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!).

Pool showers are not for washing yourself, they are for rinsing off chlorine. Mixed is fine for this with swimsuit on.

I wash my hair and use shower gel and a body polisher yoke, in mixed showers with swimming cozzie on. No problem at all, I choose to do this, but really only rinsing off showers are all that needs to be provided.

There will be. But that’s the changing room for people coming out of the gym. It’ll be somewhere near the gym entrance, and will be single sex and have showers but it isn’t connected to the pool area as it’s for gym users.

I have never even thought about this - I use a leisure centre with unisex showers by the pool - I just use them in my swimsuit - no problem.

No, the pool has a changing village with open plan showers.

Then there are separate changing rooms at the gym, for use by gym users. You’re not mean to walk through the building in your swim suit. If you’re going swimming, you use the pool changing village. If you’re going to the gym, you use the single sex gym changing rooms.

Every council leisure centre in South Lanarkshire is like this. (Well, I’ve been in around 9 of them and they’re all like this. There could be a couple that aren’t).

When I was growing up, the local pool only had showers by the poolside used by everyone and in full view of everyone using the pool.

It's not a new thing at all

ok, so you don’t have any. Strange, if you were asserting there were “so many” you’d think you’d have the numbers in your head.

How much cleaner do you need to be than having bathed in chlorine for half an hour?

You're not meant to have a full on nude shower in those. It's for rinsing. Yabu.

Well, for a start I don’t want to return to work reeking of chlorine.

But what does it matter? The point is that I have been able to have a proper shower at every council leisure centre I’ve been a member of.

I know now to appreciate my local pool all the more. Separate changing rooms, lockers are free but no one uses them they just leave their stuff on a bench in the changing rooms. Oh and about 30 separate cubicles in the single sex changing rooms. There’s also family changing.

Along with a hefty dose of urine no doubt

Do you really think that's the norm across the world?

It's astonishing to you because you are in a bubble of privilege.

It's not unusual to just rinse off in your swimsuit and have a proper shower at home later.

Across the world? What’s that got to do with council pools in the UK?

Bubble of privilege? I live in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country. That just so happens to have single sex changing facilities in its pools.

I can see from this thread it’s not unusual - I’m saying that it’s unusual to me having swum in council pools in several boroughs over the years.

You also don’t seem to get that not everyone returns home after having a swim. When I swam in my work lunch break the pools were chocka - all people returning to work after their swim.

You seem very angry that some of us are pointing out that thinking single sex spaces exist and are a good thing and it’s a shame (and wrong, in my opinion) they don’t exist everywhere.

If you live in London or any Western society then yes you are in a bubble of privilege.

Normal for our local pool. You wash in the open showers in your costume.

Thanks for making it clear you don’t actually have any valid argument to make, I guess.

Honestly I’m really surprised that lots of people just rinse off and then crack on with their day, for example go to work. I think I’d feel grubby but in fairness I haven’t tried it. I do think there should be an option to have a quick shower where you can take your costume off though and rinse everywhere, I’m not talking a long luxurious shower, just to feel clean for the rest of the day.

So what have you been doing op? You’ve been getting dressed, home and then showering?

for how long?

Those of us that swim at pools with single sex showers do though, because you get properly clean and you feel much nicer afterwards.

I've been a gym goer for years, but I only tried the pool today. I rinsed off, went home and then had a shower as I’m working from home today.

When I went to my old gym, I used to swim in the morning then take a proper shower and then head straight to work. I just don’t think I can do it with just a rinse off.

My local council-run sports centre is the same as all the others I've belonged to in having a mixed-sex 'wet' changing room with a strict 'costumes on at all times' policy with cubicles for changing in. Useful for people bringing kids (there's a kids' pool) in if it's just grandad with them etc. There's a couple of women-only pool sessions.

The open showers at the entrance to the pool are to wash off - in your costume - any perfume / smellies as you go in and wash off chlorine as you come out. People do wash their hair with shampoo etc and use body wash over costumes.

The gym has separate changing and separate showers for men and women (under 16s don't use alone).

I'm totally in favour of separate spaces for men and women where needed but the pool arrangement seems appropriate to me. I'd be clean enough to go into work. The changing-room never seems like a voyeur's paradise, more like a Beryl Cook painting.

You were swimming in a communal pool without having a proper shower first?

What do you mean?

Tedious.

Here’s a well presented, easy to digest, report which includes lots of links to external third party sources and some handy graphics for those… less inclined to read.

Knock yourself out:

https://www.womensrights.network/post/leisure-centres-putting-women-and-girls-at-riskpress-release