We all know that the more you workout, the more you sweat. It’s a simple equation. The energy put into something produces a product. Working out leads to sweat. Following that same equation, your sweat also produces something: odour-causing bacteria.

Sports Odours can be classified as sweat and body odours that are transferred onto your clothing during physical activities such as working out, playing sports, or doing outdoor work on a hot or humid day. No matter which activity that you are performing the results will be the same: smelly clothes that only smells worth after each workout.

Do you have challenges in removing sweat odours from your clothes or are you struggling to remove body odours from your workout clothes or yoga pants? If so, you are in luck as we will go over what you need to get rid of sweat smell from your clothes & linens.

Why does sweat smell?

When you work out or move around in the heat or sun, your body produces sweat. Sweating is the body’s way of regulating temperature. When sweat meets the bacteria on the surface of your skin, it produces an odour. That smell is what we call body odour.

Sweat is a necessary function of our bodies that rids us of harmful toxins that build up. When we sweat, our bodies give off an unpleasant odour, usually referred to as body odour. Sweat itself has no smell. Rather, it is the bacteria from our skin breaking down the molecules from our sweat that creates the smell.

When we exercise, we sweat. The sweat that we associate most with body odour comes from the apocrine gland, located in the armpits. That gland, part of our endocrine system, releases sweat that is thicker and therefore takes more work to break down, so bacteria works harder to break it down and creates the offensive smell. Because this gland is in the armpit, where the skin is not entirely exposed to ventilation, the bacteria, as well as the sweat, lingers. In other areas of the body sweat, for the most part, evaporates right away before bacteria has a chance to break down and cause the odour.

The Worst Fabrics to Sweat In

If you are prone to sweating a lot or you are spending time exercising in warm weather, natural fabrics such as cotton are best for both moisture and odour control. They are better able to absorb any moisture from the sweat and are quicker to allow that moisture to evaporate. Although certain fabrics may tout benefits such as being wrinkle free or sweat resistant, it’s those materials that actually make your sweat smell worse, and cause you to be uncomfortable as the sweat is trapped inside your clothing. The worst clothing materials for sweat are those that are synthetically made and that trap moisture. Rayon, nylon, silk, and polyester all retain sweat in your clothes and repel water, making it difficult for sweat to escape and therefore building up even stronger odours.

Sweat odour removal

Traditional detergent isn’t designed to remove those tough odours such as sweat and body odours but rather mask them with fragrances and perfumes. At times Customers are misled into thinking that the odours are gone from their clothing after their first wash, only to find out later that the odours have reappeared and are even smellier than before.

You may have noticed sports detergents that claim to be able to remove sweat and body odours by using enzymes in their detergents. If you are not familiar with that terminology, an enzyme is a protein which is placed in an odour eliminator product to help aid or speed up chemical reactions.

Enzymes are safe as they are nearly present in all living thing. A quick but simple explanation of how it should work is that the proteins in the enzyme are sent off to “eat” away at the bacteria and in a perfect world when all done the odour should be completely removed. The problem is that for the enzyme to be effective it must be the correct enzyme for that odour and must be used under ideal to nearly perfect conditions to work. Think of it regarding a lock which has its unique key which is used to open and close it, if you do not have that correct key for that lock it will not allow you to open it.