How I Choose a Good Sweat-Resistant Sunscreen for My Workouts

After years working under the summer sun, I have become a connoisseur of sunscreens. I will wear This Hold on to my face, that Cream on my hands for shorter races, This Spray for long traces – and it is apart to slide on a sun shirt to provide my main upper body protection. The exact formulation of each sunscreen is important, so let me tell you what to look for to be a demanding customer.

Before entering it, I clearly mean that any The sunscreen is better than No Solar screen, so don’t feel like you have to delay your next training until you bought the perfect product. (And no, there is no health problem about sunscreen which prevails over the very well documented risks of obtaining too much sun exposure. Stephen Johnson de Lifehacker has an explanator on this subject here.)

Choose a texture you don’t hate

The best sunscreen is the one you will wear. When I consider my sunscreen options, their efficiency and their sweat are only part of the image. If you find the texture of a certain raw sunscreen and find excuses so as not to use it, then that doesn’t protect you at all.

Before leaving for a race, I use a stick of mineral sunscreen on my face. My personal rule is that it is the only sunscreen that I will wear on my forehead. It’s because I had a mixture of sweat screen in my eyes too many times, and this thing bite. (The eyes of some people are sensitive to certain chemical ingredients of sunscreen, and I suspect that I am one of those people.) Whether it is the ingredients or the texture, I tend to spend a better time when I am a mineral sunscreen on my face – I like the Blue Lizard pocket stick.

Regarding cream sunscreens, you have a lot of different texture options. Trader Joe’s sells a silicone sunscreen that many people love; It would be a dupe of a brand called Supergoop. I prefer the feeling of the ultra-clear dry sunscreens of Neutrogena, and they are available in water-resistant varieties and high SPF.

All that I have noted so far is on the more side for a sunscreen (although the TJ is cheaper in person than in the online link). I stretch my dollars using only fanciful sunscreens on the places where I notice the texture the most, like my face and my hands. I really don’t care what’s on my legs when I run, so I’m going to use the spray or the cream I got in a good deals pack. Which, yes, can mean that I apply three different sun screens while I prepare for my race. You don’t need to be like me. But you might be, if you wanted to.

Look for “40 minutes” or “80 minutes” on the label

Technically, no sunscreen is “resistant to sweat”, because everything will ultimately be with sufficient exposure to humidity. (In the same vein, the FDA does not allow solar screens to advertise themselves as “waterproof” or to be called “sunscreen”.) But water-resistant And so suns -resistant sunsfall exist, and a glance on the label can help you make the difference.

Solar screens that can withstand perspiration or swimming will be labeled “water resistant”, and you will see these words on the front of the packaging. Most solar screens with “sport” in the name are water resistant, but be sure to look for small characters.

According to the labeling guidelines for the FDA, a sunscreen called water resistant must also indicate if it has achieved a 40 -minute or 80 -minute test. For sunscreens that get up better to sweat, look for the words “water resistant (80 minutes)”.

Make sure it will last as long as you need it (and always reappear)

If you are about to leave for a few hours, you cannot just reduce on sunscreen and then forget. Add the time you expect to go out, then compare it to what your sunscreen says it can do.

All solar screens should be reappeared after two hours, even if you have not sweated. Meanwhile, you have probably touched your face, your sleeves rubbed against your arms, and so on. There is no guarantee that you have enough sunscreen to protect yourself, so go for it and reappear to be safe; And if you are served at any time, be sure to reapplicate later.

If you sweat (or swim, or otherwise exposed to water), pay attention to this water resistance rating. If you are leaving for a 90 -minute race, the 80 -minute wearing of sunscreen will not take you entirely to the finish line. There is a good chance that you stop for water or snacks at some point, so wrap a sunscreen and reappear when you get a minute. You can even get small packs of sunscreen to make it more practical.

So consider this when you choose your sunscreen. What will be practical to bring with you, and not too many bear to reapplicate? I prefer sprays for this reason, even if my initial application at home was a cream or a stick. Spray it, check my reflection in my car’s window to see if my skin seems uniformly shiny, then rub it if possible.

Look for a high SPF and wide spectrum protection

Previously, it was a popular fun fact that the high sunscreens of the SPF offer only a little more protection than the lower SPF solar screens. And technically, mathematically, it’s somewhat true. But in real use, the high FPF is really worth it to be used. The higher the SPF, the more you have insurance against late or sloppy reapplication. There is an excellent study on this subject where the skks applied SPF 50 on one side of their face and SPF 100 on the other, without knowing which bottle was which one. The SPF 50 team was more likely to end up burned, even if the skks reappeared throughout the day.

A SPF of 30 should be your minimum, but higher is better, within reasonable limits. (Price and texture will also be a factor, of course, but opt for the higher number when other factors are equal.) Also look for the words “wide spectrum” to indicate that it blocks UVA rays in addition to UVB.