Gym Cleaning Tips During COVID-19

Gym Cleaning Tips During COVID-19 : For any gym, being able to certify to clients and potential members that your place of business has been cleaned and prepped against COVID-19 would be invaluable as doing so would increase confidence and bolster attendance.

Until someone comes up with such a certification, the following steps can help you ensure your environment is ready to enjoy by anyone wanting to return to the gym and stay healthy.

Additionally, doing so will help you track your disinfection efforts, which might protect you if someone should attempt to sue you for creating a health hazard due to negligence. The trick in protecting your customers as well as yourself is strict adherence to chemical effectiveness, filtering, and wiping.

Chemicals

There are a variety of cleaners known to disable COVID-19, but the one thing they have in common is bleach. Any bleach-based cleaner will allow you to disinfect your facilities, but if you need to save money, you can mix your own cleaner using bleach mixed with water at a 10-to-1 ratio. To save you time, it is best to use a cleaner like Clean Focus, which is guaranteed to clean 99.9 percent of all viruses, including COVID-19.

For cleaning, you should have a bin for clean towels and a bin for used towels. Clean towels should be sprayed liberally, and you can then wipe down equipment, furniture, and accessories. When you are finished with a rag, you should dispose of it in the used bin where it can be later gathered for washing.

Filters

In the same way that masks protect against COVID-19, you should use certified HEPA filters for your filtration process. HEPA filters can filter out particles as small as .01 microns, and this is small enough to trap COVID-19. With this in mind, you should replace all standard filters with HEPA filters.

If your filter system does not accommodate HEPA filters, you can place portable air filters throughout the facility, ensuring the air volume within the room does not exceed the capability of the combined air filters.

Air Currents

In addition to filtering air, you should direct air within the building to the air filters through the use of fans. COVID-19 cannot direct itself while it is airborne, and fans that guide the air toward the filters installed throughout your facilities will ensure it does not have time to land on equipment. For larger facilities, you can stagger fans throughout the building to keep the air flowing.

Wiping

To ensure you wipe down the entire surface of a piece of equipment, you should use a grid-based wiping system in which you wipe back and forth along the surface, bit by bit, until you have methodically cleaned the entire item. For seat cushions or backrests, you should start at the top or bottom of the cushion and work your way up in small segments until you have cleaned the entire surface. This is important because COVID-19 is an airborne virus, so it can infect corners or edges.

Free Weights

After completely wiping down cushions, you can then wipe down free weights and dumbbells. Again, you should wipe them down methodically, paying close attention to the handles but also to the outer weights. When it comes to free weights, it is best to have someone wearing gloves help you lift the weights. Doing so will allow you to safely handle 45-pound weights.

In addition to wiping down weights before opening, you should ensure that someone is staffed to wipe down equipment throughout the day as people migrate from one workout station to another. Relying on customers to wipe down their own equipment is not effective.

Flooring

Floors are problematic. To clean your floor mats, you should spray rubber mats down at regular intervals or whenever someone leaves the workout station. Vacuum cleaners for rugs should be equipped with HEPA filters. Additionally, commercial cleaners can also be equipped with disinfectant.

Checklist

Remembering all the items that need to be regularly cleaned with a bleach-based cleaner is impossible. Consequently, it is important to follow a checklist. For instance, it might be obvious to wipe down mirrors and scales, but it might not be so obvious to wipe down the handles of drinking fountains. If people use a fingerprint scanner to access the facility, you should clean it regularly.

Other items that must go on the checklist include the following.

food or drink coolers
music equipment
remote controls
lockers
door knobs and handles
light switches

Closed Areas

Of course, cleaning the public area is only half the battle. Employee areas must be cleaned to keep staff safe. Consequently, you should wipe down or even limit access to certain areas. Doing so will help ensure areas are not contaminated shortly after cleaning.

Conclusion

The goal for daily cleaning should be to leave in the evening with the certainty that the place is clean for the morning crew. It is also important to remember that this COVID-19 pandemic will not last forever. Until it is under control, these steps will help maintain customer confidence and keep any gym safe, popular, and profitable.