These are the most disgusting pieces of equipment at the gym

Simone Olivero
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Looking for an excuse to skip the gym today? This might be a good one.

Turns out gyms are pretty gross. OK, no big surprise here. Most gyms are hot, overcrowded sweat boxes, but according to new research, certain pieces of equipment are particularly guilty of hoarding potentially harmful bacteria.

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FitRated, an equipment review site, recently visited a bunch of gyms and swabbed bacteria samples from 27 different types of equipment. What they found was pretty disturbing.

Lurking within the samples were gram-positive cocci, gram-negative rods, gram-positive rods and bacillus. That loosely translates into things like listeria, streptococcus and the bacteria that causes staph infections – yuck!

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According to the swabs, the dirtiest pieces of equipment were the exercise bike, treadmill and free weights.

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(photo: FitRated)

To demonstrate just how dirty these things are, FitRated compared them to other bacteria-ridden objects like cafeteria trays, the faucet on your sink and a toilet seat. Let’s just say you may want to bring some hand sanitizer with you next time you hit the gym.

What do you think of these findings? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.