by R. Renee Bembry

Created on: April 14, 2009

Leaving gyms while wiping sweat from faces and necks may be acceptable for some health club members on occasion. After all, they could be headed home to mow their lawns, or wash their cars or perform some other sweat provoking tasks. However, many members don't care to leave gyms sweaty and won't be caught doing so under any circumstances. These members totally depend on locker room facilities to refresh themselves following their workouts; and therefore, need fitness clubs to provide adequate locker room facilities.

Thing is... health club locker rooms are not home bathrooms and whereas health clubs may be capable of providing enough cardio equipment, weight lifting devices, and classes such as cycling, swimming, and kick boxing, to accommodate a couple hundred members or more at once, locker rooms are only capable of adequately accommodating small portions of these members simultaneously. As a result, members may, at times, find themselves feeling locked in like sardines when utilizing health club locker room facilities. Furthermore, since all health club locker rooms are not created equal, the number of members locker room facilities may accommodate from one location to the next may also vary.

One of the biggest problems with overcrowded locker rooms is seating. Inadequate seating occurs when clubs place benches that seat two people with their bags; or four without their bags, in areas surrounded by twenty to forty lockers. Sudden influxes of members needing to change in one of these locker rooms can send members competing for seats as if they were playing a losing game of musical chairs. Even if clubs have three or four benches per locker room, the most people that could sufficiently seat themselves at a time would be six to twelve. This couldn't be more obvious than when twenty to forty swimmers enter the locker rooms, dripping wet from swimming class; to find less than half of them can seat themselves. Younger health club members finding themselves in this position may not be too annoyed because most of them, having youth and flexibility on their sides, will have no problem standing to dry, lotion, and dress themselves. Thing here is that many elderly people attend swimming classes because water workouts are easier for them than more popular exercises. Many of these club members' lack of youth and agility require them to be able to seat themselves while dressing. Furthermore, the simple act of sitting after a pool workout is a "luxury" many older members

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