Are you sure that the gym you’re going to for regular workouts is really safe health wise? You might be spending your time working out in this gym to enhance your strength, but have you taken the necessary steps to ensure that there are no health hazards inside its premises?
A Gym Could Mean Many Things to Different People
People go to gyms for a variety of reasons. Some go there to relax their nerves after a grueling day at the office. A lot of people spend time in the gym to get stronger and healthier. But they are not aware that some gyms are harbingers of bad habits that induce health risks such as cancer and other debilitating diseases.
Thankfully, you won’t be facing these risks in established gyms such as Bally Total Fitness and The Little Gym. But you can’t be sure about the gym in your neighborhood. You really should take the necessary precaution to protect your health and well-being.
The Truth about Tanning
There are things in the gym that (if you are not careful in using them) are more harmful than helpful. Take the tanning equipment as an example. This equipment radiates ultraviolet rays that are 12 times stronger than those emitted by the sun. In fact, there are studies which have linked tanning equipment to skin cancer.
This is particularly risky for the younger set because they ran the risk of developing melanoma by 75 per cent for just one exposure to the UV rays of a tanning booth.
Don’t Be Taken by the Ads
Gyms are very creative and they would try every trick in the book to entice you to use their tanning booths. They would tell you that tanning will give you the healthy and slim look that you are aiming for.
And their advertising ploy works for it was revealed by a JAMA Dermatology study in 2015 that two out of five people admitted that they have gotten their tan in a gym setting, not in a tanning salon.
The study have also shown that women who chose to tan in gyms have more than double the tanning sessions than those who did it in tanning salons. They did it more often because tanning is usually included in their gym membership. In contrast, tanning salons typically restrict the user to just two sessions per week. They also have to pay for every session thereby making it more prohibitive, money wise.
The Trend is Going Positive
Fortunately, there is a decline in the number of indoor tanners beginning in 2010. This positive trend is based on the statistics gathered by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
However, you should still be prepared when you enter a gym because, more often than not, every time you enter a gym, you will be greeted with an advertisement that will entice you to try their tanning bed.
Any honest-to-goodness dermatologist will cringe on this practice since it influences people to risk their health for the prospect of looking good. Any dermatologist would know the adverse effect of too much tanning – skin cancer.
This type of cancer, rather than make you look good, will cause your skin to develop lesions above and underneath your skin. Skin cancer is one of the hardest cancers to treat and even if treated, leaves ugly marks that necessitate further cosmetic expenses to remove or conceal.
It Pays to Know the Consequences
Understanding the consequences will help you resist the temptation of lying on the tanning bed of the gym, even if it is included in your membership fee. For instance, a young woman was forced to have her dermatologist remove a basal cell lesion on her body just because she has previously tanned once a week for a span of several years.
Such extended practice is really dangerous to your health. Tanning, if practiced regularly for a length of time, stresses your skin needlessly. There will come a time that your system will succumb to the regular onslaught of UV rays and the problems will be manifested by way of skin cancer and other skin problems.
Beware of the Power of UV Rays
Feeling healthy is OK. If you feel healthy, you will naturally look healthy, even without tanning. Tanning is OK if done under the supervision of a health practitioner, not just a physical fitness trainer.
You should understand that UV rays are known to form free radicals. These free radicals adversely affect skin-forming collagen. The UV rays also increase the production of melanin. When this happens, it will lead to the formation of brown spots in your skin.
These brown spots, also known as sun spots, rather than make you look good, will cause your skin to appear like a leopard’s skin – defeating your purpose of enhancing your physical appearance.