How to Sooth Chafing
Chafing (that burning feeling from your skin rubbing against your clothes, or rubbing against more skin), toenails falling off and using a porta potty, what do these have in common?
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They are all things that the thought of ten years ago, before I got into running, would have horified me. In fact, it may even have stopped me from getting into running if I had heard about these things before I'd started.
But that's the thing about running, it puts things in perspective.
And there's a way to make this a lot less of a problem.
The most common spots that we running moms tend to chafe are: in the bra area and between the legs.
Here are some tips on how to deal with it and avoid these issues in the future.
Moisture Wicking Running Clothes
What clothes do you wear when you run to prevent this from happening?
Running Bras
Let's look at bras. A moisture wicking, supportive, yet seamless bra that fits well is a must. Here are some tips on finding the right running bra. And even with the perfect running bra, I still put a little Body Glide
Shorts
I really like running in shorts, but a little meat in the thigh area causes a lot of friction when I'm running in short shorts.
To solve this, I wear these biking shorts
Underwear
Lastly, what do you do about underwear? You might be surprised by how many runners just go comando as a lot of running shorts have some kind of liner or other type of briefs built right into them.
If you still want to wear underwear, go with the same thing as the bra, comfortable fit, moisture wicking fabric and seamless. Yup, they do exist. You can find them here.
Already Chafed?
If you do chafe during your run, a warm shower (I know, OUCH, but you'll feel better after) and some vaseline will do wonders in soothing the burning skin in a few hours or in worst cases, a day.
It will speed recovery if you can avoid wearing any clothes in the afflicted area until it heals. If its really bad, you might need something a little stronger like Monistat Soothing Powder-Gel.
You can find more remedies here.
Bloody Nipples
This is more of a guy thing, but it does happen, I've witnessed it. I've been told that it doesn't feel near as bad as it sounds. This can be solved by putting a bandaide on the nipple, under the running shirt, or lucky for guys, at least in the summer, they can just run shirtless.
