Author: Olga – Co-Founder GYMMONKY, MedTech manager (background: physiotherapy & sports science), 20 years as a competitive athlete, personal trainer and class instructor.
Experienced athletes who have trained hard in the gym for years develop routines that systematically eliminate hygiene risks. Not because they have more discipline. Because they have learned to treat this as a question of systems – not a question of willpower.
The key points at a glance
- Skin infections account for up to 20 % of lost training days in contact sports (Nowicka et al., 2020).
- After very intense exertion, the immune system can be temporarily under greater strain – which turns hygiene into a question of systems (Simpson et al., 2020).
- Perceived gym hygiene influences whether members take protective measures – including the use of a gym towel (Falese et al., 2025).
- Gym hygiene is training efficiency: fewer interruptions, fewer unnecessary contact chains, more routine.
What experienced athletes know that others don't
When most gym-goers think about hygiene, they think about washing their gym towel and maybe disinfecting their hands now and then. Experienced athletes think in systems: which contact chains arise during training – and where do I break them?
That isn't a philosophical difference. It's a practical one. Anyone who has trained 5–6 times a week for years knows what happens when you don't.
Skin infections cost training days – and that's documented
For people who train intensively, infections are not an abstract risk. In contact sports, skin infections account for up to 20 % of lost training and competition days (Nowicka et al., 2020). Among young wrestlers in the US, skin infections have an incidence of 8.5–20.9 %, making them the second most common reason for medical visits after respiratory infections.
The literature on sports infections describes shared gym equipment, close skin contact and contaminated textiles as possible transmission routes (Kucharczyk et al., 2025). For bodybuilding athletes training several times a week, the relevant exposure route in everyday gym life is clearer still: gym equipment → hand → face. Or: floor → gym towel → face.
The immune window: why intense training raises the risk
Intense training is not automatic immunisation against infection. After very intense exertion, the immune system can be temporarily under greater strain.
Immediately after very intense exertion, studies show transient changes in the immune system. Among high-performance athletes, infectious illness is one of the relevant causes of lost training days – second only to injury (Simpson et al., 2020).
That does not mean exercise weakens the immune system. Regular moderate training has been shown to improve immune defence across the lifespan (Campbell et al., 2018). But intense training load creates a short window in which external pathogens can gain a foothold more easily.
What that means in practice: Exactly when the immune system is briefly under greater strain, the sweaty, damp gym towel comes out of the bag – and ends up on your face. Anyone who understands the hygiene risks in that moment behaves differently.
What 20 years of training actually changed
«There's a category of athlete who is constantly ill. And one who never is. I've met both. The difference is rarely the immune system – usually it's the setup.»
– Olga, Co-Founder GYMMONKY
What changes after 20 years? Intentions become systems. Things that take effort at the start become second nature.
The three rules that are never up for negotiation
1. The gym towel never goes on the floor. Not briefly, not «just for a second». The floor is not a storage space. A fixed spot on the rack or the gym equipment beats putting it down on the floor or the padding every time. That's not a gym hack, that's system logic.
2. Face and equipment are always kept apart. A gym towel has two sides. The side that touches the gym equipment does not touch your face. It's the simplest way there is to break a transmission chain.
3. Wet areas are only entered with shoes on. Tinea pedis, or athlete's foot, has been shown to be more common among athletes than in the general population (Sabadin et al., 2011). Flip-flops break that route.
None of these rules requires discipline. They require a setup that turns them into habit.
Why hygiene is training efficiency – not extra effort
In sport, every training day lost to infection is a step backwards. Three days ill means a week of lost training continuity. In that context, hygiene isn't a health topic – it's an efficiency topic.
And that applies well beyond experienced athletes: a cross-sectional study of 1,321 gym members shows that the perceived hygiene quality of the gym directly influences whether members take protective measures – including using a gym towel and disinfecting gym equipment (Falese et al., 2025). Cleanliness changes behaviour – regardless of fitness level.
Training efficiency isn't created in the set alone, but in the setup. If you have to look for your gym towel, put it down and reposition it constantly, you're building in unnecessary interruptions. An organised setup – gym towel in the right place, no searching, no unplanned pause – is part of training quality.
The biggest gym hacks aren't gadgets. They're systems that make efficient training possible: gym equipment quickly available, no unnecessary interruptions, hygiene routines on autopilot. Training efficiency starts with the setup – not with the first rep.
The athlete setup in 3 steps
Step 1: Gym towel off the floor. Always. A fixed spot on the rack or the gym equipment. No floor contact – no floor reservoir on your gym towel.
Step 2: The two-side principle. Keep the equipment-contact side and the body/face side strictly separate. Every single time. It's the simplest hygiene reset there is during training.
Step 3: Wash after training – gym towel and hands. Above all before you touch your face. People touch their face an average of 23 times per hour – 44 % of those involving contact with mucous membranes (Kwok et al., 2015). The chain closes faster than you'd think.
These aren't elite-level routines. This is systems thinking, the way experienced athletes have internalised it over the years. And it works from day one – with the right setup.
More on training hygienically:
→ Sweat contact in the gym: how germs get onto your gym towel
→ The biggest germ hotspots in the gym
→ Gym towel hygiene: protection or risk?
→ Gym hygiene: what really lives on gym equipment
Frequently asked questions
Do experienced athletes train more hygienically than beginners? +
As a rule, yes – not out of conviction, but out of experience. Anyone who has trained intensively for years knows the consequences of infection and develops systems that break the typical contact chains in the gym.
Does intense training really make you more prone to infection? +
There is evidence of a transient immune window after very intense exertion. Whether that causally increases susceptibility to infection is still debated (Simpson et al., 2020; Campbell et al., 2018). In practical terms: a clean setup is worth most right after hard sessions.
Is gym hygiene really relevant to training efficiency? +
Yes. Directly, because infections can cost training days. And indirectly, because an organised setup reduces unnecessary interruptions: gym towel within reach, clear sides, less searching, less putting it down.
What are the most common hygiene mistakes when training in the gym? +
Putting the gym towel on the floor. Using the same side of the gym towel for equipment and face. Not washing the gym towel after every session. Walking barefoot in the shower. Not washing hands before touching your face. Not disinfecting gym equipment before and after use.
References
Campbell, J. P. & Turner, J. E. (2018). Debunking the Myth of Exercise-Induced Immune Suppression: Redefining the Impact of Exercise on Immunological Health Across the Lifespan. Frontiers in Immunology.
Falese, L. et al. (2025). Perception of quality and adoption of health-preventive measures in gym-goers after the COVID-19 pandemic peak in Italy. BMC Public Health.
Kucharczyk, N. et al. (2025). Infectious skin diseases in contact sports – a literature review. Quality in Sport.
Kwok, Y. et al. (2015). Face touching: A frequent habit that has implications for hand hygiene. American Journal of Infection Control.
Nowicka, D. et al. (2020). Infectious diseases of the skin in contact sports. Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine.
Sabadin, C. E. S. et al. (2011). Onychomycosis and Tinea Pedis in Athletes. Mycopathologia.
Simpson, R. J. et al. (2020). Can exercise affect immune function to increase susceptibility to infection? Exercise Immunology Review.
Sweat Contact in the Gym: How Germs Get onto Your Gym Towel