Gyms can be an ideal breeding ground for germs, and if you’re not careful, you could easily carry home a nasty infection. According to The New York Times, skin infections account for over half of all diseases in athletes. Take the case of Kyle Frey, a student wrestler at Drexel University. One day he noticed a pimple on his arm, and within 24 hours it had grown as big as his bicep. When he was treated at the ER, he learned he had MRSA - the deadly antibiotic-resistant staph infection, picked up from a dirty wrestling mat or a fellow wrestler. That’s just the beginning. Experts say, if you have a cut or scrape – or touch something and then put your fingers in your mouth, eyes or nose - you can pick up all kinds of germs from filthy fitness equipment, including:

• Herpes simplex virus, which causes cold sores.
• There’s also impetigo, a type of staph infection which causes clusters of skin blisters. • Another skin infection that can be spread by dirty workout equipment: Ringworm, a fungus that can cause an itchy rash on your body, scalp, feet and hands. You can get it simply from touching an infected surface.
• Finally, going barefoot in a gym locker room can lead to athlete’s foot, a fungus that causes itching, scaling, burning and flaking on your feet and between your toes.

So, how can you protect yourself from gym germs? Dr. Steven Zinder is a trainer at the University of North Carolina, and he says it comes down to basic, common cleanliness. For example:

• Use a towel to cover the seats and benches of machines when you work out.
• Then, right after your workout, shower at the gym with antibacterial soap. Don’t wait ‘til you get home, because the germs have too much time to multiply, and you may end up spreading the germs all over the inside of your car.
• After you shower, dry off thoroughly, use foot powder to cut your risk of getting athlete’s foot, and dry your nooks and crannies with a cool hair dryer.
• Finally, put on clean clothes that haven’t touched your gym clothes. In fact, Dr. Zinder recommends using separate bags to keep your clean and dirty clothes apart, and so your clean clothes won’t be dropped into an already-infected bag the next.