• Septimaeus
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    3 months ago

    IME no one is immune to gym odors. There are still many fats and proteins secreted by non-apocrine glands that are digestible by bacteria, so to eliminate body odor entirely we would probably need to evolve strong antimicrobial secretions or something.

    Sweat rinses much of this bacteria-food off of us, but since we started wearing clothes it just transports the bulk of it to what we’re wearing (now stinky gym clothes).

    That’s why showering before a workout is so effective for controlling gym odors: most of the bacteria and its food ends up in the drain rather than your clothes. Showering after is then mostly to rinse off salt.

    Anyway I imagine the times you’ve smelled people after the gym were simply the times they skipped that pre-workout shower.