Do you practice personal hygiene after working out in the gym?
You may think that by working out you already take care of your health. Also, you follow the gym rules and etiquette. So, you may ask yourself why should you care about gym post workout hygiene?
If you don't practice hygiene activities after working out, you might leave the gym with the skin covered with a nasty layer sweat, dust, and possible microorganisms gathered from other gym members. This can lead to either releasing an awful body odor or getting a type of fungi or virus that may affect your health.
While in the gyms, you never know where you may get infected. The infection might settle on the exercising equipment, on a yoga mat, or on someone's droplets of sweat that have been left somewhere in the gym. Plus, the sweat adds up. By the end of the workout, the skin of your body collects all sorts of microorganisms that need to be washed off your body.
So, post workout body cleaning activities help you to prevent any social or personal health disasters.
Wouldn’t it make sense to wash all that off your body skin before you leave the gym?
Below, I’ll share with you practices of maintaining hygiene after the workout.
1. Clean your yoga mat
If you exercise on a yoga mat, bring your own to the gym. In this way, you have absolute control over the cleanliness of the yoga mat prior or post workout. This is something that it's not possible when using a gym shared yoga mat.
2. Wash your hands and face
Hand and face hygiene should be given preference when it comes to post-workout hygiene.
So, after the workout, go into the bath and wash your hands and face for two main reasons.
The first reason is that, during the workout, the hands and face naturally sweat a lot more than other parts of the body.
Second, the hands and face are a lot more exposed to touching exercising equipment, floor, or anything other in the gym.
After the wash, wipe your hands and face with a clean and dry towel.
This is especially important if, during the workout, you got scratches or cuts.
Also, during the training, avoid the habit of touching your eyes or nose.
3. Take off your gym clothes
Depending on the intensity of your training your workout clothes might be wet or dry. But no matter how wet or dry are your workout clothes, make a habit to have a separate clothes for exercising sessions.
After you remove the workout clothes wear dry, breathable, and comfortable clothes.
Put the workout clothes into a plastic bag and, once you come home, take them out to air out or throw them into the laundry.
4. Change your socks and shoes
Take off your workout socks and shoes as well and wear dry socks and shoes.
Damp environments are exactly where the athlete's foot or fungus ringworm thrives.
5. Separate the workout shoes in a plastic bag
Put your workout shoes into a plastic bag as this part of your workout gear is the dirtiest because of the constant contact with the floor.
6. Take a shower after working out
Gym showers are high in warmth and moist environments where mold, bacteria, and viruses thrive. So, use them with caution.
Before getting into the shower, do a quick scan of its cleanliness. If something looks suspicious to you, then you better take a shower at home. At home you have more confidence of not catching anything.
In case you are not going home after the gym, use antibacterial body wipes for a quick shower. The body wipes are great solution to leaving the gym odor-free.
7. Wear flip-flops
Don't go into the gym shower without wearing some shoes that will separate the floor and your feet. A pair of flip-flops will do the job.
Also, make sure you wear your flip-flops when you're walking around the locker room.
This behavior decreases the chances of getting any type of fungi on your feet.
8. Don't share personal care items
The whole point of post-workout hygiene is to stop sharing microorganisms between gym members.
One important behavior is to avoid sharing personal tools with gym friends as well.
Your towel, water bottle, workout gear, deodorant, body wash, moisturizers are only for your personal use. That’s not because you are not a giver but because you want to avoid sharing microorganisms with others.
This kind of behavior keeps everybody safe and healthy.
