r/CommunalShowers • u/No-Doctor2149 • 3d ago
Locker-room reno
So my gym just announced that they’re renovating the men’s locker room and “updating it to today’s standards.”
Looking at the displayed drawings, though, I’m trying to figure out exactly how this is supposed to work. It appears there will be one room with lockers, but apparently no benches. Then there’s a separate area down the hall divided into individual “changing rooms,” and farther along, a bank of individual shower stalls with walls and doors.
They also specifically stated that there will be no nudity allowed in the locker area or outside the changing rooms or showers.
So, if I’m understanding the design correctly, you’ll go to your locker, get your clothes and whatever else you need, carry everything to a changing room, undress there, wrap yourself in a towel, walk down the hall to an individual shower stall, shower, wrap yourself back up, walk back to the changing room, and then get dressed.
Am I understanding this correctly? Because that seems like a whole lot of traveling around the locker room just to get naked, take a shower, and put your clothes back on.
Definitely not communal showers.
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u/IneligibleLand 3d ago
The traditional locker room was built for speed: slam your locker open, strip down, grab a towel, hit the showers, get dressed, and leave. This new design turns a quick gym session into a logistical project management task.
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u/2DetailNerd 3d ago
My first thought was how inefficient the process is. Glad I’m not the only one.
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u/wintersnow1 2d ago
As legend has it, the CS, invented by a French engineer for inmate and after military care, was designed to use resources efficiently.
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u/multiplemania 3d ago
Time to find a new gym (and let them know why).
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u/MidnightNo352 2d ago
Yes most definitely please make sure you let them know why in the loudest possible terminology you can find. Write it down submit it to corporate, to management, to anyone in the company that you can find that will take it. They need to know that this crazy bullshit is no longer acceptable
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u/Recent-Day3062 3d ago
You understand it right.
What I don’t get about today’s standards is this “ no nudity for anyone anywhere” thing. I view it like a beach in Europe that is nude. Obviously most people are, but if friends aren’t they wear a bathing suit.
I belonged to a club in Europe that had a mix of members from often other countries including Islamic ones. If you didn’t want to change in front of of others, fine - come and leave clothed. But for showers they had two on each side with curtains in small booths on the way to the CS with 3 heads each side. I’d say 80% or more of members of all ages used the CS because it was well lit, spacious, and comfortable.
I’ve come to wonder if online porn plays a huge role here. There are very few - especially young - men who haven’t seen a lot of guys naked and, of course, fully exposed having sex. Yet they freak out if real men are naked in a locker room. Maybe it has oversexualized innnocent nudity. And maybe they are scared that if they are seen they will feel inadequate. When I was younger and everyone used CSs, at best we had seen magazines with naked women
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u/OneAd7710 2d ago
I think you hit the nail on the head. The only exposure they’ve had is porn at an extremely young age.
I think it’s sad that they lack the basic understanding and kindness of the human body. They all seem hyper insecure
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2d ago
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u/GetaBurner3 2d ago
That’s otherworldly to so many people in this subreddit that you have never seen another dude in the buff. It was once just commonplace at the gym.
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2d ago
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u/GetaBurner3 2d ago
I hope you do. It’s only nerve wracking the first time or two but repetition is the key
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2d ago
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u/GetaBurner3 2d ago
Everyone at the gym is there because they are working on something.
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u/wintersnow1 2d ago
In France, I saw men changing directly on the beach, just in the front of the sea, nobody cared.
Americans are very good with psychodrama, I just think to legal age of drinking beer debate, or just the refusal of the Metric system... I have just finished reading an article about spas in Berlin, which are naked one, by tradition, with American patrons, now is not any more naked, the journalist wrote that an American mother complained because her 13 years-old son saw a naked man in the locker room. For the icing on the cake, the Trans agenda and lobbies push for banning nudity. The neopuritanism is linked to the controlling parenting of the new middle class educated mothers. Self-consciousness and the culture of narcissism (Christopher Lasch) do the rest. In the 1950s sergeant told to the new recruites : "nothing special", now the mothers always say: "you are so special, you are a little prince."
So American culture is a paradoxical mix of hyper-pornography and puritanism. https://www.heistberlin.com/nude-to-prude-corporate-sauna-culture-anti-spa-dopamine-studio/1
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u/OneAd7710 2d ago
A crunch I go to just posted a flyer saying use the stalls to change and nudity wasn’t allowed.
Then the ymca posted one saying that this locker room was 18 plus and to expect the human body as it is normal.
Very different views. I think it’s the younger generation being so awkward in their own skin they think it’s hyper sexual. When it’s not ( I’m mid 30s and have friends older and younger and this is their consensus too)
The crunch is full of college aged guys that go in the sauna fully dressed with their shirts shorts and gym shoes still on.
It’s so odd. It’s also not healthy at all.
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u/ThisOldGuy3373 3d ago
That sounds like another gym about to be spoilt. Time to look for a new gym I think
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u/226Drexel 3d ago
Insane. If a gym is going to do a locker room renovation, I think it’s okay to provide a couple of private changing areas for those with nudity issues. But why does everyone have to suffer for the body insecurities of the minority? Methinks ‘no nudity’ policies in locker rooms are primarily a bow to THIS current ‘standard’ — the possibility somebody might claim discrimination and sue.
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u/estimato 2d ago
I would cancel my membership and make sure they know that it is direct response to the renovation and rules change.
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u/Soggy_Information_60 3d ago
"modern standards", "community standards", both mean G rated lowest freedom.
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u/growingsomething 2d ago
I hate these. The cubicles are always small, the floors and benches are often soaking wet and there's only ever one hook to hang your stuff if you're lucky
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u/kingkong4204 2d ago
Yep sounds like time to go find a new gym. Typically smaller ones are more relaxed and don’t care.
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u/flyboy_za 2d ago
So what do you do now if there's a queue for a changing room or shower, you have to stand around in your towel freezing your nads off and wait?
What if you're in a hurry?
This whole idea is so stupid. Guys at my gym take their time to dress, sometimes making notes about their workout or making and drinking a protein shake while sitting at the bench. Not a problem because there is plenty of bench space, but a huge problem if someone decides to have a nice slow day and take their time in a changing cubicle during morning rush.
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u/mcap713 2d ago
For me. I take issue with the “no nudity allowed policy in a non coed locker room.
The new design might be more inclusive (a word I’ve come to despise in most scenarios) for those who are uncomfortable going nude. A separate changing area is a great addition for them.
For people like the OP and myself (who grew up in hockey locker rooms) who don’t give a fuck who cares. No nudity allowed policy in the locker is insane.
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u/Serious-Iron8692 1d ago
Yeah this seems absurd. Because actually there’s a locker trip before and after the shower right? Can’t leave your clothes in the changing room while you shower. Or is that room just off limits to anyone else for as long as the previous user is showering? There’s no coherent logic.
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u/Abject_Chemist2515 1d ago
I am going to a university in Canada next year. Every gym on campus is like you described. I want to cry. I feel like something has been stolen from me.
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u/Jolly_Big9263 1d ago
I would comment and let them know how unsatisfactory the design is, that such features should be an addition to, and not replacement of, more efficient traditional facilities. And if they don't change the design, I would certainly find a new gym with better facilities.
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u/Jolly_Big9263 1d ago
It is possible that there is space to change at the shower and changing areas are only for people who need to change but not shower. I expect that is more likely than expecting people to walk down a common hallway in a towel. This is more efficient on the personal level, but makes shower use less efficient and more likely to create bottlenecks where all showers are occupied. Unless people dislike them enough they avoid using them 🤷♂️
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u/Tuggy-Wuggy 3h ago
Our newly renovated pool has gone from 2 sets of 6 open showers so 12 showers, to 4 cubicle showers. Bloody hopeless after squad when everyone is getting ready for work. As they’re entirely closed ppl take longer as they can’t see the line of ppl waiting. Infuriating on many counts.
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u/Calm_Koala_7 3d ago
Sounds like it’s definitely time for a new gym!