about any wet area of your gym. They are especially problematic in locker rooms, shower areas, and laundry baskets full of wet towels.

They need moisture and warmth to thrive. Setting up dehumidifiers to help reduce ambient humidity levels in the locker room areas and updating your building’s HVAC system will go a long way toward preventing mold colonies and mildew patches. Properly sanitizing shower areas and providing them with a weekly steam/deep clean will also help eliminate any burgeoning mold colonies while also killing any mildew that tries to establish a presence in corners or the grout lines between tiles.

Professional Safety Codes For Gyms & Fitness Centers

With outbreaks of MRSA, COVID-19, and other communicable diseases in the news, gyms, and fitness centers have come under more scrutiny than ever from public health institutions. This has lead to a bevy of different state and local laws. If you are a gym owner or fitness center manager it is your responsibility to stay apprised of these laws and make an active effort to uphold them to the utmost degree.

While things like mask mandates and other local laws need to be adhered to, there are other things you can do to help maintain a clean and sanitary workout area.

Bottle Filling Stations

They provide members with access to clean drinking water without the cross-contamination risks associated with drinking fountains or manually filling a water bottle from a communal sink.

Hand Sanitizer Stations

They provide members and employees with a quick way to eliminate germs from their hands after touching high contact areas. It can also go a long way toward reducing bacterial transfer from a person’s hands to weight, handles, and display screens. Then make sure that they are routinely refilled for continuous access.

Multiple Towel Stations

Sweaty towels are an unfortunate reality in a lot of gyms and fitness centers. Providing members with towels they can use to wipe the sweat off of equipment after they are done using it and placing convenient laundry bins throughout the facility will go a long way toward encouraging use. It also helps reduce the risk of mold and mildew that is so prevalent in large fabric laundry bins that often fill to the brim in the locker room.

Offer Free Disposable Masks

Even if your area doesn’t have a mask mandate in place, offering inexpensive single-use disposable masks will go a long way toward making clients who are concerned about airborne pathogens feel more comfortable in your facility.

Benefits Of Outsourcing Your Fitness Center’s Cleaning Needs

The reality is that most gym owners, fitness center managers, and staff aren’t trained or don’t have access to professional quality cleaning equipment. Not to mention the fact that constantly exacting a high level of cleanliness and sanitation can eat away at the cost efficiency of your gym’s man hours. Outsourcing your cleaning needs to a professional company like Building Services Inc. has several benefits.

Cost-Effectiveness

Dollar for dollar our cleaning experts can sanitize a gym faster and at a generally lower cost than a typical employee or trainer can do.

Focus On Service Members

Your trainers and employees can stay focused on helping members and maintaining equipment rather than trying to sanitize high-traffic areas.

Professional Products & Equipment

A lot of the cleaning products and cleaning equipment available at the consumer level simply aren’t effective or are more labor-intensive than the professional-grade equipment that we have at our fingertips.

Documentation

If state and local laws in your area have regulations in place about what things in a fitness center need to be cleaned and how we can provide you with all the necessary documentation. This can go a long way toward reducing inspections or streamlining any health and safety code inspections that do monitor your facility.