THE IDEAL GUIDE TO DE-BUNKING GYM BEAUTY MYTHS

How many times have you overheard conversations at the gym and thought to yourself, that can’t be true… can it? Emma Frain, qualified personal trainer and head of fitness at Protein World, has de-busted seven of the most common beauty myths she’s heard from her clients and while training herself.

If you train with make-up on, you’ll get spots

Obviously, it’s always going to be better to train without make-up. It allows your skin to breathe, and it’s also easier to wipe sweat away without the worry of smearing mascara halfway across your forehead. However, we know insecurities mean we might not feel comfortable without our war paint. If you have to wear make-up to the gym, try to keep it as minimal as possible- three products is enough. For eyes, stick to waterproof mascaras and a decent brow gel to help frame the face. Avoid heavy duty foundations, instead sticking to a lightweight tinted moisturiser or minimal concealer spot treatment for problem areas. Once your workout is complete, remove the make-up on your face as quickly, and as thoroughly, as possible to avoid breakouts.

If you don’t sweat a lot, you haven’t worked hard enough

How much we sweat is predominately to do with our genetics and partly with the environment. To put it simply, we have an internal temperate gauge that constantly tries to regulate body temperature. You might notice when you’re in a fitness class that there are people who will start sweating after about 30 seconds of exercise, and there are others who won’t break a sweat until the end of the class. Sweat is produced in order to cool the body down whenever it starts to overheat. This could be to do with temperature of a room, the clothing that you’re wearing or even the weather. Our internal thermometers can be acclimatised, but this would take a lot of time in a range of different climates in order for our bodies to adjust accordingly. As long as you are working hard and pushing yourself, it doesn’t matter if you sweat or not.

Body acne is caused by sweating

If you find you’re getting breakouts on your body after a workout, don’t panic and run for the shower after a little sweat session. Why not? Because it’s not actually the sweat itself that causes breakouts on the body, it’s how long you’re sitting in your gym clothes after. Acne that appears on the body after a workout, most commonly found on the back, shoulder and neck area (usually referred to as “bacne”) is actually caused through restrictive clothing blocking your pores. When we workout, we sweat, and this settles on the skin and in our pores. Normally, we just wash it away in the shower, but if we have things to do and stay in our tight clothing, all the while keeping the sweat against our pores, this can cause them to fill and become blocked – resulting in inflammation.

Exercise makes you look younger

A one-off HIIT session isn’t going to make you look younger, it’s going to make you glow from sweat but that’s the extent of the anti-ageing process. However, long-term exercise does increase the production ofcollagen within skin cells, which helps to plump out the skin and make it appear younger. As well looking younger, the overproduction of collagen also makes us feel younger, as it helps to ease joint and muscle pain.

Wash your hair straight after a workout

The jury is out when it comes to how often you should wash your hair, with factors such as hair type, condition and thickness all impacting how often you should wash it. However, there is no set rule on how little, or how often, you should wash your hair. If you don’t feel comfortable with greasy hair after a workout – wash it – if you’re happy with a little sweat and volume – don’t wash it – a bit of grease isn’t going to hurt anybody.

Exercise improves your sex life

There are two ways of looking at this. We have the mental aspect; we work out, we feel good, as exercise releases endorphins which makes you happier, so you’ll be more inclined to have sex. On the physical side, working out makes you fitter, which results in an increase of confidence in a bedroom setting, but in terms of the activity itself, being physically fitter results in an increase in stamina – which is always a good thing.

Running makes your boobs saggy

Two factors contribute to sagging within the breast area. The first is the activity you’re taking part it, if it’s constant high impact (such as running and HIIT) training, you’re putting your breasts under more stress. This doesn’t need to be considered if you are wearing the correct clothing. This leads onto the second factor, which is the necessity for a good sports bra when at the gym. You need to ensure your sports bra of choice fits properly and supports you throughout all types of exercise, whether it’s low, medium or high intensity exercise. Most sports shops will be able to advise you on the type of sports bra you need for the activity you’re doing.

 

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