Lean and Fit: How germy is your gym?

One day at the gym, I watched a fellow member as she prepared to take a group exercise class alongside me. The sessions focus on a lot of core work, and that day we were using a mat, a medicine ball, a stability ball and dumbbells. While the rest of us were – maybe – wiping down the mats, this woman also thoroughly wiped down the medicine ball, the dumbbells and the very large stability ball.

It had never occurred to me to wipe down a stability ball. But it turns out, that's good practice, according to Scott Douglas's story about bacteria and funguses in gyms (also check out the fun illustration by Isabelle Cardinal). This story isn't intended to freak anyone out or to discourage gym use but to arm fitness buffs with strategies to avoid the germy organisms flexing away on the equipment alongside you.

If you have any more questions about gyms — or any other places we pursue wellness —drop me a note.

Elizabeth Chang, Wellness editor

Your gym is teeming with invisible members: Germs. Here's how to avoid them.

Bacteria are all over workout equipment, fungal infections lurk in showers.

By Scott Douglas · Read more

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