My sweaty jersey and bike shorts after spin class

When I an get motivated I attend a 5:45 a.m. to 6:45 a.m. spin class. Of course, my jersey and bike shorts are soaked with sweat by the time the class ends. :eek: (My friend told me that women don't sweat, they perspire.) I have to go to work right after I shower and dress. I don't like leaving the sweaty clothes trapped in my workout bag so when I get to the car I take them out of the bag. unfold them, and lay them on top of the bag. I've thought aboutt rinsing them out in the shower to get some of the sweat out, but then I would have wet clothes to put out in the car. With the warmer weather coming up, I don't want anything to "bake" in the clothes. I know I could bring the workout bag into the office, but then the workout clothes would be confined to the bag again.

I want to take care of my clothes so they last. What do any of you do when you are in same situation as I am?

Rinse your clothes out, roll them in your towel to get most of the water out (as you would after handwashing them), and lay them out inside the car as you're doing now. Then you can close the towel in the car door with all but the edge on the outside, so it will dry and be held securely.

Alternately, do you share your office bathroom with few enough people that you could hang them there?

Why don't you like leaving the sweaty clothes in your bag? I did this for years... like 20 years, and it never ruined any of my workout clothes, cycling shorts or anything else.
What I didn't like was the odor in my bag, so I bought a better gym bag with a special place for your dirty clothes. I'd wipe it out after a couple of uses, and it became a non-issue. Hey, for years, my car smelled like a dirty gym locker, because I would leave the clothes in the back of my car while I was at work. In Arizona, no less. I guess I was just used to it.
I sweat like hell, and I am quite proud of it. Whoever says women "perspire" needs to get used to the idea that we are no different than men in this regard.

This thread brought back such laughing memories....when I met my hubby I was going to school and a partner in a family business..(60 hour work weeks) So there were often several days worth of dripping workout and chlorine clothes in the back seat of my car...haha He got over it (:

I only do laundry once or twice a week, so most of my sweaty workout clothes sit unwashed for days before getting cleaned. It hasn't ruined them. I do find that certain items do hold onto odor, but some white vinegar in the wash has helped with that to some degree.

But I've found that it makes an ENORMOUS difference with retained odor if I let the sweaty clothes dry before tossing them into the pile, vs letting the bacteria breed in a lovely damp skin-flake-nutrient-base-saturated dark environment. I think that's what the OP was getting at.


(And, MY husband yells at me if I don't regularly change the towel I sit on to absorb sweat in the car. :rolleyes::p)

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

But I've found that it makes an ENORMOUS difference with retained odor if I let the sweaty clothes dry before tossing them into the pile, vs letting the bacteria breed in a lovely damp skin-flake-nutrient-base-saturated dark environment. I think that's what the OP was getting at.


(And, MY husband yells at me if I don't regularly change the towel I sit on to absorb sweat in the car. :rolleyes::p)

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That makes me sense, and I'm sort of embarrassed now that I just throw everything into the dirty clothes pile. Frankly, the things of mine that smell the worst are the things that I wear to yoga that I drive home in while still sweaty and wet. It's gross, but it's nearly impossible to snag a bathroom at either of my studios after class, so I just drive home in my own filth. I don't know that it would help to let those things then air dry when I get home but it couldn't hurt.

I think the faster you get them dry the less they will smell. But less sweat and skin in them will help too, of course. Unless they are truly soaked I think your best option is to just let them air dry them inside out lying on a towel. If they're sopping wet and you have time you might as well rinse them first.

I hang just about all workout clothes to dry after using them, and reuse the ones that djust smell used, not stinky, the day after. I work out outdoors and usually alone, mind you ;-) This is just to minimize laundry. Laundry is probably the biggest wear and tear on your clothes.

Well, I am not embarrassed to throw my clothes into the hamper and let them sit. You shouldn't be, either, Indy. I don't notice any particular bad odor, just "sweaty," or used. Occasionally, I will throw my clothes into the wash on a weekend, but since most of our laundry is sports related clothes, I really don't want to be doing laundry more than 1X a week. Two loads, whites and darks (cycling shorts go in with the whites; hot water). All sports stuff gets hung up to dry.

Got nothing to do with embarrassment. I don't do laundry until either I have a full load or I'm about to run out of clean something, either (although that's more likely to be three loads a week than one, but anyway). I'm not embarrassed to have my sweaty clothes hanging to dry all over my closet and bathroom, making them smell like a locker room. But did I mention I sweat? If I throw my sweaty things in the pile without letting them dry first, they will soak through everything else they're in contact with, and reek to high heaven when the whole damp mess gets washed days later. I'm not a particularly stinky sweater, either, when it's fresh. But all bets are off when it's been wet at the bottom of the pile for five days. :eek:

DH rises to a new level. His sweaty stuff actually grew mold in the 5 days until I got to that load of laundry. Ick. I don't have that many sets of workout clothes - so I do laundry a lot. But I wouldn't hesitate to leave them in a bag, in my gym bag, for the day. I have many times.

I make my DH dry his out too before they go into the pile. Otherwise they mildew, and there's no fixing mildew.

Between the two of us we usually have three sets of sweaty workout clothes a day and some days four. I do laundry pretty much every other day.

I also drive home in my sweaty clothes. It's too much work to take the things I need to take a shower at the gym. :D

Oak's idea of rinsing them out and using your towel to squeeze out the excess water sounds good. I'd probably just take them into the shower with me and do it all at once. I know my husband leaves his shower towel hanging in his office at work. Lucky him, he has a nice gym and showers at his office.

Veronica

*snork* Sorry if these makes anyone feel uncomfortable, but readind the thread title it suddenly struck me why we sometimes get weirdos hanging around here with strange fixations...
:D
Ah well, to each their own.

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Originally Posted by lph

*snork* Sorry if these makes anyone feel uncomfortable, but readind the thread title it suddenly struck me why we sometimes get weirdos hanging around here with strange fixations...
:D
Ah well, to each their own.

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LOL Lph :)

I do not have that many changes of workout clothes so I do laundry every other day for the most part.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

LOL Lph :)

I do not have that many changes of workout clothes so I do laundry every other day for the most part.

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Yeah; I used to do laundry pretty frequently because I only had a few of each thing (cycling shorts, jerseys, yoga tops, etc.) But you know how some people hoard shoes or purses? Well, I hoard workout wear. I'm content to wear the same thing to work day after day, week after week, but I prefer more variety with my athletic gear. Plus, it means that I don't need to factor in the time it takes to wash and dry everything when I'm otherwise busy with other stuff. I always get a ton of use out of everything, but I admittedly have more than I really need.

Hi, my name is Indy and I'm addicted to running capris.... :D

Oh longsleeved top, how can I use thee? Let me count the ways... for running, for skiing, for wearing to work until holes appear, for biking after that, for chopping wood and for wearing at home until hubby complains.

I think 80 % of my wardrobe in actual use is some kind of workout gear. But while I'm not fussy about sports-specific clothing except bike shorts I am incredibly fussy about using the right thing for the right weather and exertion level, so in any given week I can have a dozen garments floating around in a semi-used state as the temperature shifts minutely..

it's not the smell I am concerned with. It's what it does to the padding and the lycra in the shorts. I read somewhere that it can really make the material disintegrate much faster. I don't want to lose the compression and the fit any sooner than I have to.

I really think you're OK. I did 5:30 AM spin class at least once a week for years and my shorts were fine in my bag all day.
Yup, Indy, I have become more like you. I admit I like clothes, but most of my purchases are for athletic type stuff. It's one thing if you just do one sport, but I have collected quite a collection. I used to x country ski in my cycling tops and base layers, but my yearly forays into running have provided me with pocketless thermal tops for winter sports, too. I am a sucker for cool athletic clothes. Finding them in my size is a quest, but thanks to Athleta, I have some nice things for sports besides cycling.
My regular wardrobe has become more multi functional and mostly black!