Did you know that Americans spend about $10 billion on exercise equipment in one year? Are you one of the thousands of Americans buying equipment to start your exercise journey or are you a pro at working out?
Whatever the case may be, you’ve probably had to deal with chafing after some intense workouts. This guide will provide some great tips to help prevent chafing. Keep reading to learn what they are so you can start implementing them today.
What Is Chafing?
Chafing is an irritation or inflammation to areas of the skin. The most common areas where chafing can occur are the inner thighs, groin, nipple area, and underarms.
What causes chafing? Direct skin-to-skin contact is the most common culprit of chafing, especially when it occurs between your thighs. More common for athletic people, chafing can occur around your nipples when clothes rub against them.
Mild chafing causes redness and irritation while more severe chafing can lead to painful blisters and lead to infection. Some people are more prone to chafing because they struggle with sensitive skin.
Chafing Treatment
If you’ve been dealing with chafing for a long time, there are things you can do to treat it and reduce irritation and discomfort. While being physically active is an important part of staying healthy, if you notice increased chafing after a specific workout you should stop doing that workout for some time.
Your body needs time to recover. If you continue to do the same workout, you’re putting yourself at risk of developing more irritation.
You should clean and pat dry the area where you’ve been chafing and apply a chafing cream to reduce redness. Adding a moisturizing cream after the redness has calmed down can help prevent irritation from occurring again.
Choose the Appropriate Clothes
Finding the right clothes for your day-to-day activities can help prevent chafing, so you can continue with your life without the interruption and discomfort that chafing causes. Moisture-wicking undergarments will keep you dry and prevent too much rubbing while working out and this will help you avoid chafing.
You should also wear breathable fabrics even when not working out to keep you dry and prevent chafing every day. Cotton shirts and pants are vital to have, especially during the hot summer months.
Compression shorts are a good idea for workouts too. These shorts will hug the skin around your thighs to prevent that direct contact that causes chafing between your thigh.
Use Natural Products to Prevent Chafing
If you’re looking to learn how to prevent chafing, there are many different kinds of products you can use. Petroleum jelly is one lubricant that helps keep the skin from rubbing together and prevents chafing.
Body powder helps keep you dry. When there’s less moisture, there’s a lower chance of chafing.
Apply this powder to areas that are prone to chafing, like under your breasts, in the groin area, or between your thighs. The unscented powder is the best option if you have sensitive skin.
All natural anti-chafe salves help repair skin damage that occurs from chafing and prevent it altogether by keeping your skin moisturized.
Practice Grooming
Another way to prevent chafing is by practicing regular grooming. When body hair grows back it can lead to ingrown hairs, irritation, and even infection. This will worsen chafing in that area of your body.
Trimming the hair in areas prone to chafing will prevent excessive rubbing. Shaving it down completely isn’t recommended because of some of the points mentioned above. Bare skin rubbing together will also cause more chafing.
Finding a middle ground of leaving some hair while keeping it trimmed down a bit is the best way to prevent chafing. The best way to achieve a trim without shaving all your hair off is using an electric razor.
Use Wipes
Other tips for preventing chafing include carrying wipes with you when needed. Since you now know that one of the causes of chafing is moisture, you know wipes can help prevent it.
When you feel yourself starting to break a sweat you can take a break to wipe down and dry off so you don’t start chafing. Make sure to wipe away sweat between your inner thighs, around your groin, under your arms, and underneath your breast area too.
Always carry a clean change of clothes so you can change out of damp clothes and into something dry as soon as you clean off all the sweat. This can also reduce your chance of developing infections caused by chafing.
Keep Your Skin Healthy
Keeping your skin healthy is another way to prevent chafing. This means that you have to properly hydrate. This is especially important before, during, and after working out.
You’ll still sweat but the sweat is less likely to cause irritation that is caused by chafing. Give your skin some time to breathe after working out. You should shower with warm water and gentle soap and wait to apply any creams.
The best time to moisturize is before going to bed. Applying a moisturizing cream to your body at night, especially around the areas that are chafed or are prone to chafing, will help promote healing as you sleep.
Prevent Chafing with These Tips
If you want to prevent chafing, you should follow the tips in the list above. Have a natural anti-chafing salve you can apply before workouts. You should also use moisture-wicking clothing when you know you’ll be sweating.
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