To be annoyed that my gym only has open mixed sex showers

[Hothothothothotdog]

My local council gym with a swimming pool only has open showers in the mixed-sex swimming pool. This means I have to rise off, dress, then go home and shower which just seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

AIBU to be fuming about it? It means an early morning swim is off the cards as I’ve not got time for that faff (or ever tbh!).

Oh don’t be daft op

you don’t need to walk through reception to get to the the ladies changing rooms

go on, enlighten us, which local council gym is this?

Fuming is ott, but it’s perfectly fine, and I’d think standard for both sexes, to want to be able to shower properly. You can communicate this to them, then find another pool, it’s your choice ti do that.

Really surprised to hear this is the norm. I've lived in three places where the local council run pool has separate male and female changing rooms/showers.

Your pits are presumably easily accessible in a swimming costume. Your bits, just reach under the fabric. I get that it’s not necessarily the ideal set up for you, but it’s got to be better than slogging back home.

Me too, all over uk and never encountered

the op won’t say the gym because then we will prove it!

People did, and do, “bat an eyelid” about mixed sex changing areas.

There’ve been far too many (one would be too many, but it’s not isolated) incidents of cameras / phones going under doors or over cubicle tops. Most council changing cubicles have metal bars at head height precisely because perverts were peaking over, before they were in place. There’ve been reported attempts to pull kids into cubicles too.

The majority of people don’t complain because they’re well aware it’ll get shrugged off, like it has been when complaints have been made in the past.

Unisex facilities mean that the operator (council or private) can provide fewer showers and loos and can have staff of either sex cleaning them. It’s a cost saving for them. They don’t give a shiny shit about safety unless it has a direct financial impact on them, or legislation enforces it.

Um. Why can’t you walk in a wet swimming costume?!?

Your daughter was a victim of a crime, so everything must change?

Me too. It’s not ‘the norm’. I’m a swim teacher and competitive swimmer, so I’ve been in hundreds of pools in the UK. They’re mostly (about 70%) single sex ime.

How many? You have statistics for it, I assume?

On the contrary, the council-run gym I go to has the pool changing village and it's a bit of a walk through public areas to get to the separate sex changing rooms near to the sports hall. The gym (which I use) is upstairs and has separate sex changing rooms with showers, so thst would be an even longer walk in your wet cossie.

Experiment on a non work day. Go swimming, wash your hair, run a soapy hand under your armpits. Assume the water and soap running down your body will swoosh past your undercarriage on its way to the floor.
Dry, dress and get on with your day. You’ll find out if there’s actually a problem.

My council leisure center has no open showers. You can close the doors to all shower areas. How much does it cost to buy a door? I think it is shameful to cut cost like this. It is hugely discouraging for some people. Unless there is also a separate shower area that op is not aware off. Then it is OK.

What gym?

so you change in to costume and then have to walk through the building to get to the pool? And then walk back through building sodden wet?

The two council leisure centres round here never did, there was a communal shower outside the cubicles but they were contained within men’s and women’s changing rooms.

In the city I live in, and the city I moved from, all council swimming pools were mixed sex with shared open showers, shared blocks of lockers with shared (in the sense anyone could go in) cubicles arranged in a block.

My current city has two council owned pools (although operated by a third party private company on their behalf) and both are set up the same way. One is a two year old facility and one is about 20-30 years old.

There is one wholly privately owned and operated pool and that has single sex open plan changing rooms. But it’s a very old building and would, thankfully, be expensive / impractical to change to a mixed environment. I’m pretty sure that if they knocked it down and rebuilt it, they’d design for mixed, because it has cost benefits for staffing and provision of fewer overall facilities.

My leisure centre would be the same -changing village with cubicles and open mixed showers for all - for the pool.

There are men and women changing rooms for the gym (with showers) but that’s a separate part of the building so you’d have to walk quite far to get to them.

I’ve never seen an adult in a towel in the hallways and I’m there fairly frequently

Yawn. Really? There’s a tool you can use to pull up news reports and all the stats you could ever desire. I’m sure you don’t need my help to use it.

Why can’t you wash your pits? Does your swimming costume cover them? Your bits will be cleaner than ever after a swim surely. Take a wet wipe in the loo if you’ve got issues with chlorine, tho don’t flush it ofc.

Amused by someone suggesting it’s an option to keep your costume on in the mixed sex open showers and that ‘most people’ do that at hers. I should hope everyone does apart from the very young kids at a push.

You’d need to join a private , but more expensive gym if you want single sex and or private showers, Bannatynes, David Lloyds for example.
Most leisure centres I’ve been to have mixed showers, some are even poolside in full public view.

Our local has 5 stalls and about 10 open showers.

I'll explain again. There's a gym upstairs with separate sex changing rooms. The pool (downstairs, obviously) has the mixed sex changing village with communal open showers - so if the OP (or anyone) wanted to shower in a women-only changing room after her swim, she'd have to walk in her wet swimsuit through public areas to reach one.

I hope she kept it and handed it to the manager?

I always do it, and deliberately so, in these set ups. Past reception in my wet swimming costume dripping water everywhere. If they don’t like it, then provide me a single sex shower near the pool.

My local council leisure centre has this with no single sex options. It's pretty grim and means you can't really shower properly, as you say