I just saw a guy clean a machine at the gym for 6 minutes before he sat down and finally used it...

I worked as a lifeguard at the natatorium of the main recreational complex at my university when I was a sophomore, back in the mid 00's. One evening - I do not know exactly what the purpose was - 3 grad students got permission to cut the lights in one of the weight rooms and proceeded to painstakingly examine every piece of equipment with blacklights. They were very thorough; it took about 6-7 hours, even with 3 people.

All 3 swimming pools (competition, diving, and recreational) were closed for 3 days for maintenance at the time so I was assigned the task of babysitting the grad students and guarding the entrance of the weight room, lest someone should slip in surreptitiously and start doing leg extensions in the dark, I guess.

I spent most of my time watching them examining the equipment. Oh, the horror. Now, sweat ostensibly glows under a blacklight like all other bodily fluids, and while it is slightly gross to think about, I don't think most people would be to freaked about sweat being all over the equipment. But that wasn't the bad part

There were actually 3 bad parts, to be accurate. First was the surprising amount of blood they came across, one of them speculated it was from people opening scabbed scrapes and such while using the equipment. Second was the semen they found on 5 of the machines. 5! And 3 of the 5 had semen in multiple locations. The grad students agreed it probably wasn't some creep jerking off, but rather the result of exercise-induced orgasms. Still, ewww. Third was the urine. There were multiple areas with piss splattered about. Apparently, lots of people strain too hard and don't use the restroom beforehand. Again,ewww.

They also found what was thought to be a bodily fluid they could not immediately identify, though one of them opined it was cerebrospinal fluid. That is not really gross, but if true it is pretty fucking disturbing.

I don't blame the guy for being thorough.

/r/self Thread