Proper Gym Locker room etiquette

[Lefty]

Hey KY, that DADT is a mite off thread but I will remind you that regardless of what

anybody out there says, if you (collectively) served in the military......you know that

THERE are NO GAYS in the foxholes of combat.

 

[Knucklehead]

I live less than 5 minutes away from the gym..I can deal with my own funk till I get home and shower..

 

[raph36]

Our college gym had one open shower area that had poles every ten feet. On each pole were four shower heads and their controls. So four guys to a pole, facing each other, and so on down the shower area. No towel hooks; a 3' high tiled wall that marked the shower boundary served as the place over which to drape your towel. Most guys toweled down inside the shower area, next to the wall and then walked to their lockers--sometimes wrapped, sometimes just holding their towels. And so it went through the locker room. In the sauna a few people would sit on their towels but rarely would anyone wrap it around themselves: that would just get it soaked even more and keep the direct heat off of you. That was in the 1970's. No one seemed to think anything about it. Oh, and guys would often dry off their hair under the hand blow dryers--again, sometimes with, sometimes without wearing a towel.

About the same as at my college but that was in the '80s. What is the big deal?

 

[Lefty]

Sorry OP for the off thread....Unclean, not going to go cat box discussion with you here.

I suggest you talk to some people that did war/conflict time in the military service while you were doing gay pride. You might find out what "Gottcher back man" really means.

 

[Lefty]

Hey BW, just another example of our Nanny Mama govt. trying to run everything.

Funny how many years gays managed to wear the uniform...and many had too

(draft) without D.C. assistance or intervention.

 

[trikky]

my gym is only 1 yr old and the showers are communal set on 2 walls at a 90 degree angle. Most people walk with their towel to the showers and hang it up and towel off in the shower area before wrapping and walking back to their locker. One day I was alone in the locker room towelling off after my shower when a guy came in stripped and as he walked past me butt naked he stopped to ask me if I knew when the sauna was gonna be fixed and started chatting about it, which gay or not I found to be extremely suspect behavoir. I think do the above as others have posted and importantly don't check anyone out at all.

 

[LemonSquare]

Sounds like our set up is pretty similar. Different people do different things.

Personally, when I go from my spot on the bench to the shower I wrap a towel around my waist. Towel off in the shower area, wrap the towel again, and walk back to my spot, which is half way across the room. Usually sit with the towel around my waist for a few minutes and shoot the shit and joke around (I shower 5 mornings a week with the same 20 guys) and then put on my underwear. Then I'm home free.

I was a little nervous at first too, but like I said I'm with the same 20 guys every morning for the last 5 months, so it's pretty light hearted and a "safe" environment.

And it's always funny when the one crazy guy does his handstand in the shower, with his feet up on the wall. Especially when someone else poured a white shampoo on his ass while he was doing it...lol. Well..maybe you had to be there.


Think it just comes down to being comfortable, and respectful to others.

 

[Críostóir]

Wow, you guys are really shy.

I see no reason not to walk around naked.

 

[Kulindahr]

Hey KY, that DADT is a mite off thread but I will remind you that regardless of what

anybody out there says, if you (collectively) served in the military......you know that

THERE are NO GAYS in the foxholes of combat.

From two gay Marines I spent some time with a while back, I have to amend that:

There are NO GAYS OR STRAIGHTS in the foxholes of combat, or WOMEN, either: there are just comrades.

 

[Críostóir]

From two gay Marines I spent some time with a while back, I have to amend that:

There are NO GAYS OR STRAIGHTS in the foxholes of combat, or WOMEN, either: there are just comrades.

I think that's the opposite of what he meant. I like your version better, but it's still off-topic.

 

[Kulindahr]

I think that's the opposite of what he meant. I like your version better, but it's still off-topic.

Not really.

It applies to the locker room: in the locker room, there are no gays or straights, just men.

 

[Críostóir]

Not really.

It applies to the locker room: in the locker room, there are no gays or straights, just men.

Hmm, maybe, but his statements were trying to start a fight about DADT, not drawing analogies to the locker room. He wasn't asserting, as you were, that such things don't matter when you're in combat, but that there are no gays in the army, presumably because they aren't tolerated in their units.

If he meant what you said, he said it really badly. I'm usually pretty good at figuring out what people mean, but he just sounded like he was there to bang a gong about DADT and try to start a flamewar.

To your point, I don't think it works quite like that when it's a roomful of strangers instead of a combat-hardened unit who have a bond forged in the fire of war.

 

[Kulindahr]

To your point, I don't think it works quite like that when it's a roomful of strangers instead of a combat-hardened unit who have a bond forged in the fire of war.

Probably.

I think it depends to an extent on the dedication of the people to their sport or whatever. I noticed when at OSU that guys really into workouts didn't care if it was a guy or gall trainer adjusting their form by physically adjusting where their limbs were on the rowing machines, but the guys who were just casually into workouts definitely did. The same was true when I helped coach swim team; the guys (kids) who really wanted to swim well didn't so much as blink if I put my hand on their rear to steady them for getting them into the right position for something -- or for that matter, the truly dedicated ones helped shave each other's legs while bare in the shower.

And in intramural water polo, the guys really into it chatted in the showers and didn't care if they bumped into each other.

So it may not just be a bond with a certain group, but with a common dedication.

 

[Lefty]

Crio...after 3 rereads I still could'nt believe you were misinterpreting what I said. Kuli said it better because I was trying to keep the errant post brief.

I still hope I mis read your post and know I have a lot of back...I am asmart ass joker but do have a serious side, and nobody calls me a flamer.

 

[Críostóir]

So it may not just be a bond with a certain group, but with a common dedication.

Yeah, doesn't exist in a commercial gym with a bunch of guys who care about nothing but themselves and where their next bit of tail is coming from. I don't know if you go to that kind of gym, but I do. Not all the guys are like that, but a disgusting number of them are. They leave their clothes around the locker room, and their weights on the floor for people to trip on.

No common bond. Trust me on that.

 

[moniker]

The simplest rule works best: for people you don't know do not maintain eye contact in the shower room. If this is done (like at my gym) it is amazing how everyone's privacy is respected even though everyone is naked. The atmosphere is actually non-sexual even when muscle dudes and twinks are there! It works!

 

[blackbeltninja]

Ninja!

But seriously, folks...

The simplest rule works best: for people you don't know do not maintain eye contact in the shower room. If this is done (like at my gym) it is amazing how everyone's privacy is respected even though everyone is naked. The atmosphere is actually non-sexual even when muscle dudes and twinks are there! It works!

I don't think there's anything wrong with making visual contact, as long as you're not raping the other guy with your eyes. If you catch someone's eye, or vice versa, do like you would on the street or in the corridors - smile, or nod, or say hi and move on. It's not a trainsmash if you make eye contact; at least, it shouldn't be.

Thanks guys for all the responses! I think i'll just be myself until otherwise. In the appropriate area, I'm sure nudity is fine.. (shower, toweling area, sauna, etc.) and everywhere else I'll just wear a towel regardless.

I don't think there is any place in there where it might be inappropriate once you're in the area which says Locker Room or something similar on the door. Point that out to anyone who gives you the hairy eyeball or chirps you. They may have a point if you hang around arse-naked for hours at a time chatting to people, but if you're merely showering/changing they can fuck right off.

The university here has a massive sports complex and one central locker room. There is an area as you enter the locker room which has toilets in it where people might not be naked, but beyond that, it's lockers, benches and shower/drying areas. Showers are communal, two sets of ten which are walled off from the rest of the place to keep the water out, but not anything near private. Towels are stashed in the three drying areas flanking and between the two shower areas.

The gym I have membership at is similar - toilets are separate and usually clothed areas, but it's a free-for-all for anyone who isn't ridiculously shy in the rest of the place.

Nudity in both places now is far less common than when I was an undergrad in the mid 90s and when I joined the gym in the late 90s. Ironic in the internet age where there is no shortage of full-frontal-with-face pictures on various amateur websites as well as frequent incidences of sexting, streaking and suchlike, and yet nobody will get their bits out in a locker room.

Good luck with the gym, though - hope the trimming/toning/fitness/whatever you're aiming for pays off.

-d-