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!).

Um, I've never had plasters make it through my swimming costume and get into my jacksie. And if the pee and chemicals can get through the costume to my parts then so can the clean water from the shower and soap to wash it away. People are way OTT about this stuff. Unless you've got some sensitive fanny/bum condition, a shower through a costume is perfectly adequate to last till the evening and as I said, wipes (or as PP did a bottle of water) in the loo should deal with anyone who really needs the extra cleansing.

I’m in my 30s. The council swimming baths where I learnt to swim definitely only had communal showers. The pool near me now has cubicled showers in the gender specific changing rooms.

It’s definitely not a new thing.

If you've been for a swim, your 'bits and pits' will already be squeeky clean. Just wash your hair in the communal showers and stop being outraged. There really are bigger problems in the world.

Yes but they were single sex communal showers not mixed sex

It’s truly depressing.

im in Australia and have never seen it at a local pool!! Women’s, men’s, family.

My council pool has mixed showers and changing rooms. There are no separate showers. Only separate toilets. This is because everyone showers in their swim suits so it isn’t an issue. You can still shower fine in your swimming costume I would think

@Hothothothothotdog I don't understand why having chlorine in your 'bits and pits' would make you feel gross? Surely it actually makes you cleaner as the water is chlorinated to act as a disinfectant.

Many pools don't have space for segregated changing rooms.
In the olden days it was two open rooms... now people prefer cubicles, which take up more space

And let's face it... Council swimming pools are extremely limited and way past capacity

Did you know about this when you joined the gym or is it a new thing?

Sound like you need to join a different gym.

Our leisure centre is currently in the process of being replaced, will be interesting to see what the changing facilities are like as currently have separate male/ female changing rooms, think all of our local leisure centres have separate shower facilities even if they have communal changing rooms

Wow! In my area it's always been single sex - and I'm in my 60s now.
But I haven't seen the council ones since my DC stopped swimming so I don't know if it's changed since then. I'm not keen on swimming so unless I'm forced to stop doing other sports through injury I won't be going anyway, but if I did consider it, I wouldn't be going anywhere with mixed sex showers. Who wants to shower with a swimsuit on? - that's no way to get the chlorine off your skin.

People are getting so weird about these things.

It's not standard for all council swimming pools to offer single sex showers. Some do, a lot don't and never have.

People just shower with their swimsuits on. You can still wash your hair, go get changed, put one some deodorant and go to work. Even take some wipes if you need to. You can have another shower at home later.

Unless you have some rare skin disorder (in which case you probably wouldn't be swimming anyway?) it's not going to kill you to have a bit of pool water on you for a few hours.

No of course not

Men must continue to have access to women and girls and we mustn't say anything about it!!

🤔🙄

How do you do this? Do you wrangle your swimming costume off under a towel or do you go to work still in the costume? In either case you'll still have residual chlorine unless you've taken your cossie off before you shower.

Shower when you normally do? After going for a swim? That will be immediately after I get out of the pool then. In the single sex showers.

No, not getting weird. It’s just that people are know realising that what’s normal for them turns out not to be normal for other people.

I’ve often swum at lunchtime and returned to the office, in different council gyms in different London boroughs, across the last 30 years.

I’ve always been able to have a proper shower in a single sex shower cubicle. That some people have never had this (and have thus become accustomed to it) is astonishing to me.

But also, given all the debate over the last 10 years around sex and gender and single sex spaces, it surely can’t come as a surprise to people that plenty of facilities have single sec changing rooms and showers?

No they weren’t…

The showers at my local council pool are like that. Open mixed-sex showers at the side of the pool, in full view of the pool and all the swimmers. Although plenty of people do take the time to wash their hair and pits with shampoo and shower gel in the swimming pool showers.

The gym changing rooms do have separate single sex shower facilities, but they’re in a separate part of the building and quite a walk from the swimming pool. I’ve only seen someone in a swimming costume near the gym changing rooms once, and that was a lady who was at the leisure centre for the first time and had got a bit lost.

I wouldn’t like this either.

Our local council gym has open showers by the side of the pool (which I use for a quick rinse before I swim) and a number of lockable unisex shower cubicles (which I use for a proper shower and hair wash afterwards). The main changing area is a “changing village” with lots of lockable cubicles of varying sizes and there are also two separate single-sex group changing areas.

For anyone who isn’t happy with the changing village, there are two single sex changing rooms upstairs with a few lockable shower cubicles and two lockable changing cubicles. They tend to be used by people using the gym though, rather than those using the pool.

Our gym is mixed changing rooms and separate showers.

It could be worse, there's a PT dude meeting a client to swim and then giving her a happy ending in the family cubicles at our local leisure centre. Someone heard them a couple of months ago and then my pal did the other week and suggested they get a room...

Or local council pool changed to this a few years ago when they had a revamp. I went once and hated it. I want an actual proper shower. I’m not rubbing my “bits” with soap under my cozzie next to a man doing the same! Gross!
I just rejoined the private place I used to be a member of. I know a lot of people who also disliked the new set up and stopped going.

If water’s running through the cloth as you shower, then it’s washing/diluting the chorine. You change in the changing rooms as usual. It’s just that the shower bit can’t be naked.

I suggested OP try it on a non work day so she could assess her sensitivity to the chlorine, and whether it’s adequate for her to be comfortable. Everyone is different.

On holiday people hang out and dry out by the pool without showering thoroughly between swims.

Rinsing off the chlorine and a quick hair wash for those that need to, is a reasonable level of amenity at a council-run pool where prices are kept more in check compared to private health clubs and pools. If you want to take a proper shower, join a private health club and pay for the privilege.

Just rinse off with you swimsuit on thats what i do.
Its been the same at my local leisure centre for years even before i moved here.
It the same at alot of places.
Its not unusual.