Why Do You Sweat so Much During Exercise and What to Do About It

Sweat isn’t an indicator of a good workout , but this muggy summer, you’re probably sweating no matter what kind of workout you’re doing. Let me explain why some people sweat more than others, and what to do if your workout clothes are constantly soaking wet.

Why do some people sweat more than others?

As I said before , sweat is just your body trying to cool itself down. During exercise, your body temperature rises, which is why you sweat. You will sweat more than others if the following factors are met:

• You will sweat more if you are a larger person because you have a large body mass relative to your skin surface area. This applies to people with a lot of fat, those with a lot of muscle, and those who have a normal proportional body type but are tall. A size is a size.

• You’ll sweat more if you’re fit enough to work harder: the harder you work, the more heat you produce. That’s why people who run fast or lift weights tend to sweat more than their less-fit counterparts.

• Obviously, you will sweat more in hot weather . If you exercise outside in 32°C, you will sweat more than if it is 21°C, and so on.

• You will sweat more if you exercise in a humid environment . It’s not just the heat, but also the humidity. In a humid environment, sweat evaporates less efficiently from the skin, so we don’t cool down, but the body remains hot and continues to sweat.

• You will sweat more if you are accustomed to the heat . This may seem counterintuitive, but being in the heat trains our bodies to cool down better, which means we sweat more, not less. Heat-adapted athletes sweat more than heat-unadapted athletes, and they start sweating earlier in the workout. I noticed this myself when I was intentionally training in the heat to better cope with the summer heat.

You can change some of these factors, but most of them shouldn’t. Do you want to become less toned so you sweat less? Do you want to avoid heat adaptation so you sweat less, but your hot workouts become more unbearable? Absolutely not. The only way your goals might overlap is if you’re trying to lose weight: the smaller your body, the less heat you produce and the more surface area you have relative to your body size. This will improve your skin’s ability to cool you down. But you’ll still have all those other factors causing you to sweat more, so you might not even notice the difference.

So if you’re not always able to reduce your sweating, what can you do to make it more manageable? Try these tips.

Use evaporative cooling

The purpose of sweat is evaporation. When a cool breeze touches your sweaty skin, the sweat evaporates into the air, taking some of the heat energy with it.

The best thing you can do is help the sweat do its job. Evaporation of sweat will cool you down (that’s the job of sweat) and will also help you feel dry again. Or at least less clammy.

For outdoor training where climate control is not possible:

• Choose exercises that move quickly and allow air to flow around your body, such as cycling or rollerblading.

• Choose windy places to train . Hilltops and lakeshores are usually more windy than swamps or valleys. Consider the local microclimate and plan your routes accordingly.

• Wear moisture-wicking fabrics so sweat can cool you even through your clothes. Long-sleeved shirts can help with this.

For indoor training:

• Use air conditioning or go to an air-conditioned gym. Air conditioning not only cools the air, it also dehumidifies it, which increases its evaporation.

• Set up a fan . You can point the fan at a treadmill or exercise bike. If you’re lifting weights, I like to point the fan at the bench where I sit while resting between sets.

• Use a handheld fan . This is a good option if you’re working out in a public gym or don’t have access to a stationary fan in your workout area. I have one and it feels incredibly nice to turn on and blow air on my face and the back of my neck, even if it’s just for a minute between workouts.

For those of us with exercise-induced asthma, dry air can cause wheezing, so I avoid air bikes and try not to point fans at my face unless I have an inhaler handy (just in case).

Soak it in

Even if you follow the tips above, you’ll probably still sweat profusely on hot days. So it’s helpful to have a way to towel off, soak up the sweat, or distract yourself before it becomes too annoying.

Let’s start with towels. I like a basic gym towel like these because I personally prefer plain terry cloth to fancier fabrics like microfiber. Microfiber has its fans, though, and one of its perks is that it dries faster than cotton. Here’s a microfiber set if you like that texture. (Microfiber is great at absorbing moisture when gently patted, but I find it weird and gross when I rub it across my skin.) Don’t be afraid to bring two towels to the gym if you think you’ll need them. Taking a towel outside for a run is a serious quality of life upgrade — try it if you haven’t already.

Next up: something to wear to absorb sweat. Long sleeves and long leggings or pants not only wick away sweat, they also prevent it from dripping down. (I hate that dripping feeling.) I also want to say a word about headbands . This one from Junk Brand is lightweight and absorbent , but again, I prefer good old terry cloth. A terry headband will completely stop sweat from dripping down your forehead, and the matching wrist pads will let you wipe away sweat wherever it bothers you. Plus, they’re so damn cheap . Real price: embracing a retro aesthetic. You can do it. I believe in you.

Deal with the consequences

After an intense workout, a shower is not the best option. Dermatologists recommend taking a shower after a workout for skin health : sweat can irritate the skin, and creating a warm and humid environment for bacteria to multiply is highly undesirable. If you find yourself in a place where you can’t immediately take a shower, at least dry off everything you can and change into dry clothes.

There’s another danger after a workout: All that cooling sweat continues to cool your skin while it’s on it, even if you’ve stopped the workout that raised your core temperature. This is why events like marathons hand out silver blankets at the finish line to keep runners from getting too cold or hypothermic. So if you can’t dry off right away and you’re heading back into the air conditioning, at least cover up. A cozy sweatshirt is great for regulating your temperature after a workout.

Finally, there’s the issue of washing. Cotton (like this sweatshirt) may not be the best at absorbing moisture and cooling, but it does have the advantage of washing away all the sweat and nasty bacteria.

Synthetic fabrics, on the other hand, tend to harbor bacteria in biofilms that never fully wash out. To avoid lingering odors, rinse your workout clothes immediately after you take them off. The easiest way is to simply rinse them in the shower and hang them up to dry. (Tip: Hang a second shower curtain rod at the back of your shower and decorate it with these hooks to hold loose items in place while they dry.) If you can’t rinse your clothes, at least try to air them out. Whatever you do, don’t leave them bunched up in the bottom of your gym bag or laundry basket.

If you have workout clothes that are already harboring bacteria (they’ll feel clean right away, but will start to smell as soon as you sweat again), use a laundry disinfectant like Lysol or an enzyme detergent like Hex . And make it a habit to rinse sweaty clothes to prevent this from happening again.

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