How to Prevent Chafing During Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is David Brown, and today, we're going to talk about how to prevent chafing, and chafing is a terrible thing. Nobody wants chafing, and there's very easy ways to prevent it. First of all, you've got to look at your clothing. Whether it's your running shorts, your running shirt, your top, your bra. Whatever it is that you're about to wear, and go out on a run with, make sure that you've tried it before. Make sure that you look for any rub points, exposed seams. Anywhere that's on the actual clothing item, that you can predict would be a chafe point. Where are most chafe points? Well, typically, they're under your armpits, between your legs, where your thighs rub together, near your feet. Any kind of chafe point where the clothing doesn't fit exactly right, so that's the first thing. Make sure you buy clothing that fits your body style, that fits your activity level. Now the next thing, is no matter what kind of activity you're doing, if you're doing it for a long time, and you're going to be wet, and you're going to be wet from sweating a lot. It's very natural. Chafing could occur if you don't put some sort of layer on, and what I mean by layer, is some sort of petroleum jelly. There's a thing called Body Glide, and any other kind of a slippery, oily substance, that you can put on a chafe point, so typically putting a little bit of Vaseline, or petroleum jelly underneath your arm pits, on your inner thighs, perhaps on your toes, or around your neck, are good points to prevent chafing. Now, the last thing, is you want to look at what kind of activity you're doing. If you're doing running, perhaps you want to wear something like a running tight, or perhaps, spandex shorts. These will also prevent contact points of your skin, between your thighs. If you're cycling, you want to make sure you have a good pair of cycling shorts, that fit you well, that have a good, what we call a shammy pad, or a pad that protects your undercarriage, from the saddle. Now, with these good clothing, you may also want to add in some petroleum jelly on those rub points, but the combination of those appropriate clothing, not only for your body style, but the appropriate clothing for your sporting event, and using some sort of layer, such as petroleum jelly, or Body Glide, will help prevent chafing, in your next event."