Does Fitness Affect Acne? How to Avoid Acne?

Exercise is good for your body. When you exercise your bones, muscles, lung, and heart gain huge benefits. The positives of leading an active life also keeps your skin young. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (MIAMS) states that exercise increases blood flow to the surface of your skin and brings nutrients and oxygen to your skin and your face.

When you exercise you should be sweating. Sweat is made of water with small amounts of ammonia, salts, sugar, and urea. These impurities are flushed from your skin when you exercise. Does this sweating hurt those who are prone to acne?   Sweating and exercise might help and it sure does not hurt say the experts. Sweat neither fights against acne nor does it causes acne. The increased blood flow, cleaning pores from sweating and stress reduction that comes from exercise will benefit the acne sufferer.

Working out and exercising until you sweat is benefit to skin health. Yet you do want to avoid activities that cause irritation to already existing skin problems.   Try not to wear clothing that rubs against you skin. If you are a bike rider and wear a helmet and sunglasses clean them as often as you can. If you sweat surfaces can collect oils and dirt that will be transferred to your skin and cause more problems.

Avoid touching the faced with your fingers if you are sweating while exercising. Use a clean towel to blot off sweat; avoid vigorously rubbing your face. Oils and bacteria can transfer to your face from your hands and lead to acne flare-ups. Rubbing vigorously can cause irritation and re-open acne lesions.

If you have long hair, keep your hair back and bangs off your face. This prevents additional oil and dirt from clogging pores. A ponytail can keep you from touching your face especially during workouts. Going to the gym wearing make-up can be a little much. Over washing your face leads to irritation. Try just not using makeup and clean your face after your workout. Then you can apply your makeup.

Drawbacks for Exercising and Your Skin

Exercise is good for skin health, but there are drawbacks.

  • Physical contact, shared facilities and equipment and poor hygiene contribute to incidences of contracting a skin condition. Outbreaks of herpes, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas or MRSA are high among athletes and average exercisers states the American Academy of Dermatology.
  • Be on the lookout for ringworm and athlete’s foot that are fungal infections spread by close contact. Shower immediately after workouts and wear flip-flops in the shower and around the locker room. Avoid cleaning your face and just throwing your towel on the floor. Put it in the dirty clothes receptacle.
  • Working out might negatively affect those with skin conditions. If you have rosacea or heavy acne activities, flushing or overheating your face and intense exercise might spark flare-ups. Managing your workout will reduce the incidence of flare-ups. Work out during the cooler part of the day, in shorter intervals and drink cold fluids. Water exercises are very helpful to keep acne sufferers from having breakouts and lower intensity exercises are also great.

Keeping Your Skin Healthy During Workouts

Protect your skin from sun exposure and wear sunglasses, hats and sunscreen. If you are working out in the outdoors wear protective clothing and apply sunscreen liberally. If you work up a sweat, be generous with the sun block. Look for sport sunscreens designed for sweating exercisers.

Clean your skin gently. Prevent acne flare-ups and scars by gently patting your skin rather than vigorously rubbing it. Use a mild cleanser twice a day and after you exercise.

Stay away from tight clothing. Clothing that is too tight rubs sensitive and acne prone areas. Tight clothes can irritate and aggravate existing conditions. Use lightweight and breathable clothing. Change out of exercise clothes as soon as you can.

Always wear flip-flops and never walk barefoot through the locker room.

Wash your hands. This can’t be stressed enough. Avoid spreading germs and bacteria. Wipe equipment down before and after use and wash your hands.

Try not to touch your face too often. This increases the risk of clogging pores with bacteria from your hands. After using workout equipment wash your hands and don’t touch your face.

Drink plenty of water to replace liquids lost during your workouts. Hydration will keep your body functioning properly.

If you are still questioning whether or not exercising will help your acne most experts agree that working up a sweat will benefit your skin.

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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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