Fitness sports towel

It is totally worth preparing a special sports towel for fitness. An ordinary towel will work just fine, but the difference in experience is far greater than you think. Choosing the right one can also help you avoid a lot of troubles in exercise.

I didn't take it seriously for the first two months of my workout. I just carried a hard-washed cotton towel at home and headed to the gym. The sweat from my buttocks and legs from practicing in the summer dripped down the back of my neck onto the yoga mat. When I wiped my face, the fine hairs that fell out stuck to my chin. When I looked in the mirror, I almost thought I had a mustache. I stuffed the wet towel into my gym bag, took the subway home after get off work for half an hour, and took it out. The sour smell mixed with sweat and musty smell made me almost spit out my dinner.

To be honest, not everyone thinks this thing is useful. I have seen many veterans who have been practicing for five or six years in the gym. They either wipe their sweat with a public towel in the gym, or they just pull out two pieces of tissue paper and rub their faces, and they still squat 200 kilograms of deadlifts. Some people think that "towels are just for wiping sweat. Spending tens of dollars to buy special ones is purely an IQ tax." I agreed with this two years ago. It wasn't until a friend who practiced CrossFit stuffed a sports towel that she often used, and I realized that the difference was really not made by the merchants.

I checked the relevant test reports and found that a qualified microfiber sports towel can absorb 3-4 times its own weight, which is more than twice that of ordinary cotton towels. Moreover, the fiber gaps are large and the drying speed can be more than half as fast. The one I'm using now is not much heavier than a mobile phone. I put it on my neck and absorbed all the sweat I had just finished running 10 sets of burpees. I hung it on the handle of the equipment and rested for 20 minutes. It was basically dry. It has no sense of presence when stuffed in my bag. In winter, it doesn't stick to my neck like a wet cotton towel. When I go out, I will shiver with cold.

Speaking of cold towels, it is indeed a controversial topic in the fitness circle for several years. The group running friends around me are divided into two groups. One group thinks that it is just soaking in water and wringing out the coolness. It is no different from soaking an ordinary towel in cold water. It feels stuffy when it is attached to the skin. ； Another school must carry it when running long distances in summer. They say that when the weather is over 35 degrees, if you wrap it around your neck, your body temperature will drop by three to four degrees, which is more effective than drinking half a bottle of iced drink. I have tried it twice myself. The principle is that it uses special shaped fibers to evaporate water faster and absorb heat from the tropical zone through evaporation. It is not a black technology, and it is not as good as the "long-lasting cooling for two hours" advertised by the merchants. It is indeed more comfortable than ordinary towels for outdoor use in summer, but if you expect it to prevent heat stroke, you are simply overthinking it.

I've really been through a lot of traps before. I bought chemical fiber towels that cost more than ten yuan to wipe my face and skin. After wiping, there was still a slippery filmy feeling on my face. The ones with gaudy prints fell off after just two washes. There were also those labeled "99% antibacterial". Most of them are just gimmicks. As long as you go home after each use and hang them in a ventilated place to dry, and don't cover them in your gym bag overnight, they will basically not stink. If you really care about bacteria, put two drops of clothing disinfectant every time you wash, it is more reliable than any publicity.

Oh, and there is another mistake that many people make: don’t use your own sports towel to wipe the equipment! The equipment in the gym has special disinfectant wipes. You wipe it with your own, soaked in disinfectant water, magnesium powder and the rust in the gaps of the equipment. After wiping it, apply it to your face. It's weird if you don't get acne. I've done this before. I had several red and swollen acne on my chin before I reacted. I keep two of them in my bag all year round, a small one for wiping my face and neck, and a slightly larger one for spreading on public mats when taking group classes or practicing yoga. I have seen random inspections by the Consumers Association before and found that the total number of bacterial colonies on public supplies in many gyms exceeds the standard.

In fact, after all, sports towels are not a must-buy fitness necessity. If you are just getting started, it is perfectly fine to use an old towel that is unused at home for two months. When you practice to go there at least three times a week, wipe sweat more and more frequently, and can no longer bear the sticky feeling of wet towel on your neck, it is not too late to choose something convenient to buy. After all, the core of fitness is the weight you lift and the kilometers you run. To put it bluntly, these small items only add points to your training experience. You don’t have to worry about it for a long time.