Maintaining proper hygiene is essential for your body’s health and cleanliness. Recently, people started to pay closer attention to their personal hygiene habits. Most people began to take measures for educating themselves to follow best hygiene practices and prevent any virus spread. This was especially true for those who visited public spaces frequently, like gyms. Gyms were areas that got many visitors over a day, and applying essential hygiene practices could reduce pandemic spread.
Workout environments with their tools should be cleaned and sanitized regularly. Meanwhile, you as a visitor must also follow good hygiene practices in your gym to limit the chain of bacteria spread.
Let’s dive into five essential post-workout hygiene habits that you must follow to protect your health, reducing the number of germs from your body that spread to equipment and nearby gym-goers.
1. Hand Washing
How can we imagine hygiene without hand washing? Washrooms are there for you so that you can have proper hand hygiene practices. Why? The most effective and essential way to lower the spread of germs and bacteria is hand washing. You must wash your hands for a minimum of 20 seconds using soap and water.
If you want to know how to wash your hands properly, follow these simple steps provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Damp your hands with water and apply soap to cover all the surfaces of your hands.
- Rub your hands palm to palm.
- Rub the back of hands with fingers interlaced.
- Rub palms together with fingers interlaced.
- Rub the backs of your fingers in cupped palms with fingers interlocked. Repeat the action for each hand.
- Rub your thumbs rotationally using your hands.
- Make a circle inside each palm by using the tips of your fingers.
- Wash your hands with water and dry them using paper towels or hand dryers. Turn off the faucet using a towel.
Ensure to clean your hands before and after your workout. When exercising, you regularly use workout equipment in the gym, which other people have touched a lot. These are tools that carry lots of bacteria and germs. Thus, to maintain your physical and mental health, wash your hands.
2. Disinfection of Equipment
You may know how essential it is to disinfect workout equipment after using them. If each person does it responsibly, they will prevent the spread of germs.
Using a disinfectant spray or wipes, sanitize the sweaty equipment, weights, and benches before and after using them. Keep in mind that if you use disinfectant wipes, you should clean the surface of the equipment from left to right or vice versa without rubbing in random directions to reduce contamination.
No matter where you are doing your workout, whether it’s your home or a public place, always follow the basic hygiene practices. When you sanitize your equipment before and after using it, you maintain your own health and care for others as well.
3. Shower
You may know how essential it is to take a shower after your workout. Why?
When you work out in a gym, you produce sweat. Actually, humans’ sweat doesn’t have an odor, and the latter occurs when sweat glands mix with bacteria on your skin. Working out causes sweating and bacteria build-up, leading to acne. Acne can cause mental health issues like anxiety and depression for people. And by taking a shower after a workout, you don’t let debris and sweat sit on your skin, preventing acne.
If you don’t have enough time to take a shower, you must at least wash your face and change your clothes before leaving the washroom.
4. Wearing Flip-flops
It’s crucial to wear flip-flops when you take a shower. It’s never advisable to walk barefoot in wet places, especially in public washrooms. Walking barefoot can cause Athlete’s foot which is a fungal infection causing itchiness. It can even spread to your hands and nails from your towel. The reason is that wet and moist environments make the fungus grow. That’s why it’s essential to wear flip-flops in the bath and wash feet thoroughly, drying them afterwards.
5. Changing Clothes
Changing out of your clothes is very crucial. It’s a must to change your clothes and underwear after your workout. Staying in sweaty gym clothes can lead to infections by limiting the breathability of your skin and genitals, and wearing new clothes after the gym can prevent skin irritation and the risk of infections. Wash your workout clothes as you reach home to keep you and your family away from germs and odor.
Pre and post-workout hygiene maintains your health, keeping you strong and lubricating your joints. Now you know how to maintain good hygiene post-workout practices. Stay healthy, keep your muscles energized and prevent the spread of germs by following these five essential tips.
AUTHOR’S BIO:
Arnold Williams is a Content generalist at Hygiene Express. He works with a dynamic team of writers and marketers. His educational background in journalism has given him a broad base to approach many topics professionally.
