Exercise has many physical health benefits. A gym workout can increase blood flow all over your body, including your skin. This rise in circulation helps bring more oxygen and nutrients to support skin cells.
What is more, exercising regularly helps minimize the body's elevated immune and hormonal responses to stress. This can reduce the likelihood of flare-ups and chronic skin condition breakouts.
If you do plan to work out at your local gym or fitness center, you will want to take better care of your skin. After all, you and everyone else in the gym are sweating their butts off, making the workout rooms a wild environment for fungus and bacteria to run rampant. These two organisms can cause acne, pimples, and other skin problems.
Once you are done with your workout session, follow these eight post-exercise skin care tips:
8 Best Post-Workout Skin Care Tips
Avoid Touching Your Face
The gym is full of other people's sweat and germs. This should be more than enough to persuade you to refrain from touching your face when you are working out at your local fitness center. If your face is all sweaty, head to the locker room and use toner pads. These products will help strip the layer of sweat along with residual makeup after you work out.
Do Some Cool Down Exercises
Thinking of going to the showers immediately after lifting heavy weights or an intense run at the treadmill? Not so fast. Give your body sufficient time to cool down. Performing cool down exercises is an excellent way to naturally reduce your heart rate while making the most of your workout. Once you are finished, though, your body may still be working to restore its natural temperature.
This could leave you feeling a bit warm and looking flushed, specifically in the face. As you transition into your post-exercise skin care routine, you could cool down further by putting a wet washcloth around your neck.
This simple trick does two things. First, it keeps you continuing to sweat. Second, it helps you feel a bit refreshed after your workout.
Wipe Away All the Sweat by Showering
After you have successfully cooled down, go ahead and hit the gym showers. This will allow you to rinse off the accumulated germs, oil and sweat.
When you are showering, you can use lightening body scrub for dry skin to clean your body. Just massage this product gently on moistened skin, then rinse off with water.
If you have acne-prone skin, however, try a wash containing benzoyl peroxide, an ingredient that will combat the bacteria that causes breakouts. Alternatively, you could cleanse with a sulfur wash.
Dry Off Using Your Personal Gym Towel
The right towel does exist. Although many gyms offer towels for their patrons, you will want to bring your own. If the fitness center uses a detergent that you are allergic to (whether you are aware of this or not), your skin could experience an allergic reaction.
Apart from the cleaning agent used, there is the issue of absorbency. You will want to avoid using super plush towels that you could find in gyms. These thick fabrics are likely to hold on to bacteria even when they go through a wash cycle.
Remember to Moisturize
Slathering your body with moisturizer helps replenish the water that your skin lost during your sweat session. Use an oil-free moisturizer if you are prone to breakouts.
Put on New Clothes
Athleisure has become a thing. Sporting the leggings you wore at the gym while you are out doing errands is socially acceptable. This does not mean, though, that this practice is good for your body. Sweating creates a wet and warm environment for bacteria to thrive.
Instead of putting on the same clothes, practice good personal hygiene by changing into new clothes. Do this even if you think that the clothing you previously wore looks clean.
Drink Plenty of Water
Staying well-hydrated is instrumental to maintaining the youthful glow of your skin. So, drink water within half an hour of finishing your workout routine to hydrate your body.
Even better, keep drinking even after you leave the gym. Your body can lose a lot of moisture during an intense workout, so you will need to keep hydrating to help your skin recover.
Eat a Healthy Snack
All that working out you did can make you hungry. Rather than reach out for sugary snacks - or worse, skip meals - chow down on a healthy snack like nuts and trail mixes. The last thing you want to do is negate the benefits of exercise on your body and skin by putting unhealthy stuff in your stomach.
With these gym-centric care tips, your skin will stay healthy after every fitness routine.
