AUSactive comments on gym safety following bodybuilder collapse at 24/7 gym

Following an incident on 20th August at a Perth 24/7 gym in which a bodybuilder collapsed and spent 15 hours unconscious in the shower without anyone noticing, AUSactive Chief Executive Barrie Elvish ha sresponded to media reports that the man's family is calling for greater safety measures at gyms.

ABC reported that police were forced to break down a door of the bathroom at Culture Fitness in the northern Perth suburb of Wanneroo to rescue Giuliano Pirone, aged 33, who was found lying in the shower cubicle with the water still running about 10:30pm last Tuesday.

Police used the signal from his phone to locate him after his mother Daniela Pirone reported him missing that afternoon when he failed to arrive home from work, telling Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth her son was in the habit of going to the gym about 5am before heading to his building supervisor job. She said she raised the alarm when he wasn't home from work by 3pm.

Pirone had been in the shower since 7am without any of the gym's staff or customers realising he was there.

Asked to comment, AUSactive's Elvish told the ABC that what happened to Giuliano Pirone was "very distressing", noting "I sincerely hope that this gentleman does make a full recovery."

Elvish advised that said AUSactive encouraged its member gyms to sign up to a voluntary code of practice, which includes measures to try to keep gym-goers safe, adding "that includes a proper induction process for new members to any gym, which takes them around how to use equipment safely obviously, but also where duress alarms may be, where a defibrillator may be and so on."

Elvish went on to say that  24/7, mostly unstaffed gyms were a popular option with gym users because they allowed members to go anytime that suited them, without the cost that applied if a gym was staffed full-time.

He explained "eight million Australians have gym memberships, and 24/7 gyms are a very convenient facility for the majority of those people that go to a gym.

"It means they can go at their time of choosing and when it suits them to do that. But they aren't staffed by definition and it's not possible to staff a gym fully 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

"The cost of doing that would put the cost of gym membership beyond many Australians' ability to pay."

Elvish told ABC that checking bathrooms was also a fraught question, as CCTV would not be appropriate and a staff member going in to check a shower area wouldn't necessarily know how long a customer had been in there.

Pirone's family also questioned why nobody noticed that he checked into the gym but never left, with Elvish advising it was not usual practice for gyms to check patrons out.

Elvish concluded "that's something we could possibly look at, but at the moment, I'm not aware of any gym that actually has a check-out as well as a check-in.

In a statement, the gym's management staff offered their "deepest sympathies to Giuliano's family during this difficult time".

"As a 24-hour gym facility, we remain committed to maintaining a safe, secure and accessible environment for all our members."

Image illustrative only. Fitness Bodybuilding. Credit: Pexels via Victor Freitas