Pilates is the one fitness modality where bare feet are in constant contact with shared equipment, and that makes the standard gym cleaning advice a poor fit. The CDC refreshed its ringworm guidance on October 13, 2026, and its page on emerging types the same day. Both now name drug-resistant strains that are already present in the United States.

This is not a scare story. Ringworm is common, treatable, and rarely serious. What changed is that some strains no longer respond to the drugs clinicians reach for first, which raises the value of prevention. For a studio, prevention is mostly a question of which surfaces get cleaned, with what, and for how long.

3Drug-resistant or hard-to-treat ringworm strains CDC now reports in the US
3Transmission routes CDC lists: people & animals, shared objects, shared surfaces
0CDC cleaning recommendations written for fitness or Pilates settings
MonthsHow long some resistant infections can take to clear

What the CDC actually says

On transmission, CDC lists three routes: skin-to-skin contact with an infected person or animal, shared objects such as towels and bedsheets, and shared surfaces, naming "locker room or public bathroom floors" specifically. Tinea pedis is the foot infection most people know as athlete's foot.

"Contact with moist surfaces, like shower stall or locker room floors."

CDC — Clinical Overview of Ringworm

On resistance, CDC's emerging-types page names three strains now reported in the US:

Strains CDC flags in the United States
1
Trichophyton indotineaeDrug-resistant; may not respond to typical antifungal treatment. More common in parts of South Asia; travel may raise exposure risk.
2
Terbinafine-resistant T. rubrumReported in the US. Terbinafine is a common first-line treatment.
3
T. mentagrophytes genotype VII (TMVII)Most often linked to intimate or sexual contact. Usually treatable, but can take weeks or months.

Why that matters to a studio: resistant infections can need prescription oral antifungals for several weeks or months. A client who picks something up in your space may be dealing with it long after they stop coming in.

What the CDC material does not say

It does not say how long these fungi survive on surfaces.

It gives no environmental cleaning or disinfection recommendations at all. Its prevention advice is personal: keep skin clean and dry, don't share towels or sports gear, wear sandals in locker rooms, showers and pool areas.

Nothing in it is written for an equipment-based barefoot studio.

Why "wear sandals" doesn't translate to a reformer

CDC's footwear advice assumes feet touch a floor you can walk across in sandals. In a Pilates studio, bare feet are the point: they grip, they give feedback, they're how the work is done. So the exposure moves from the floor to the equipment, and the equipment is shared on a thirty-minute rotation.

The surfaces worth separating out, roughly in order of how much foot contact they get against how carefully they tend to get wiped:

Studio surfaces, ranked by foot contact
1
Reformer footbarDirect, sustained, whole-sole contact, often with pressure and sweat. It is also the surface most likely to get skipped, because the habit is to wipe where the client's back was, not where the feet were.
2
Straps and loopsFeet go in them. They're fabric or neoprene, they don't wipe clean the way a vinyl pad does, and most studios have no routine for them beyond occasional laundering.
3
Carriage and shoulder blocksFeet stand and press here during footwork and jumpboard, then a torso lies on the same surface in the next class.
4
Jumpboard, platform extender, Cadillac foot strapsFoot-specific by design.
5
Mats, barrels, propsThe magic circle and short box see hands more than feet, but mats and barrels see both.
6
The floor itselfEspecially between the reformer and the changing area, and the bathroom floor: the one surface where CDC's advice applies directly.

The practical point: a studio that wipes the carriage and mat after every client, and the footbar once at the end of the day, has its priorities inverted relative to the transmission routes CDC describes.

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Most studios are cleaning for bacteria

Here is the gap. On an EPA-registered disinfectant label, efficacy is claimed organism by organism. A product proven against Staphylococcus aureus has said nothing about fungi. The fungal claim is separate, and the organism EPA labels name for it is Trichophyton mentagrophytes, written on labels in plain English as "Athlete's Foot fungus."

That claim is not just a line item; it can carry its own instructions. On one registered label, EPA required the fungicidal claim to sit in its own T. mentagrophytes section with a precleaning step, separate from the general disinfection directions. Same bottle, different procedure.

Easy to mistake for a fungal claim

"Antifungal formula" in marketing copy is not a claim; it's an adjective. "Inhibits mold and mildew" is a real claim, and a different one. Stopping mildew growing on a shower curtain is not killing dermatophytes on a footbar.

The second half of the gap is contact time. Labels state how long the surface must stay wet, and on some products the time for the fungal claim is longer than the headline time for bacteria. Studios rarely miss this on purpose; they miss it because a quick swipe on a warm vinyl footbar between clients can dry in well under a minute. If the surface is dry before the stated time, the claim on the label was not met, whatever product was used.

So the honest version of the problem is not "studios use the wrong chemical." It is that most studios have never checked whether their label carries a fungal claim, and most wipe-downs are shorter than the time their own label requires.

SONO Disinfecting Wipes — why it matters here

SONO Disinfecting Wipes are registered as a one-step hospital disinfectant, virucide and fungicide (EPA Reg. #6836-340-89018). Our fungicide claim carries an 8-minute contact time, twice the 4-minute time for bacteria and most viruses. That longer number is the one to build a footbar routine around.

We'd rather you read it than take our word for it: ask us for the full master label and check the fungal organism and directions yourself, the same way this post suggests for any product on your shelf.

SONO Disinfecting Wipes 80-count canister in a Pilates studio setting next to reformer equipment
For the studio cleaning shelf

SONO Disinfecting Wipes — EPA-Registered, Alcohol-Free

Large 7×8-inch wipes, sized for a footbar and carriage. Alcohol-free, made in the USA, EPA Reg. #6836-340-89018. Use for the full labeled contact time.

Shop SONO Disinfecting Wipes

A protocol a studio can actually run

The constraint is real: you have a few minutes between clients and an instructor who is also greeting the next person. A protocol nobody follows is worse than a short one everybody does.

Between-client studio protocol
1
Grip socks, requiredThe single highest-value change, and it costs the studio nothing. It puts a barrier between every foot and every shared surface, it's already normal in the industry, and clients accept it when it's framed as hygiene rather than policy. Sell them at the desk so forgetting isn't an excuse to go barefoot.
2
Wipe feet-firstBetween clients, the order is footbar and foot straps, then carriage and shoulder blocks, then handles. Inverting the usual habit costs no extra time.
3
Keep it wet for the label timeCheck what your label says, then make sure the surface still looks wet when you walk away. On a warm footbar that may mean a second pass. If it dries faster than the stated time, use more product, not more scrubbing.
4
Give straps and loops a real routineThey don't wipe clean. Decide on a laundering or replacement interval and write it down. If the material can't be laundered, that's worth knowing before an outbreak, not after.
5
Bathroom and changing floorsThe one place CDC's advice maps directly. Daily, and no bare feet.

When a client discloses a skin infection

Have an answer ready before you need one. A reasonable one: thank them for telling you, ask them to wear grip socks and full-length leggings, assign them equipment you clean at the end of the session, and don't ask for a doctor's note you're not qualified to interpret. Resistant cases can take months to clear, so a policy of "stay away until it's gone" may effectively mean losing the client, which is also why they won't tell you.

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How to read the label you already own

Take the container off your cleaning shelf and check four things.

Four-point label check
1
Is there an EPA registration number?If not, it is a cleaner, not a disinfectant, and it makes no kill claims at all. That's a legitimate product (cleaning removes soil and some organisms) but it isn't disinfection.
2
Is Trichophyton mentagrophytes or "Athlete's Foot fungus" in the organism list?This is the question almost nobody asks. If it isn't there, the product has no fungal claim, however broad the marketing copy sounds.
3
What contact time is stated, and is there a separate procedure for the fungal claim?Some labels require precleaning before the fungal claim applies. Read the directions attached to that organism, not just the headline time.
4
Is the product compatible with your equipment?Reformer upholstery, straps and painted frames all have manufacturer guidance, and a disinfectant that cracks vinyl creates porous surfaces that are harder to clean. Check the equipment manufacturer's instructions alongside the disinfectant label.

Questions worth asking a supplier: can you send the full EPA master label, not the spec sheet; does the label carry a T. mentagrophytes claim; what is the contact time for that specific claim; and has the product been tested on reformer upholstery.

âš  Writing your own studio signage

EPA rules bar safety claims on registered disinfectants (words like safe, safer, non-toxic or harmless) and that extends to how a product is described in marketing. Describe what the label says it kills and how long it needs. Leave the adjectives off.

The one change worth making this week

Require grip socks. Everything else on this list is refinement; that one is a barrier between every client's feet and every shared surface in the studio, and it's free.

Then, when you have ten minutes, pull your disinfectant label and look for Trichophyton mentagrophytes. Whatever you find, you'll know something about your studio you didn't know this morning, and if it isn't there, you can decide whether that matters to you rather than assuming it was covered.

To be clear about what this piece is and isn't: CDC has not issued cleaning guidance for fitness or Pilates settings, and it does not say how long these fungi survive on equipment. The transmission routes and the resistance picture come from CDC. The application to reformers and straps is our reading of what those routes mean in a barefoot studio, and reasonable people could draw the priority order differently.

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SONO Disinfecting Wipes 80-count canister
Stock the studio shelf before the next class.

SONO Disinfecting Wipes, EPA Reg. #6836-340-89018. Alcohol-free. Made in the USA in Pico Rivera, CA.

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References & Sources