Locker Room Shower Etiquette

[bounceswoosh]

I've started a pretty intense/frequent workout routine. There's only one shower in the women's locker room. (It's a climbing gym - most people don't shower. I am lifting, and I end up sweating like a pig.) Regrettably, it has a pretty large alcove with a little bench.

A couple of times now, I've been waiting for the shower while the woman inside is clearly "getting ready," including getting dressed, hair product - even SHOES. Actually, lace-up boots.

I sort of vaguely understand that some people are modest even in same-sex locker rooms. I certainly understand that there are trans people who for obvious reasons do not want to be naked in front of people who might freak out (but I doubt that's the most frequent reason people at this gym are changing in the shower area). But there's only one shower! If you really can't deal, you could wrap yourself in a towel and change in one of the two bathroom stalls.

When I shower, I am intensely aware there might be someone waiting. I shower as quickly as I can, wrap myself in a towel, and do everything else (deodorant, face cream, and changing my clothes) in the common area. It may only save 2-3 minutes, but that could be important to the person who needs to be back at the office for a meeting.

Am I nuts here? How do you feel about being naked in a women's locker room?

 

[geargrrl]

I didn't at first relize you meant IN the shower. I thought you meant in the shower area. Sometimes people are in their own zone and don't mean to be rude. Perhaps polite..."excuse me, I actually need to SHOWER so I can get to work. Would you mind getting dressed out here?" might suffice.

It might not be an issue of being naked. But you never know. I've been told I shouldn't have stinky sweat in a gym. I've heard people b***h about little old ladies, wrinkles and all, baring it while changing for water aerobics class. Remember the instagram fiasco of a few years ago?

 

[bounceswoosh]

I didn't at first relize you meant IN the shower. I thought you meant in the shower area. Sometimes people are in their own zone and don't mean to be rude. Perhaps polite..."excuse me, I actually need to SHOWER so I can get to work. Would you mind getting dressed out here?" might suffice.

Well, it's a separate alcove. So they aren't in the shower per se, but they are in a locked off room (like a restroom door) so that no one else can get in. The shower itself has a partial glass wall so that there is no door and no privacy within the alcove. (It's very pretty, but I would have been much happier with two smaller, "normal" locker room showers in its place.)

It might not be an issue of being naked. But you never know. I've been told I shouldn't have stinky sweat in a gym. I've heard people b***h about little old ladies, wrinkles and all, baring it while changing for water aerobics class. Remember the instagram fiasco of a few years ago?

Hah, yeah, stop stinking!

(Yesterday, I did my cardio workout, then stayed in the same gear for a yoga class two hours later. I was .... fragrant. I didn't feel great about it, but I'm already doing way too much laundry lately.)

There was a great Miss Manners where someone complained about people grunting in the gym, saying it was unnecessary. I think of that every time I'm doing something challenging in the weight room and - yeah, sometimes noises happen. It happens. Sadly, Miss Manners agreed that grunting was unnecessary, but suggested the person might be happier at a different gym.

 

[tinymoose]

At a bare minimum, I'd have to put on a bra and underwear under that towel before heading to a communal area to change. I'm like Charlotte York or Tobias Funke. lol

 

[RachelV]

... Sadly, Miss Manners agreed that grunting was unnecessary, but suggested the person might be happier at a different gym.

Ha! Miss Manners has clearly never tried super hard at anything physical. It's a GYM, not the Amtrak quiet car or whatever.

 

[bounceswoosh]

Ha! Miss Manners has clearly never tried super hard at anything physical. It's a GYM, not the Amtrak quiet car or whatever.

After some more reading -

Apparently a lot of people think grunting is rude in gyms.

I think there is some amount of interpretation required - like maybe one at the end of a set isn't the same as squealing like a pig every lift.

Planet Fitness actually bans grunting! A guy got kicked out for grunting while lifting 500 pounds.

 

[Christy]

I'd talk to management. They should have a policy about not bogarting the shower. My last gym had signs everywhere telling people what they couldn't do, and a lot of it was about not hogging the equipment or spaces.

What does this person do when she comes out to find you standing there in a towel?

 

[bounceswoosh]

I'd talk to management. They should have a policy about not bogarting the shower. My last gym had signs everywhere telling people what they couldn't do, and a lot of it was about not hogging the equipment or spaces.

I did submit a comment (they have one of those comment boxes). I mentioned it to my trainer, and he said that signs are mostly useless - they only give you something to point at when someone's doing something rude/unsafe. But that's better than nothing, right?

Speaking of doing something ... unexpected. He has clips fixed to the wall from the floor to maybe 7' up at foot-wide intervals. Next to a bunch of hooks for those stretchy straps with the handles on either end. The idea is that you affix the band to the clip and do exercises. I use it for shoulder PT. Anyway ... apparently he recently walked in, and someone had decided they were coat racks.

COAT RACKS.

Mind you, this is not in the locker room. It's not even in the main climbing gym. It's inside the weight room, where every square inch is carefully planned to squeeze all possible utility from the space.

 

[newboots]

At a bare minimum, I'd have to put on a bra and underwear under that towel before heading to a communal area to change. I'm like Charlotte York or Tobias Funke. lol

But with someone waiting, you would wait to put on your shoes!

 

[Kimmyt]

I forget how BRC is set up, but at my rock gym the entrance to the bathrooms is open. And yeah, there is no direct line of sight into the changing area but I still feel a lot more exposed than I would at a gym with a door that actually opens and closes to enter the dressing room/shower area/bathroom. I mean, I don't shower or change at my gym so it's a moot point, but I guess in this instance if I was showering I would get changed in my shower stall. Getting changed in the bathroom stalls skeeves me out though. I wouldn't put my shoes on in the shower changing area though!!

 

[kiki]

I have gotten a lot more open this past year. And it feels great. Very empowering weirdly enough.
This is hilarious:

 

[Jilly]

I don't think our American Diva's have been subjected to Baroness Von Sketch.....

So, @bounceswoosh , there is no "gang" shower, aka high school with 6 heads etc. You have 1 shower stall...If that's the case, then it's rude. My gym, not a climbing, but full weight, machines, yoga studio, has 4 shower stalls in the women's change room. Dressing is done outside the wet area. Or in private changing stalls. Like toilet stalls without the plumbing. I think in 5 years I seen 1 lady use the shower stall. Most of us just head home and do whatever there.

Planet fitness is similar too.

 

[CrystalRose]

I don't know if it's "rude" per se...

This falls in the category of "Don't attribute malice to that which can be adequately explain by stupidity" or something like that.

It is very inconsiderate. I'm pretty shy in the gym to the point where I bought a very thin robe to hang out in. Maybe this is her deal. If you don't mind telling a semi naked woman to beat it then I say that's the best course of action. Nicely of course!

BTW @kiki too funny! These women are definitely at my gym. I can't wait to hit that level of not caring!

 

[tinymoose]

But with someone waiting, you would wait to put on your shoes!

No, but I'd have shower flip flops anyhow.... b/c I learned a cautionary college tale in plantar's warts. So no way would my feet touch tile.

 

[tinymoose]

As an aside, though, and judge me as gross as you will....

I'd never shower in the gym unless my home shower/bath was out of commission (b/c never nude... lol). I've generally found that even if I'm gross, while not ideal, a little deodorant, perfume, and dry shampoo can fix a lot as a temp solution. Or maybe I'm walking around smelling and everyone is judging me (although all my workouts are PM workouts).

 

[tinymoose]

But I will say, if I had been forced to communal shower in high school (I wasn't... we never showered), I would have packed a swimsuit before I would have gotten in a shower nude with other people. And I don't meant that as a judgment, it's just me and my own personal comfort zone.

 

[CarverJill]

People are rude.

I would have knocked on the door at least once, maybe pretended I was someone else and did it a 2nd time. At my gym people do this with the single stall bathrooms. They sit in there on their phones taking a dump for like 15 or more minutes while everyone trying to get into the 10 am class is just trying pee really quickly.

 

[VickiK]

@kiki LOL hilarious. As for the OP poll, bogarting that little shower area is not cool, it's selfish. I'd shower and then vamoose.

 

[MI-skier]

Did she see you waiting when coming out? If it happens again, I'd ask her politely on her way out with a smile, "As we only have 1 share to share, would you mind just showering so that I too can shower without a lengthy wait?" If she doesn't, than give her the stink eye and try to beat her to it.

 

[Mary Tee]

I have never been shy about changing in the ladies locker room at any gym. Probably because when I was very young, our family house at the beach had an outdoor shower room...a12x12 “room” 4 walls no roof, containing a shower, sink and toilet, and at the end of the day, one of the moms would get all the girl cousins at once in the room and we’d all shower together. I just joined a YMCA and used the pool for the first time. I’m in the locker room, showered, have one towel wrapped around me, drying off with another when a couple of moms come in with 3-4 little girls between 7 and 10, and say get changed and walk away. I had no idea what to do. There is no private changing area, and the thought of changing in the toilet area skieves me. I wrapped that towel really tight and went to where the hair dryers are and dried my hair till the little girls left. Talk about feeling uncomfortable!!!!