To not understand showering before swimming?

[Shewas]

I understand people should be clean before getting in a pool, but I don't understand what a poolside shower, a few seconds at most, is washing off? No one's washing the bits most likely to be dirty!

I'm just back from a swim session. I always do stand under the shower long enough to pook like I've been in, but more because I'm embarrassed not to than because I think there's a point. Most people don't even do that.

I don’t understand this either

It's more about rinsing off loose hair and skins cells than removing bacteria - the chlorine in the pool will kill that off, but won't dissolve bodily detritus.

Says chatgpt:

Showering before entering a swimming pool, even without soap, helps by:

• Rinsing off sweat, which contains nitrogen compounds that react with chlorine to form chloramines (the chemicals responsible for the strong "chlorine smell" and eye irritation).
• Removing loose dirt, dust, dead skin cells, and some bacteria from your body.
• Washing away some cosmetics, sunscreen, and deodorant that haven't adhered strongly to the skin.

Let me guess... you don't vacuum your mattress either?

Its removing dead skin cells, hair etc...

Removing body oil, sweat, cosmetics which react with the chlorine in a pool creating irritants.

It's only pointless if it's not done properly - for eg people dashing under to look wet but not staying long enough to help keep the pool clean.

Agree with the above re sweat etc but also I find it cools me down enough that by the time I enter the water it’s much more pleasant than if I went in ‘dry’. Even if the shower is hot, getting wet and than walking over to poolside cools me down - esp if my hair is wet.

Apart from the hygiene reasons above, I've read that if your hair is saturated with water before you get in the pool, the chlorine and other chemicals are less able to penetrate it so it's better for your hair.

Seems totally pointless when you have a few dozen people pissing in there every day. Few hundred if there's a swim up bar.

😱Soooo happy I have my own pool (piss-free zone).

sunscreen and body lotion mainly, they make the water really grimy

I agree. I’m all for a shower beforehand, but I, like everyone else, just stand under the shower for a cursory 7 seconds. It’s achieving nowt.

It's about washing off surface dirt and lotions that are on the skin. It's isn't a bath for everyone to use. It's a pool. Chlorine only does so much , sun tan creams damage pumps etc over time

Do what now?

People vacuum their mattress?!?!

There's a guy in one of my swim sessions who doesn't shower but drowns himself in aftershave before the swim, and it's horrendous swimming near him. I can't work out whether I can smell it or taste it but I have to make sure I'm in a lane as far away as possible.

Yes! You're supposed to every month!

You shed millions of skin cells which then means you get dust mites living in your mattress!!

If you've never done it, go do it! Bet its super gross if you have a baileys vacuum!!

No. I don't sleep directly on my mattress!

I have a mattress cover and a sheet......

I also don't wash my duvet very often, once a year, and it's over twenty years old......

I do it to acclimatise- time l get to the pool l feel a bit chilly cos l am now wet, then the water always seems warm! But also to get rid of surplus sweat etc

When we’re living in a global drought will you be glad you did that?

I think the simple answer is you're supposed to stand under there long enough to have a good rinse. If you're only doing a few seconds then, yes, it is pointless. But it's pointless because you're not doing the right thing/using your common sense, not because the idea doesn't have merit.

Oh it’s too late to worry about that now!

I've been in some swimming pools overseas where there's a fierce-looking attendant whose job is to sit in the shower area between changing room and pools, and there are infographic posters showing human figures with clouds of soap bubbles around each armpit, groin and foot and if the attendant doesn't see you vigorously generating an appropriate cloud of lather in each place they make you go back and try again before you can go through to the pool.

One of the things that used to turn my stomach when I used to go swimming - which I used to do at least once a week for many years -was seeing people getting into the water without showering first. It's realky antisocial and inconsiderate imo.

Oh god whenever I think of this I think of those awful disgusting water troughs they have at some swimming pools- they had them on our recent holiday in France- trudge through a mini pool of cold verruca water with plasters floating in it before you can get in the chlorinated pool 🤢🤢🤢