The Stinky Gym Clothes Solution Shared From Gym Rat to Gym Rat
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As a Caribbean woman, I am loathe to usemeandsmellyin the same sentence, but I have to admit my workout clothes smell rank. After a sweaty session, I often peel them off and toss them in the laundry, allowing the bacteria to settle into the fibers and multiply. It shouldn’t have shocked me that my clothes didn’t smell the freshest even after washing, but as someone who views a washing machine as a magic apparatus (I spent much of my childhood in Flatbush laundromats mesmerized by the spin cycle), I was shocked to find that tossing my sweatiest stuff into the laundry with no pre-treatment didn’t result in totally transformed clothes. I do want to note that this isn’t an issue withallmyworkout clothes. Leggings andsports brascome out smelling fine, but my workout jackets, which sit right in the armpit, often come back smelling vaguely funky. This was only amplified when I worked out again. I’d do a chest press and get a whiff of my previous gym sessions, which was mortifying to me.
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I started looking into things I could do, trawling Reddit to see what other gymgoers did. Many recommended spritzing the clothes with white vinegar and letting them sit. I tried that a few times with varying amounts of dilution and still found my nose tingling with the scent of my sweat. I also tried Oxyclean, inspired by the soaking TikTok videos I’d seen on my feed. That also didn’t work, though the water turned a satisfying shade of green-brown. Then Crystal Martin, my editor, mentioned offhandedly that Lume’s Stink Eraser had solved all her sweaty-workout-clothes problems. We’re both gym rats, so I knew she was onto something. She’s also very serious about laundry in a way that I am not. I called it in and soon stuck my clean-but-still-stinky workout jackets in to soak. I did three of them, all with different fabric compositions: There was my gray H&M SoftMove jacket (very stinky), which is 24 percent spandex and 76 percent polyester; my Old Navy jacket, which has a similar composition (75 percent poly, 23 percent spandex); and my H&M SculptMove jacket, which is 34 percent spandex and 66 percent polyamide. Per Crystal’s recommendation, I let them sit overnight. The next day, I wrung out the excess water and washed and dried them as normal.
When the jackets came out of the laundry, I anticipated that they’d still have that little hint of funk I was used to, but I was surprised to find they were completely stink free. I was impressed that the clothes smelled like they did the day I brought them home. They also didn’t smell once I worked out again, a telltale sign that they were actually clean. A peek into the science helped me to understand why my run-of-the-mill detergents weren’t working. The Stink Eraser contains an enzyme blend that helps to break down bacteria and lift any oils and waxes that might still be hanging out on your clothes. More laundry magic, in my opinion, but I’m grateful to have this in my rotation. Now I can lift my arms without worrying about offending myself or the people nearby.
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