Do you ever have those moments when you walk past someone at the gym and think about how sweaty they are, to then quickly think they have to be working out super hard to get that sweaty? I have and I bet you have noticed how sweaty (or not sweaty) some people are at the gym. Quickly, our negative Nancy can sneak in and tell us that we quite possibly can’t be working out as hard as the sweaty Betty next to us. Well, kiss those negative thoughts goodbye because your amount of sweat is perfectly you.
Really we don’t know how hard someone else is working, we only know how hard we are working. If you feel good about how much effort you put into your own workout then you have nothing to worry about, because the effort doesn’t always equal the amount of perspiration.
There are a number of contributing factors to how and why we perspire. There are a lot of contributing factors that leads to the amount to which each of us sweats. Sweating is our bodies way of cooling itself down. It’s a process called thermoregulation. When we perspire (a fluid made of water, salts, and proteins) it is a liquid turning into a gas evaporating from our skin, our body temperature lowers. Exercising heats our bodies up, so sweating helps to cool them back down.
Body Fat Percentages
Being more fit doesn’t mean you don’t sweat as much (as most people like to think), it has to do more with each person’s body fat percentages. People with higher body fat tend to perspire more because higher body fat produces more heat. However, people that are more fit (typically have less body fat) their bodies are more efficient at cooling themselves down so they could actually sweat more so that they can workout longer.
Number of Sweat Glands
We all have a different number of sweat glands. People average somewhere between from 2 to 4 million sweat glands so depending on how many you have may depend on how much you sweat.
Additionally, women typically have more sweat glands but men have more active sweat glands.
Environment
How you perspire can also be determined by your workout environment. A bike ride outside versus a bike ride instead can feel different sweat wise even if you put for the same amount of effort due to thinks like the wind, the temperature, etc.
In the end, just keep in mind your workouts objective and you will know if you achieved your goal or not. So grab your POW and make it count!
Interested in learning more about how to regulate your own sweat? Check out our article on ‘10 Ways to Manage Your Sweat While Exercising‘.
