Gym Changing rooms etiquette

[Actonbellew3]

So, not sure if I should have posted this in the diet and fitness thread but still...

I've joined a gym for the first time in my entire life and am quite perplexed as to the showering / changing etiquette. The showers are arranged in a half moon shape with little flimsy shower curtains on each one and a communal bench in the middle of the shower room. Does one go in to the shower room fully clothed (minus trainers) and get undressed and leave my clothes on the communal central bench and does one get fully starkers in front of everyone? Or does one deposit one's used gym clothes in one's locker and shuffle to the showers with a towel wrapped round one's bits?

This gym is frightfully well to do and clearly the other members just know what goes on in such situations. So far, I have only showered there once and there was no one else in the shower room to judge the situation against.

I would get undressed in the changing room and go to the shower with towel wrapped around me, seems to be the norm in sports centers and gyms I have used.

take a decent sized towel and wear that round you to the shower and out again.

Cheers for that. Its a very 1st world problem, I know but never the less one that could induce major cringeworthy behavior if gotten wrong!

I shall dig out the bath sheet from the airing cupboard :)

It would be expected and not seen as cringeworthy if you got completely undressed in the changing room area and then walked to the showers and back wearing a towel. You would only bare it all for 10 seconds.

In my gym I get changed in the changing room and take the towel with me to the shower. There are hangers by each shower to leave towels in. I tend to dry myself in the cubicle once I've finished so it's quicker and easier to get changed in the changing room without drying my bum in front of everyone . Everyone else seems to do the same thing except a few people with enviably perky bodies who wander around naked slowly applying body lotion all over themselves with a 'look at me' attitude. Envious? Me? Oh no!

Get undressed in the changing room and wrap your towel round you.

My Dad complains endlessly about the "posers" in the men's changing rooms who love to parade about naked, but the norm for women seems to be to undress quickly and wrap in towel, walk to showers, shower, wrap again, back to locker and dress. No shame in losing the towel for a few seconds in between stages though

this is why I get changed into gym stuff before I go to the gym/classes and then go back home for a shower!