Happy Body, Angry Skin

Find out how to keep your sweat sessions and the change of season from beating up your skin.

You hit the gym to be healthy and look hot, so it’s a bummer when you walk out with an embarrassingly bright-red face. Let’s not even discuss the bacne, sports brainduced boob chafing and hives. Or rather, let’s: “Internal factors such as allergies and skin type play a key role in how your skin responds to exercise, but external factors like clothing and the weather can help or hurt workout-related skin problems too,” says Dr Jeannette Graf, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in the US. Meaning you have a lot of control over how irritated your flesh gets. Besides, working out can be good for your skin. “Exercise increases circulation, which makes your skin glow,” says Graf. Check out what you can do before, during and after a workout to reap the radiance-bestowing rewards, minus any flare-ups.

EXCESSIVE REDNESS

“This is the most upsetting workout-related skin issue I hear about,” says Graf. Especially for women who have rosacea or sensitive skin – those prone to severe flushing. “Women with rosacea have more broken capillaries, so any vasodilation caused by working out makes it worse. Sensitive skin just gets irritated very easily, so heat combined with sweat will cause a flare-up.”