Have you ever been in this situation: Your getting ready for the gym, you pull your clean moisture wicking top over your head only to notice, it doesn’t smell that fresh? Or worse, you are mid-way through your workout and you notice you are starting to smell. Under further inspection the deodorant is working great, but it’s your shirt starting to give off a dog smell mixed with mildew. Yuck!
By this point, you have probably guessed that I am guilty of experiencing both above stinky workout clothing scenarios. What I did not add to the getting dressed scenario, is that I went through several funky smelling work out shirts before I could find a fresh top to throw on and head to hot yoga. So frustrating!
So how do we get our workout clothes to go from smelling nasty to fresh? The answer is easy, but we will have to start at the root of the issue. We’ve most likely been washing our workout clothes all wrong.
Athletic clothes have been getting better and better. They are stretcher than ever and most have a moisture wicking component. All good stuff. Hence the Athleisure business is booming! The same fabric that gives us the moisture free support we enjoy during our workout is also the reason that we smell later. These fabrics need to be cared for delicately, with little detergent, no fabric softener, and air drying in order to keep the mildew/ wet dog funky smell at bay. Over use of detergent and fabric softener cause buildup on the clothing trapping in bacteria that cause our workout apparel to wreak.
Whether you are a Lululemon girl or you like your workout clothes from Walmart, all workout clothes can benefit from these smell busting hacks. These hacks will not only keep all of your athletic apparel smelling fresh, they can also extend the life of the fabrics.
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Post Workout
As soon as possible get your workout clothes out of the gym bag, turn them inside out, and either air dry them or get them into the washing machine. When laundering workout clothes continue to stick to the old laundry rules of lights with lights, darks with darks, ect.. Place any bras with clasps in a dedicates laundry bag; making sure the bra is inside out while in that bag.
Special Fabric
Workout clothing is made of special fabrics that need to be washed in cold water on the delicate cycle. The less harsh the wash and the cycle, the less wear and tear on the garment.
Due to the stretchy nature of modern workout clothes it is best to not just separate according to colors but wash according to fabrics too. Washing workout clothes with harsh things, like wash clothes or sweat shirts, can cause piling and stretching of the fabrics, wearing them out sooner.
Reversing a Stinky Situation
We have found clean but nasty smelling workout clothes, what do we do?Turn everything inside out, this will allow all the dead skin, dirt, oils and bacteria to be cleaned off more effectively in the wash cycle.
- Use half the detergent we normally would, for that load size.
- Add ½ Cup to 1 Cup of white vinegar to the rinse cycle, depending on your load size. The vinegar is going to help cut through the product build up and eliminate bacterial.
- Air dry
Regular Care and Keeping Smell Free
Now that we’ve cut through the clothing stink and our workout clothes are build up free, it’s time to go to our regular care regiment.
Turn those clothes inside out put the cold water, delicate cycle on.
- Detergent: For athletic apparel use a little less than the recommended amount for the load size. (More detergent just means more build up)
- Add to the cycle ¼ C to ½ C white vinegar or baking soda, as an odor eliminating laundry booster. (We are using less vinegar than we did previously, because we aren’t cleaning off build up and mildew.) Feel free to substitute Borax for white vinegar too.
- Sports Detergent: If you have it in your budget, a sports detergent, like Tide Sport, works great at preventing odors. I have used this one. It works. It’s usually easy to find too. No need to use a vinegar, baking soda, or borax if you go this route.
- Air dry
No, No’s of Washing Workout Clothing
There are only two big no-no’s to remember with washing and caring for your workout clothing.
1. No Fabric Softener. None. Zip. Zilch. Fabric softer coats stretchy, moisture wicking moisture wicking fabrics which aid in retention of bacteria on our sweaty workout clothes. The fabric softer build up prevents detergent from cleaning our workout clothes fully. Fabric softener will put us right back to stinky square one.
2. No Heat. That means no hot water. No dryer. Heat amplifies odors. Heat breaks down the elasticity of the fabrics causing them to lose their shape, and possibly shrink.
To keep workout clothing odors at bay and extend the life of your gear:
- Air dry for drying. In a pinch, low/no heat in the dryer. For the life of the fabrics, try to keep that very few and far between.
- Always wash in cold water on delicate.
Do you have a workout clothing or gear maintenance tip you’d like to share?
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