Exercise can do wonders for your skin and everyone should be definitely incorporating it into their lives if they haven’t already.
You already know exercise is essential to a healthy being. That is not news. You can eat like a champ and still not be a healthy human if you don’t exercise, and you can exercise like a pro and still not be a healthy human being if you don’t eat properly. Everything works together, remember?
Still doesn’t make it any easier to get off the couch though.
Some benefits of exercise that you should take note of:
- It helps build your immune system. Better immune system = better health.
- It raises serotonin. Higher serotonin = less feeling down in the dumps about your skin.
- It lowers stress. This is absolutely key. Lower stress = less acne.
Exercise was a struggle for me when I first began my journey to clear skin. I was lazy! I’ve always had a quick metabolism and as a result, very thin (too thin, if you ask me). This is why I never paid any attention to my diet and never bothered to give exercise a second thought. Why would I?
Famous last words.
I started off by doing easy hatha yoga. This is a very relaxing, mild, strength building and stretching routine. Then I started jogging, working my way up to a half hour. Sometimes I bike ride or walk instead. Then I started incorporating a little bit of easy circuit training to build some lean muscle. I try to do this every other day or so.
I never thought I’d truly enjoy jogging, but now I really do (it gets way easier, believe me). I run in the woods in my hometown, or along the Stanley Park sea wall in Vancouver. I throw a little MMmBOP on my ‘pod and get pumped for life. Ooh ooh yeeah. (If you’re not so into Zac, Isaac, and Taylor, I recommend any embarrassing song you secretly love. Everyone has one, so don’t pretend otherwise).
To be honest, I’m no expert in exercise. I’ve always felt much happier after a good bit of exertion and some fresh air, but I’ve never been quite sure if I was doing the ‘right’ kinds of exercise, or enough of it.
But, for your benefit, I have done a little research, and it’s good news. The good news it that getting fit apparently does not have to be a painful struggle! Hooray!
It’s actually more effective to do less intense activities throughout your week (like 3-5 hours), with one or two body resistance seshes, than trying to pop your buns off at the gym every day. Prolonged high intensity workouts actually cause your body to increase the stress hormone instead of reduce it. This is certainly not what we want!
The good news too, is that you can group your hours of low intensity movement together. So you can go on a five hour hike on the weekend, and you’re done. Or you can do a half hour of sweeping and housecleaning every day and voila! You’re done! Throw some pushups, planks, and squats in there every couple days and you’re golden!
This also makes it easier than ever to incorporate your exercise into your day to day life without feeling like you have to go to the gym and then never doing it.
Walk to work. Take the stairs. Help someone move. Hike in nature with a friend (added stress-relieving social bonus here). Grow a garden. Go on a little bike ride or pull out those rollerblades. Walk to the grocery store and lug your groceries home. Go snowboarding or swimming! Go dancing!
So quit feeling overwhelmed and just start slow! Roll your play, duties, and exercise into one and it doesn’t have to feel like that dreaded word – work.
What do you like to do for exercise? Leave a comment below and let the world know!
My favourite exercise is Rebounding(mini trampoline) If you feel like jumping up and down you can. Literally I am really stressed at the moment and I find this really helps.It’s also easy on your joints and good for the Lymphatic system 🙂
I love rebouding! My parents have a mini trampoline at their house, and it’s fun to go outside and bounce around. And yes, it is really good for joints and the lymphatic! 🙂
Tracy,
After feeling like I have a good handle on diet, and at least know what to do to improve stress and sleep (easier said than done), I really want to exercise more. Right now I walk for about 40 minutes 5 times a week, but I noticed when camping and walking all day my acne cleared up beautifully. Good sleep and sun probably helped a lot too, but I want to up my exercise a bit. I keep reading in different places that too much cardio will promote acne. Since I’d like to start running, how can I do this without going over? Is the key to run for a few minutes, walk for a few, run for a few more most days of the week? Or just to limit myself to 20 minutes 3-4 times a week at a jogging pace?
Thank you for your advice!
I don’t think there’s any problem with exerting yourself sometimes… I think chronic cardio is more like hours and hours and hours on end of jogging and exercising each day. Like marathon and gym fanatics. A half an hour of running every other day will definitely not contribute to acne! I think it would help!
How do you wash your face after exercise? I am talking about sweating in gym kind of exercise..
I often don’t do anything… but the sweat doesn’t seem to bother my skin now. I think it’s more likely to cause breakouts when you are eating unhealthy things because then your sweat contains tons of toxins.
So yeah… if you aren’t eating very healthy, I would advise just simply splashing your face with water after a workout – probably not a full face wash, especially if you are washing in the morning and at night. You really don’t want to overwash your face.
I have one problem with exercises – sweating and secreting. I always scared that sweat and other substances which my skin excretes would block my pores or something like that. So I don’t really know if it’s necessary to wash your skin just after exercissing (which often is impossible; I try to wash my skin not to often too becouse of irritating factor) or if I can wait until evening.
On the other hand I wandering – maybe I should wash my skin before exercises? Why? Becouse mayby the dirt and dust on my skin block pores and while secreting huge amount substances by my skin when I do exercise these substances can’t go throgh that dirt and dust. I don’t know…
Hi Jack,
I understand your confusion. I honestly don’t know the answer – I used to stress over the exact same things, but then I stopped caring. Now I don’t do anything after a workout and just let the sweat dry on my face. Is that the right thing to do? Donno. Doesn’t seem to bother my skin.
In my logic – if you live an unhealthy lifestyle, and you sweat toxins, … it may irritate your skin, in which I might suggest a quick splash of water after your workout while you’re still sweaty.
However, I also hear a lot about our natural ‘acid mantle’ which is the layer of sweat and sebum that actually protects our skin and helps to fight off bacteria and protect against acne, yet we are always constantly washing this away. The caveman regimen seems to have become a popular method for combating acne – stop washing your face, or even let water touch it until your skin normalizes itself.
Anyway. I don’t know the answer, sorry.
Hi Tracy, I just got a reboundair, I jump on it for about 30 or 40 mins. But I’m not sure how many times I should do this per week? I don’t want to over do it plus, I really enjoy 40 min walks and I’m not sure how I can do both without over exercising.
Hi Jesse,
Even if you did both of those things every day, it doesn’t really sound like overexercising to me!
Oh thanks, good to know! When your not doing you jogging and bike ridding every other day, are still active? Or do you consider that your time to rest?
Well, things have changed since I wrote this post… my routine changes a lot. Right now, I’m doing a half hour of yoga every other day or so, jumping a bit of rope most days, and running around and walking my dog every day. I was riding my bike a lot in the summer instead of running around and walking my dog (which I didn’t have yet), but then winter hit and I got a dog, so the bike is out and the dog is in! I think it’s okay to make up your own routine and just do whatever makes you happy. And it’s good to change it up. When I’m not doing those things mentioned, I’m mostly sitting on my computer!! Personally I think it’s better to be moving around or standing more of the day than I do – sitting isn’t great for you – but alas
Im a basketball player so i like to gain a little bit of strength as long as stay fit..I don’t want to lift weight because I think it could make my acne worse..Would a calisthenic circuit twice a week mixing up my body parts for my upper body be ok?..and then for my legs do plyometrics, jump rope and sprints? How does this sound?
Hi Jonathan,
Some people find that heavy weight lifting aggravates their acne, but not everyone does… if you want to try weight lifting, you may as well try it and see instead of living in fear of it. It might have no effect on your skin. So I can’t really say if your calisthenic routine will necessarily be better for your skin than weights.
YES! Hanson! My brain, eyes, happiness lit up when you mentioned Hanson, especially when you named them! Bravo.
hahah I’m glad someone appreciated that
I’m getting so inspired now to start exercising regularly! I always get so out of it in the winter, and notice the difference in my skin. So has anyone tried Tabata interval training? It’s awesome! You do 20 seconds of intense exercise, could be anything from running to weight lifting, and then 10 seconds rest. Repeat for half an hour, or however long you want!
Yeah Emily! Go for it! It sounds like short interval training (like tabatas) is much better for you than long semi-intense cardio like running. Mix that up with strength training, and maybe some yoga, and you’re solid.
I loovve rock climbing and tend to do that 3-5 times a week for 1 to 2 hours at a time. Sometime even longer, and it can get pretty intense. I also do yoga a few times a week and run or bike a few times a week. I’m not sure if I am overexercising and putting stress on my body, because with rock climbing I get very focused on a certain route instead of how my body feel so I tend to over due it.
what do you thng about worcauk in the morning before food and it is o.k to clean skin before or not?
Yes, you can do both!
i have school and wear makeup because myself esteem is really low. i don’t have bad acne, just quite a few spots randomly placed on my head, like forehead and cheeks mostly and they are always huge and red. so i wear makeup and in p:e i sweat on my face after, but we only have 5 minutes to get changed and get out, no shower or anything and the sweat usually causes my face to get worse, even though i do eat healthy. so should i maybe do 20 minutes of exercise after school and sweat again to get all that sweat back out then wash my face?
Hi Jaimie-Lee,
you could try to pat your face dry with a clean towel (or paper towel) after exercising at school to avoid your face being humid for too long. Makeup and sweating is not the best combination, but you could try some mineral makeup powder instead of liquid foundations etc.. Look out for a brand with very few ingredients in it that contains zinc oxide as the main ingredient. This way you can make sure that your skin will be able to breathe.
Yes, exercise in itself is great and can help a lot with acne because it will help you to balance out your hormones and it will help your body to get rid of toxins. I think 20 minutes of exercise after school is a good idea. Just make sure not to wash your face too often (never more than 1-2, max. 3 times a day) – that will probably only increase oiliness and pimples. Wash your face with mild and natural products only or just water whenever you‘re without makeup.
Hi! When I was a sophomore in high school I experienced the same difficulties with gym sweat and makeup. I have acne as well so I would apply Clinique foundation everyday. My solution was to use makeup remover sheets by neutrogena after my gym class to remove both the foundation and sweat. After removing, I would re-apply a fresh layer of my foundation. It made me feel better throughout the day.
Hope this helps (:
I have spots all over the right side of my face and they havent moved for about 6 or 7 months,are they scars? Also im on lymecyline for skin and it feels like its never going to work!please help me
Hi Michael,
are you sleeping on the right side of your face or have your phone “attached” to your right cheek while speaking? If yes, try to cleanse these items regularly to see if there is any improvement. Are you touching the right side of your face without realizing it? Try to pay attention to it and to educate yourself not to touch your skin.
If those spots are acne scars (not pus-filled), it’ll just take time for them to fade. I know it sucks, but please try to be patient. Read this article:
https://thelovevitamin.com/1150/a-quick-guide-to-natural-treatments-for-acne-scars/
And please read these articles about acne and antibiotics, they are pretty informative:
http://www.highonhealth.org/what-to-expect-when-taking-antibiotics-for-acne/
http://www.acneeinstein.com/acne-antibiotics-short-term-gain-with-long-term-harm/
Going grocery shopping on foot and then bringing all the bags back up a steep hill works every time. It’s almost better than running. 🙂 Mountains are necessary for this though.
Ahaha oh yeah I’ve done that before. I also like bike riding to the store to buy groceries. It’s great building fitness into groceries haha 🙂
I have a fear that exercising will actually make my face worse. Myth or true?
Hi Nina,
no, it’s a myth! Exercise is extremely helpful – for any kind of disease! Do it! Go for it! You can only win!
Hi! I walk every day about 3 hours, not fast walking. I go to college and back, and at evening, as a training 🙂 Is that ok?
I always had a problem with being underweight AND having acne. I used traditional bodybuilding to bulk up (yeah it worked), but it left me with breakouts all the time! It was too stressful for me! So I began doing circuit training and I fell in love. It is a way to literally get the most bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time. I am more functional then ever, my energy and libido are sky high, and I look and feel great! On top of that its an exercise that benefits your entire body AND your skin (because you increase your heart rate so damn high!). If anybody is interested in clearing up their skin, do functional workouts, and slowly challenge yourself every other workout. You will see a dramatic difference in how you look and feel. (AND DON’t BE AFRAID OF PROTEIN!!! AS LONG AS IT COMES FROM A GOOD SOURCE YOU WILL BE A O.KAY!)
I have pimples all over my face but i dont put anything in my face to clear it but the result is i get more pimples. is sleeping late at night and always in the couch is the main reason? what should i do to properly get rid of acne? i can’t look or stare and talk with people properly because of my acne.
Hi Tracy,
Your website has provided such a great resource on how to tackle my acne the natural way! I am eating a very healthy diet and have seen the quality of my skin improve over the last few months and I have fewer breakouts. Plus, I’ve noticed many other benefits of eating healthy!
But, I still have breakouts and something I haven’t tried is working out regularly. So I have been working out in the morning for about 35 minutes doing 10 min. of cardio and 25 minutes of weight training. I really like the workouts because I feel more calm and energized during the day. But, the working out has caused acne. Now, I can handle the small zits and small white heads, my body is probably detoxifying itself. What I don’t understand is the cystic acne I’m getting! I was getting cystic acne before, but the healthy diet fixed that. But it’s back with exercise and I don’t know why! I go sit in the sauna for 5 min. and then wash my fash with a cleanser right after working out too. I take omega-3 and D3 vitamins for supplements to try and help, but I don’t know what else to do! I really like working out but is it worth it?
Hi Anna, I would suggest maybe switching to doing yoga instead of working out until your hormones and skin stabilize more, and then you can try again with the more high intensity exercise.. it might be increasing your stress hormone too much, but yoga with both strengthening and calming, you might do better with it for now
Loveee your writing! its so down to earth and uprising! Best of wishes from Puerto Rico!
Hi..I am struggling with acne for already years…i tried medication, natural treatments but nothing is apparently working… 🙁
Thanks