If you are a regular user of fitness equipment at home or at a commercial gym, you should know how to properly clean the equipment you are using. This is especially true if you run a commercial facility and have frequent visitors. 

Public and private gyms are full of sweat, odors, and germs. Not to mention the fitness equipment needs proper maintenance to maintain and improve its functionality over time.

While you may think wiping down fitness equipment is easy (and it is), there are some chemicals you should not use, and some practices that should be consistently followed. 

So what are these do’s and don’ts? Thankfully, we at Akfit are here to help you understand the process of how to properly clean your gym equipment. 

For over three decades, Akfit has operated as a Canadian specialty fitness store located in Sudbury, Ontario. We’ve been working closely with our clients locally in northern Ontario, the rest of Canada, and beyond. We provide personalized advice to help clients find the right equipment for their space, budget, and unique fitness goals. 

Once you have found your perfect piece of equipment at Akfit, it is important that you maintain it!  Properly cleaning your fitness equipment is a key part of equipment maintenance that is often overlooked or sometimes done incorrectly. 

We want to help you, the reader, understand the importance of cleaning your equipment the correct way. 

In this article:

1. Why You Should Clean Your Gym Equipment
2. How Often You Should Clean Your Gym Equipment
3. How to Properly Clean Your Fitness Equipment
4. Akfit’s Preventative Maintenance Plans
5. Reach Out to Akfit

Why You Should Clean Your Gym Equipment

Cleaning your gym equipment is an important part of proper maintenance. Whether you have a home gym or operate a commercial gym, you should be cleaning your equipment for the following reasons:

• To prevent the spreading of germs.
• Similarly, a clean gym may promote a healthier and safer exercise environment.
• With this, a clean gym gives yourself, and other gym users, peace of mind while working out.
• To increase the longevity of your equipment.
• Cleaning increases the quality and performance of your equipment over time, resulting in a better return on investment (ROI).

How Often You Should Clean Your Fitness Equipment

There are two ways to clean gym equipment: a quick disinfectant or a deep-clean. 

Both cleaning procedures are very important but vary in terms of how often they should be done. This especially varies depending on if the equipment is used in a commercial or home gym.

Commercial Gym Cleaning Schedule

If you visit a local gym or a commercial fitness facility of any kind, it is recommended that you wipe down and disinfect the equipment after each time it is used . 

Given the number of users in a public gym, this practice has become the standard and is considered proper etiquette. 

In turn, cleaning equipment, such as paper towels and disinfectant spray, should also be made readily available and accessible at all times within commercial facilities so visitors can clean the equipment they have used after each use. 

Further, posting tutorials on how to properly clean the equipment above the cleaning stations would be an excellent idea to incorporate.

Aside from frequently wiping the equipment down, if you run a commercial gym, it is important to develop a daily deep-cleaning schedule and checklist for your staff to follow. Employing a professional cleaning crew that specializes in cleaning fitness equipment can work wonders in keeping the gym and the equipment clean and safe. 

Home Gym Cleaning Schedule

In a home gym, it is also recommended to follow the practice of disinfecting your equipment each time after use.  However, if you work out casually at home, you may be able to get away with disinfecting your equipment once a week, and deep cleaning your equipment at least once every two weeks at a minimum. 

It is a good idea to make a schedule for your cleaning procedures in your home gym. Given that this isn’t a professional facility, it can be easy to forget, but keeping up with cleaning on a regular basis will prevent the chance of neglect or forgetting to maintain your equipment. 

How to Properly Clean Your Fitness Equipment

All types of fitness equipment require regular maintenance to be performed and this includes cleaning them. 

As previously mentioned, fitness equipment should be wiped down after use. This process is quite simple. Just use a paper towel and equipment-safe disinfectant spray to wipe down the surface of the equipment.

Additionally, fitness equipment should be deep-cleaned periodically. 

It’s important to note that not all exercise equipment is the same. However, here are some general tips you should follow when cleaning your fitness equipment. 

Step One: Unplug Your Equipment

If you own any fitness machine that requires the use of electricity, it is best to unplug it before performing most styles of maintenance on it, especially cleaning.

This step may not be necessary if you are a frequent visitor to a commercial gym. That’s okay, leave that up to the staff. However, if you are cleaning your own equipment at home, unplug it. 

Unplugging any fitness equipment before cleaning it can prevent the possibility of any moisture interfering with the electronics associated with the machine. 

Step Two: Remove Any Surface Layer of Dirt or Sweat

Next, you should remove any dirt, sweat, or grime that has been formulated on your fitness equipment. Make sure to wipe any fingerprints you may notice as well. This applies to any type of gym equipment that you own. 

Use a pre-saturated general cleaning wipe, or dampen a cloth with a small amount of water. Do not spray any liquid from a bottle directly onto your equipment. 

With the cloth, be sure to thoroughly wipe down the surface as well as get into the small corners and nooks of your equipment. This can include areas such as tablet holders, bottle holders, and other accessories you may use with your equipment. 

Of course, don’t forget the main areas of your equipment you may frequently contact. This can include any handles, grips, consoles, seats, adjustment levers, and more. 

This step is important because removing any general dirt or build-up will help kill any bacteria or germs when disinfecting your equipment. 

Step Three: Disinfect Your Equipment

After wiping your equipment down, you should sanitize your equipment with a disinfectant wipe or you can apply sanitizer to a cloth and wipe your equipment down. 

Do not directly spray the sanitizer from a spray bottle onto the equipment. This can potentially lead to damaging your equipment. 

At Akfit, we recommend Certainty Plus Disinfectant Wipes. These wipes are alcohol-free, kill 99% of germs, disinfect, deodorize, and they are DIN registered with Health Canada. 

Do not use harsh household chemicals on your fitness equipment either, especially if you have multiple clients frequently using the same stations. 

We also don’t recommend using any ammonia cleaning products. While ammonia cleaning products are effective at cleaning germs, their efficiency is only best after sitting on the equipment for 5-10 minutes after application. Ammonia products are also known to wear down plastic and fabric materials which can damage your equipment. 

Do not apply any cleaning solution to your equipment via the use of a brush or any tool with bristles. These tools can scratch and damage your equipment. 

Instead, apply your disinfectant to all the areas of your fitness equipment that have been previously wiped down to remove any dirt, sweat, or grime. Make sure your equipment is relatively dry again before use. 

Akfit’s Preventative Maintenance Plans

At Akfit, we offer preventative maintenance services to take care of residential and commercial fitness equipment. 

Our customized maintenance checklists include detailed information outlining the specifics for each piece of equipment such as: 

• Cleaning
• Inspecting
• Lubricating
• Adjusting
• Diagnosing
• Testing

Our preventative maintenance plans are designed to do the following:

• Reduce the number of “Out of Order” signs on your equipment
• Provide members with an optimal workout experience
• Maximize the life expectancy of your equipment
• Improve the performance of your equipment
• Reduce the cost of emergency repairs
• Increase equipment safety
• Provide complete maintenance records to assist you if a liability issue arises
• Provide a database to identify the performance and reliability of your equipment for consideration in future purchases

If you are interested in our preventative maintenance plans and our equipment servicing options available to you, submit a request here. 

Reach Out to Akfit

After reading this article, you should have a good idea of how to properly clean your fitness equipment.  You may also be interested in the following related articles:

• How to Maintain Commercial Gym Equipment
• 7 Steps on How to Lubricate your Treadmill

We highly recommend reaching out to us at Akfit if you have any further questions on how to properly clean and maintain your fitness equipment. 

If you are interested in our gym hygiene products, or you are interested in purchasing new gym equipment with us, we highly encourage you to visit us in-store at our Sudbury location or book a virtual meeting with us. 

Our fitness experts will help you find the right equipment and products that best align with your fitness-related goals and needs. 

As previously mentioned, if keeping up with regular maintenance on your fitness equipment is too much of a task, you can submit a request here to inquire about our preventative maintenance plans. 

We at Akfit, are committed to helping you along your fitness journey, and we look forward to helping you with your fitness-related needs.