Communal Showering

I can now say i have used a communal shower (this is part of my increasing body confidence side quest, be more comfortable about being naked around people).

In the last month i have used a communal shower 4 times, twice where i play squash and twice at the 24 hr gym in the cbd. The first three dont really count since there was noone else in the changerooms when i did, the last time (monday) there were.

So I had just finished working out for about 2 hours, and i thought to myself, may as well just get used to it and use the communal shower, because i normally go home to shower when i go to that gym because it only has communal showers and its a gym targeted to professional body builders so the changerooms can be very intimidating. So i used them, and wandered back to my stuff starkers.

Actually wasnt either liberating or uncomfortable, it was like: "yes i am naked, no noone else cares, and i dont really either".

I followed the rules though (these are rules i made up myself):

1. Dont start up conversations with strangers while you or they are getting changed. Its ok to chat to people you already know except when it breaks rule 2.
2. Dont talk to anyone while you are naked, you should be concentrating on putting on pants. Dont talk to anyone who is naked, they should be concentrating on putting on pants.
3. Dont make eye contact with naked people or while naked, its not polite :p.
4. Dont watch people who are getting changed (this sounds pretty gay. But i mean it as a comparison thing: who has a better body, what shape is their body, what exersises did you see them do in the gym, should you do the same sort of exersises to achieve similar results? I learn by observation alot of the time)

However i have heard (from a friend who frequents that gym alot and from my flatmates) that many people consider walking around naked a Don't Do Rule. They say people shouldn't walk around naked in a change room, they should have a towel or underwear on. I see their point, it is awkward alot of the time, but i also see the point of: this gyms comunal shower has no hooks near it for your towels, so you need to leave your towel with your stuff and walk to the shower, then from it back to your stuff. Then you dry yourself and get dressed. Its not that long of being naked. Its not like wandering back and forth to the mirror and stuff while naked, and its not like the private cubicle showers in my normal gym, where there is space to hang up clothes/towel so you can shower and then cover yourself before going back to your items. Anyway, its a change room. Unless you want to do that awkward thing with the towel around your waist (annoying and sorta a bit silly as in a single gender changeroom, everyone has already seen it before) your going to be naked at some point. Hence i dont include it as an explicit rule.