Visiting fitness clubs is a fashionable activity today. People of different ages look into the hall in order to create a beautiful figure and improve health. At the same time, the question is relevant – how not only to improve your figure, but also to take care of your skin. Indeed, during classes, a person sweats or swims in a pool where the water is chlorinated, and this does not contribute to skin health. About what rules to follow, told PhD, plastic surgeon Liya Gavasheli.
“One of the basic rules for visiting fitness is the absence of decorative cosmetics and make-up on the face. We go to the gym not to take pictures and take selfies for social networks. After all, when we play sports, sweating often increases, and this process affects not only the body, but also the face, ”explains the specialist.
Before workout
If we do make-up before training or come to the gym with makeup after visiting the office, then in fact we close the pores. And at the moment when we make efforts in a group workout or in the gym, the sweat glands begin to work actively, sebum (sebum) is released – all this mixes with cosmetics and leads to the appearance of comedones (small nodules in the form of black dots or pimples) and inflammatory elements, says Leah Gavasheli.
Therefore, the doctor notes, the skin, when we go to sports, should be absolutely clean. “If you came to the gym after work or some kind of event (meetings, trips, etc.), the first step is to remove the remnants of makeup and impurities (dust, sebum) from the face. In some gyms there are even bottles of micellar water for this purpose, there are cotton pads and even cotton swabs. No need to think that all this is for those who go to the shower or sauna. Of course, visiting a sauna / hammam / Russian bath is associated with preliminary cleansing of the skin. But this procedure is also necessary for those who go to sports, because the skin must breathe so that its cleansing takes place naturally through the sweat and sebaceous glands, ”says the specialist. If the club does not have this, you should worry in advance and put this skin cleansing kit in your sports bag.
During a workout
During training, if necessary, you can apply a moisturizing spray for the skin: it can be thermal water, a special spray with soothing, tonic, cooling components, or a fine mist for the face, which will instantly eliminate signs of dryness and tightness of the skin, Liya Gavasheli recommends.
“I would pay special attention during training to face wipes. In some gyms, practitioners are carefully offered face towels, and I have a lot of questions about them. First, they don’t always look clean enough. Secondly, they can be a source of papillomas and other viruses. Therefore, I would refrain from using public face towels and would suggest using your paper towels for profuse sweating or special matting wipes that quickly eliminate excess sebum, and the face looks well-groomed, as if you had just powdered it, ”advises Lia Gavasheli.
After workout
After training, a mandatory step is washing with a product that suits your skin type (gel, foam, hydrophilic oil). Another obligatory moment is to wipe the face with a tonic to restore the pH of the skin. Then you can apply a cream according to your skin type, ideally prescribed by a dermatologist. And after all these procedures, think about makeup – it can be done both in the gym and upon returning home, the specialist notes.
After the pool
All of the above rules are also true for visiting the pool. But if after group classes or the gym we sometimes allow ourselves to ignore the procedure for taking a shower, deciding that we will do it at home, then after the pool we need to take a shower immediately to wash the bleach from the skin and hair. And then we act in exactly the same way: cleansing the face, toning, applying cream, makeup, explains Lia Gavasheli.
Separately, you can say about the legs when visiting the pool. They need additional care: after the pool, it is better to treat them with a solution of chlorhexidine or miramistin in order to avoid any unpleasant consequences, such as fungus, advises Lia Gavasheli.