There is a saying that when you are taking care of your skin, you are taking care of your mind and soul. Your skin is a part of you, and you should nourish it. So, during your workout, your skin goes through a lot. It is exposed to sweat for quite some time and becomes red and oily. That's why it's so important to do post-workout skincare. It will prevent your skin from breaking out and forming troublesome acne. It will prevent clogging your pores, as well. But not everybody knows how to care for their skin after working out. If you are one of those people, we'd be glad to help! Here are some handy post-workout skincare tips you should try.
Exercise will improve your health in many ways. It can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 35 percent. Also, you can regulate your blood sugar levels and improve your memory and attention span. If you exercise regularly, you must have noticed the radiance and glow of your skin after training. That is not a coincidence. Exercise increases blood flow carrying more nutrients and oxygen to your skin. So, if you dream of healthier and more beautiful skin, exercise is a great way to improve it. Exercising will help you with your overall well-being, and exercise can give you better skin. But in some circumstances, training can also cause skin problems. Most often, these problems are a result of the mistakes we make. Here are some common skin issues that can result from errors made during physical activity.
Gym related infections
No matter how clean the gym looks, workout equipment can often be a breeding ground for fungi and bacteria. They thrive in gyms. Humidity and heat create ideal conditions for their development. The most common skin conditions that occur in the gym are:
Shared equipment, showers, floor, and pools are the most common places to get infected.
But this should not diminish your commitment to training. A few simple measures of precautions will reduce the risk of infection to a minimum:
Excessive sweating can lead to acne breakout. In order to cool your body, sweat glands open pores, letting sweat cover the surface of your skin. As you cool off, sweat, makeup, and bacteria can get trapped in your skin as pores close. The result is clogged pores, inflammation, and acne breakout on the face and the body. You can avoid all of these troubles by doing simple post-workout skincare.
Friction caused by either rubbing the skin on folds or other areas when you work out is the main reason for chafing. Constant rubbing of the skin causes skin irritation and rashes. It is more common for people prone to excessive sweating.
As we said earlier, sweat on your skin can lead to acne breakout if not removed soon after training. Also, it can irritate the skin and aggravate eczema. So, it is crucial to remove sweat, oil, and bacteria from your skin as soon as possible. A simple shower can be enough. But, if you were working out in a gym and in contact with all those possible infections, you should consider adding benzoyl peroxide wash to your post-workout skincare. Lather it on the area that was in contact with shared equipment, leave it for a few minutes, and then rinse. It will reduce the number of bacteria on your skin and the possibility of staph infections or folliculitis.
The way you are going to take care of your skin after a workout depends on the type of your skin and the time you do your exercise. It is good to plan your workout around your morning and evening skincare routine. If you wear makeup during the day, you should schedule your training early in the morning to avoid double cleansing with post-workout skincare. If you do your workout at noon, cleansing between your morning and evening skincare routine can cause overly drying of your skin. It might overcompensate with more oil and lead to more acne and inflammation. In that case, a shower, moisturizing, and sunscreen should be enough after your noon workout with your regular evening skincare routine at the end of the day.
The ingredient you want to avoid is sodium-neutral sulfate, which can stream the skin's natural barrier. That is where the imbalances come from and can cause that uncomfortable feeling. What you want to use are essential oils. It will give your skin a youthful glow and reduce any redness. There are various options of essential oils: coconut, jojoba, marula, argan, rose, and so on. You will choose what oil suits you the best, which depends on your skin type.
Alt-tag: A person putting on a moisturizer on their hand as a post-workout skincare routine
Caption: Use moisturizer to calm your skin as a post-workout skincare routine
The body, during a workout, loses water not only by sweating but also because the salt from the sweat draws water out from the skin cells through osmosis and leaves them dehydrated. That is why it is very important to return that water as soon as possible. For this purpose, a light moisturizing cream can be used, which will also have an additional effect in calming the inflammation.
So, what have you learned from all of this? Maintaining the health of your skin is not easy, so you should be patient with it and yourself. Your skin isn't always going to cooperate and will be trouble despite a skincare routine. But, if you regularly do your post-workout skincare and commit to keeping your skin healthy, you will see results over time. What's important is not to give up. It will certainly pay off in the end.
