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Is there a reason to think that the spray crap that we use on the gym equipment is not capable of killing fungus as well?
Depends on the spray crap. Even 10% bleach (if mixed properly) needs to be wet on the surface for a full 10 minutes to kill all bugs. I never see medical offices use it properly, do ya think gym employees know any better? All they know is spray & wipe.
There's a difference between being a germaphobe / not being able to handle an image of a foot and preferring not to have some middle age man's nasty sweaty feet literally six inches away from my face while I am exercising. The majority of people seem to think this is disguisting / at best unneccessary.
I just find it very odd that someone would be so ignorant to their surroundings as to walk around in barefeet at the gym (I'm not talking specific situations, such as martial arts, this is at Equinox, a normal fitness center) and even harder to believe that the gym would ignore complaints by countless members to accommodate people who would be no worse off having to put their shoes on, like every single other person.
One poster pointed out that there is no difference between bare feet and doing, say, pushups w/ no gloves on. Bare skin on floor in both cases. Another responded w/ some studies confirming that point.
I run barefoot on the treadmill at the gym that we have at work. It's pretty much unsupervised, so there is nobody to tell me not to do it. I've gotten (infrequent) looks from other people working out, but I wipe down the machine, including the belt, when I'm done. I figure that all the risk is on me. If somebody is going to pick up cooties from the mill it's going to be me, since everyone else wears shoes. I'm not worried about it. Since I've started running barefoot a few miles each week, my foot strength has improved by leaps & bounds, and I'm not about to give it up.
WOW!! You would cancel your membership because of that? Wow!! Equinox is the BEST non Crossfit gym you can join. The absolute BEST. It is the nicest, cleanest, most well kept gym I have ever seen. At any time in any Equinox gyms, you will find a small army of people cleaning the floors, the equipment, everything. If it were a restaurant, it would be given an "A" rating by the board of health. THAT is just how spotless and clean every Equinox I have ever been in was.
As was mentioned above, most martial arts schools/dojos/kwoons you will go to have "No Shoes" and/or "No socks" rule. They dont have any problems.
Seriously though dude, if you want to cancel your membership because you sometimes see people stretching in their bare feet, then maybe the problem is you mr ocd.
Equinox is wayyyyyy over rated. We have them in the SF Bay Area as well. I live between two, San Mateo and Palo Alto. I had a week pass at San Mateo and I would not join if it was the same price as my gym Crunch. So Equinox is almost 200 a month. The workout room is downstairs with low celings and seriously is like a dungeon. They have a spinning room and another room for classes.
At Crunch I pay 39 bucks it is 2 story but super high celings and windows all around. 3 rooms of classes. Like Equinox there is mouthwash towel service q-tips, cotton balls, etc and the janitorial staff is constantly cleaning the equipment. And the staff is super friendly. They always great you when you walk in and say good by when you leave. I didn't expect the type of service I receive for 39 a month. I would never pay 200 a month for less then what I get. Both these gyms are in San Mateo.
The esthetics, service, class offerings, and even equipment are better or on par at my gym for 80% less. And they both have the exact same teachers for the classes except Crunch has an extra room and 1/3 more classes.
And yes sometimes I walk from the yoga room to the locker room without shoes. If I was using the stretching area you bet your life I would not be wearing shoes as I would be on my own mat and no shoes allowed on my mat. By the way I have never smelled stinky feet by people that do yoga. It may be a New York thing.
One poster pointed out that there is no difference between bare feet and doing, say, pushups w/ no gloves on. Bare skin on floor in both cases. Another responded w/ some studies confirming that point.
I have been researching this subject for several years now and am surprised I only came across this discussion today. I was involved in the WSJ article linked above, and continue to study all of the newer data.
The short answer is:
Shoes or barefoot in the gym? Science favors bare feet whether we are talking about fitness, health and safety, germ transmission, or $.
For those willing to give up those benefits and put themselves at increased risk of damage to their bodies and microbial infections of the feet by wearing shoes they should be given permission to do so. Those preferring to work out barefoot should be allowed their personal choice as well. Members grossed out should suck it up and realize that their distorted view of a normal body part was only brought on by the grossness of feet that was created by shoe wearing.
Plenty of links available if anyone is interested, but if this thread is so old that it's essentially dead I won't bother for now.
BTW, barefoot gym rats are not all that rare. The Barefoot Runners Society www.thebarefootrunners.org] has over 6,000 members and many of them resort to the gym for cross training and inclement weather treadmilling.
This seems bizarre to me. There's of course nothing wrong with being barefoot in the appropriate class (yoga, martial arts, etc). I do see people walk the hall of the building I do my yoga class in barefoot going from locker room to class -- to me that's not ideal, I personally wear flip flops and take them off in class and place them in the back of the room. But I'll give it a pass for the most part.
But to actually go barefoot on the fitness floor of the main gym sounds like a bad idea. If people have to pass through the main gym to get to their class, they should wear flip flops IMO. Heck I'd wear them for my own protection, gym floors are gross.
Current research backs up the appropriateness of bare feet when lifting, treadmilling, elipticysing, stair stepping, floor stretching etc. It also shows how bare feet on the general floor and equipment do not lead to an increase in disease transmission.
I've been doing some primal movement & barefoot work. I'm loving doing certain movements barefoot, basically almost all my leg work and crawling, rolling, etc. I take off my shoes in the area where I'm working out; either the squat cages or the artificial turf area. The gym can worry about keeping things clean.
The willPower Method® | The Original Foot Fitness Program. requires bare feet, as does Yoga, Pilates, Gymnastics, Modern Dance, and most martial arts. People have become so foot phobic that if things hadn't turned around approximately 6 years ago we'd soon be seeing water shoes on competitive divers and swimmers!
Surfers experimenting with neoprene booties for cold water NEVER wear them in warm water unless rocks or coral make them required safety equipment, they understand more than most other athletes how important the feedback from the soles is to proper balance.
It's a shame that people are so close minded that they don't want to accept how the germ-based reasoning for "footwear required" has been debunked by the medical community
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All they know is spray & wipe.
