Gym changing room etiquette

Isn’t it easier if locker doors are open to see they are not occupied. I get pissed off with people who put stuff in lockers but are too tight to buy a padlock so you have to open several to find an empty one.

YANBU I find ours gross. Luckily I am retired so now go to the gym and have time to go home to shower. Much better!

I'm in the complaints group too. I've been a member now for 4 years and, after a break of some 15 years, was previously a member for around 20 years.

I'm sure it does happen, but all I can say is that I've never seen it. Either in the women's changing rooms or in the family changing rooms.

I suspect it is to some extent. I’m in the DL complaints fb group and people all over from different branches are forever moaning about such stuff going on. I’m not saying it’s a daily occurrence but it happens. Shitting in the showers mainly seems to be a male shower phenomenon but Dd used to work there and assures me she’s known it happen in the women’s as well.

I have to say that my David Lloyd is nothing like that!

Which DL do you go to?? I thought it was a lifestyle not a gym. 😂

Yes I think we are more sensitive to phones in gyms/swimming pools in the UK than in other countries. I follow a lady on Instagram who lives in Sweden and she posted a video of herself in a swimming pool with her toddler. I was a bit surprised at that!

What's wrong with leaving the door open? I guess you can see if it's free from whether there's a key dangling in it, but I suppose some places have codes rather than keys.

Some people even leave the locker open with their stuff in it because they've forgotten their £1 coin for the slot.

at my gym they ask you not to leave hair around, and everyone is good about that

there are signs everywhere about leaving the locker doors closed, you can tel which ones are used because the lock thing, that you release with your entry card, sticks out when they are not used. it is to make sure there is enough room for people to move around without smacking their face into an open locker door.

Each gym has it's own etiquette ime

I think it's easy to forget you stuck your hair to the wall temporarily in order not to block the drains, in my gym when people leave the doors open it does annoy me as space can be tight and so you turn around and bash your head on the higher ones especially.

At my gym, women (normally international students) video call their boyfriends from the showers and communal changing rooms when I'm naked in the background until I chew them out for it

What annoys me at my gym is going to a locker with a key in the door opening it thinking it's free and it's full of somebody's stuff.
Then all that's left are the piddly little ones right at the bottom that I struggle to get down to and hold bugger all.

I’m at David Lloyd and it’s feral. People shit in the showers, Shave their fannies in the showers, dye their hair in the showers. It’s minging in there, the set up is that the water runs from the top shower through the other cubicles so if you are downstream you get other peoples hair dye, piss, pubes, soap suds over your feet. I haven’t been in the showers there for at least a year!

and they also use the lockers but don’t padlock them so I spend ages opening lockers which at first glance you’d think were empty to find it with stuff in. I swear one day I will throw my stuff in and lock it and then deny noticing it had stuff in it! 😆

I’d say people who deliberately properly close empty lockers are annoying.

Takes ages to find one that’s free to use.

there are loads of people in my gym who don't use padlocks so just put their stuff in a locker but don't lock it. I agree it's helpful to leave the door open to see which ones are free.

Agree the hair thing is gross though, but tbh if that's the worst thing you've seen so far in your changing rooms you're lucky.

Just a selection of annoying things I've witnessed are:

people filming each other doing tiktoks

having private conversations (to each other and/or over the phone, including
giving out their credit card details) and then glaring at you for having the temerity to use the hairdryers so they can't be heard,

using the (small!) changing room floor to do their stretches (and, again, glaring at you when you step over them to get to your locker)

blow drying their pubes

bringing kids in outside of kid hours, including boys who are far too old to be in the women's changing rooms

saying 'yeah come in' to the male cleaning staff without checking with anyone else, including those in the showers.

And that's just the changing rooms, don't get me started on annoying gym/pool behaviour!

It drives me totally insane that people put stuff in lockers, close the door but don't lock it, and wander off. Or, indeed, close empty lockers. You can have to open multiple clsoed lockers to find an empty one that you can actually put your stuff in. Grrr. (This is at work)

I don’t really see how leaving a locker door open causes problems for others. Unless you think you might bang your head on it I suppose.

A single hair or a few stuck to the wall are likely to be accidental, but maybe you’re talking about large masses which some of us manage to lose whenever we wash our hair. That happens to me, so I gather it all up as it falls out and stick it to the wall but then I take it with me when I leave the cubicle to put it in the bin. I would then usually rinse the wall down with the shower head.

Just alert the gym cleaning staff to the fact that the showers need cleaning, and accept that a locker left open to show that it's empty is only the most minor of inconveniences if it's blacking your access to your locker.

Ripped off new clothes Primark labels and crisp packets are my bug bears. Otherwise it's actually really clean.

Our locker doors close automatically so they never look messy.

Yes my gym uses padlocks too and so when lockers are left wide open I do think it’s due to laziness.

Luckily I haven’t experienced the hair because that’s grim!!!

In actual fact Im quite lucky at mine as it’s clean, gym and sauna access only so no children or nappies, no hair and people generally tidy up after themselves.

I find people don't use the lockers in the changing room or the changing room at all very much at my gym, so it's usually in good order.

People use the communal lockers on the gym floor more often. Some do leave doors open or leave their clothes in without locking them - so you play lottery roulette for a short while to find an empty one at times! I do shut other doors if I see them open, just as it's a hazard.

At my gym people either use padlocks to secure their lockers or they just fill the locker, close the door and hope for the best! So often I have to open lots to find an empty one - I’d rather they were left open but I guess some people would end up walking into them!

The showers are also kept really clean to be honest, it’s one of the many reasons I can justify the extortionate price, it’s very well maintained throughout the day.

The lockers at my gym are the sort that need padlocks to lock too, but there’s a large number of gym users that leave stuff in lockers without locking them with a padlock.

It’s nice that it’s safe enough for people to feel comfortable doing that, but on the other hand it’s a right PITA opening and closing locker doors to find an empty one. I’ve had to go through over 3/4 of the lockers before on busy days.

So on the whole I don’t mind people leaving the empty locker doors slightly open because it saves me more aggravation than it causes me.