Exercising is just one part of living a healthy and happy life—lowering the level of stress and kickstarting the effects of endorphins in your system.
Along with the various other health benefits of a workout session, like improving blood circulation and maintaining proper bodyweight, a workout promotes sweat—and for most guys—buckets full.
Fortunately, sweat can help in eliminating toxins and impurities out of the skin pores. This makes your skin smooth, brighter, and clearer.
Unfortunately, exercising can also mess up your skin by causing acne breakouts.
You might be thinking that you have to choose between keeping fit and having acne-free skin.
That’s not the case—you just need to take more time and give your skin a little love. T
Getting deep into the pores of this problem by working out the causes of acne can help you take on tips that can later prevent post-workout acne.
Acne-Prone Habits
The following are some of the things to watch out for while working out:
Dirty yoga mat
Whether you are doing a yoga class, floor exercises or cooling down on the mat, all of your body will touch the mat whether it is your face, feet or hands. This means that the germs and bacteria from your feet may end up in your face or hand. Also,
Dirty gym equipment
In addition to your yoga mat, gym equipment keep dirt and bacteria in its folds, no matter if they were wiped down after exercise. A study in 2016 done by FitRated.comshowed that the bacteria in free weights at the gym are 362 times more than the bacteria in public toilets. This is because there are a lot of people using them and each person transfers their own dirt from their sweat to the equipment.
Staying sweaty
Sweat helps in regulating the body temperature but it can mix with the dirt from the pores, yoga mat or gym equipment, products on your skin and the oils naturally from your body. When you go too long without cleaning it off, the mixture may settle back in the pores causing acne breakouts. This happens mostly when you wear tight gym wear or stay in your clothes for too long after your workout.
Heat rash
When working out, your body temperature increases—obstructing the sweat glands. This causes heat rashes, which are tiny and itchy hives, mostly under tight-fitting gym wear.
Exposure to the sun
Exercising outside can be a great way to break the monotony of working out in the studio or gym. Unfortunately, applying sunscreen before an outdoor workout is not always on the checklist. Sunburns cause unnecessary wrinkling of the skin, skin cancer or even acne breakouts.
How to Prevent Post-Workout Acne
Now that you know what causes it, the following are some of the tips you can follow to prevent post-workout acne:
Washing your face before exercising
Wash your face before working out is just as important as it is after. It may be time-consuming to remove your make up before working out, especially if you have to reapply it again. However, this is a simple way of preventing acne from breaking out after exercising. In addition, you need to tone and exfoliate before going to the gym in order to remove the dead skin cells.
A headband can come in handy
Your hair may be another cause of post-workout acne if you have longer hair. This is because the dirt from your hair will drip down to your face when you sweat. Wearing a headband or tying your hair back will prevent the sweat from passing your hairline.
Wearing lighter and loose-fitting gym wear
Switching to a looser and lighter gym pants, tops, and shorts will reduce the friction and rubbing between your body and the gym wear, which causes breakouts.
Wipe gym equipment before use
You can use the sprays provided by the gym or pre-moistened wipes to clean the gym equipment before working out.
Remove your gym wear as soon as possible
The longer you wear your sweaty gym clothes, the more the bacteria causes acne to multiply. Allow your skin to breathe by removing sweaty clothes as soon as you finish working out.
Wash your hands before washing your face and body
To avoid transferring dirt and bacteria to your face, wash your hands thoroughly with soap before touching your face.
Wash your gym gear in between uses
Obviously most people throw their sweaty clothes in the wash—but don’t forget about that towel. Placing your towel in the bag and leaving it there is a white-towel crime that most people commit. However, this can be pretty harmful. This allows bacteria and germs to grow, waiting around until the next time you use it. Have a stack of gym towels that you can rotate throughout the week, keeping them always clean and fresh.
Post-workout acne can be caused by dirty gym equipment, un-sanitized yoga mats, tight gym wear, and staying sweaty for longer periods of time after working out.
Fortunately, there are small things that you can adjust in your daily workout routine in order to have acne-free skin.
Keep your skin clean by wiping the gym equipment before using it, not forgetting to remove those sweaty gym clothes as soon as you finish working out, washing your face before working out and after a session, and always washing your hands first.
With the above tips, it will be much easier to maintain healthier, glowing, brighter, and flawless skin all week without having to choose between exercising and keeping your skin free from acne break-outs.
