It’s been a while since I’ve written about the gym, today I flat out have to. 

A while back I posted a question on Facebook asking my friends if they use shower sandals at their fitness clubs. I don’t know if those that don’t were just silent, but a whole crapload of folks chimed in on the reasons they do. It was kind of gross! The most convincing argument came from the manager of my club who said despite the thorough cleaning they do, it’s a good idea. I got some flip flops from my wife for my birthday this year!

I religiously shower at the gym after working out. My car has enough reason to smell, my sweaty funk doesn’t need to add to it. I work out of my car, it’s my office, storage unit, lunchroom, library, and many other functions. Funny thing is, after the shower I get dressed and head home I usually start getting a good forehead sweat before I put the gym bag down. 

So I read somewhere that at the end of a hot shower you should blast yourself with cold water to close your pores, evidently it has a few benefits like cooling down your core temperature, prevents break outs, yadda yadda yadda et cetera… I’ve attempted this a couple times, never saw results worth the hyperventilation. So today I changed it up. I gradually lowered the water temperature once I was all washed and shampooed. Turn it down a notch, catch my breath, turn it down some more, practice deep breathing techniques, turn it to frigid and raise my hands on the inhale, lower them on the exhale. My feet are numb, I nearly froze my flip flops to the tile. 

I can tell this technique is already leaps and bounds better for cutting out my after workout sweat problem. However, I pull the curtain back to find more guys in the locker room than the January resolution crowd. I really don’t need help to be the small guy in the room, but today it looks like I was free diving in Canadian waters again. 

My beard is pretty manly though, I think I’ll keep growing it out.