By Nutrex Dave

Recently I began going back to a gym that I trained at years ago when it first opened. Back then it was clean, bright, and had well maintained equipment. Nowadays the gym looks a few shades grayer with rusty equipment that looks to threaten tetanus every time I use it. For some of us the gym is our sanctuary, but for others it seems to be more like a trash can.

It would be easy to just blame it on the gym and their lack of maintenance. However, the gym goers are equally to blame for a dirty gym. It's a beautiful thing when you get to train at a gym where people consistently wipe down machines and re-rack weights. I know what you may be thinking. "Who cares? I'm just there to lift and be hardcore! Cleanliness isn't hardcore!" Trust me, I'm all about being "hardcore" but clutter and filth is not the way to get there.

Below is a list that any fellow meat-head needs to read through and memorize. Remember, if you wouldn't s*** where you eat, then you shouldn't s*** where you train.

1. Re-rack your weights! Nothing is more frustrating than spending 5 minutes searching for the other 90lb dumbbell, only to find it hidden behind the military press on the other side of the gym.

2. Wipe off your equipment! Whatever happened to people using towels at the gym? No one wants to lie in a pool of your sweat while they're trying to work out! Grab a paper towel and clean up after yourself. I'm not your mom.

3. Wear deodorant! This one should be obvious but there have been times while training that I've had to pick up my weights and move somewhere else because of fellow lifters hygiene issues.

4. Don't drop your weights! There's nothing worst then training with loose dumbbells. There's times I feel like one side is about to drop on my face as I'm using them. Unless your life is in danger you should not be slamming weights on the ground, it screws up the dumbbells the rest of us want to use.

5. Wash your hands! If I see you taking a wiz and trying to leave the restroom without washing your hands, I'm calling you out. As if the weights and bar aren't filthy enough, now you're going to add a little something extra to the mix… I don't think so chief.

6. Use the sanitizer! If you've been on the treadmill for 45 minutes dripping sweat all over the monitor and rails, don't just wipe it off with a paper towel. Use the spray sanitizer every gym has and wipe your machine off properly.

If it sounds like I'm nitpicking then you have never experienced the joy of laying in Mr. Hairyback Stringtank's leftover juices on the bench. Like you, I go to the gym to improve my physique and be healthier, not develop a skin lesion.