I was going to an event last night in Koreatown. I was heading there straight from work so I decided to stop at the 24 Hour Fitness in Koreatown to shower first.
Man, that place was nasty. Half the shower doors were missing. Not a big deal for me (I don't need shower doors) but it added to the rundown vibe. Seriously would have been better to just remove all of them. Garbage on the locker room floor and the floor in the shower area seemed unclean too.
I had ten or fifteen minutes to spare so I decided to check out the sauna. Just... Disgusting. The floor was literally MUDDY from guys going in with their dirty street shoes. It smelled awful. (Funny how everyone ignores the "shower before using the sauna" rule that's posted right next to the sauna, but try to use it nude and you'll get called out on it.) And there was enough dirty, smelly gym clothes hanging in there to dry out that it resembled a third-world clothesline.
I've been to plenty of other gyms with similar traits, but i don't think I've ever seen a sauna as bad as the one last night. I was at the Glendale Super Sport once and there was literally a layer of sand at the bottom of the jacuzzi. Ugh.
We have it so good at the various Korean spas in LA. For the most part, saunas are clean and not smelly and people don't abuse them as they do the gym saunas. Nudity is the rule, not the exception. and people just treat them better.
It's like night and day going from the gym sauna to the Korean sauna! I've even seen guys in the gym saunas with their smartphones. WTF?
ReplyDeleteI know... that seems like a good way to ruin your smartphone, since a lot of the components aren't really made for 180F temperatures.
DeleteSad how the big chain gyms make no effort to clean and maintain by having NO custodians on duty but they have a mob of sales staff in the front lobby. I miss the old days of Sports Connection before 24 Hour bought up the chain and ruined it. Everything was well maintained, constant cleaning by staff and naked jacuzzis, steam rooms and saunas in the men's locker rooms!
ReplyDeletegreed ... greed ... greed ...
DeleteI don't know that the big chains make no effort to clean...a couple times at a LA Fitness gym I've been in the showers and maybe seen a guy or two in other stalls that looked like they'd put on a show, and the attendant came around to hose down the area or fill the soap. It's like cops, they're not there when you need them, there when you don't...
ReplyDeleteNo doubt KSpas beat gyms for spa facilities, but gyms beat KSpas for exercise equipment :-) And if you've got the gym membership, it's a free bonus to be in the showers and have a little "show" fun.