About Samantha Speisman
Leading a healthy life hasn't always come naturally to Editor Sam Speisman, but in the last two years, she's given her lifestyle a total makeover. She developed a serious addiction to spinning, and made it her mission to find delicious (and nutritious) treats. Follow her each week as she tries to find the SweetFit balance.
Do Men Have Better Hygiene Than Women?
balancing act: post-workout showers canada
(Feb.09.12)
I think (like most 21st-century women) I have a pretty busy life. I work full-time, I own a home (which requires a lot of time and care) and I go to the gym at least three times a week. I cook most of my meals and have parents, friends, grandparents and extended family to spend time with. (And that's without children, I can't understand how you Mamas do it.)
It came up a few weeks ago that my boyfriend isn't pleased with how long it takes me to shower when I get home from the gym. He "doesn't actually care" but he just finds it strange that I can come home, make dinner, eat dinner and maybe watch some TV before I take a post-workout shower.
He, on the other hand, comes home from the gym and goes directly into the shower. No drink of water, no snack, nothing. Walks in, drops his stuff and within a few minutes I hear the water running.
Normally, I would just chalk this up to a difference in personalities. He's a clean freak (and probably gets a lot sweatier and dirtier at the gym than I do) and I'm not. I have to spend 30 minutes on public transit before I get home, while he spends 10 minutes in a car. I also have a lot to do when I get home (like make dinner) while he usually gets home from the gym at 11pm, and has nothing to do but shower and go to bed.
But then, a few weeks ago, we were at a party with all of my girlfriends and their significant others. My post-workout showering habits were somehow brought up in conversation, and before you could say, "Gross!" most of my friends were agreeing with me — and all of our boyfriends/husbands were bonding over how they couldn't understand it and how gross they thought it was.
It seems that men feel the need to shower immediately after the gym, and women take their time. In fact, most of us said we wouldn't even wash our hair post-workout if we were planning on washing it the next morning (something my boyfriend still fails to understand). The boys were all appalled, and the more couples we brought into the conversation, the more we found it to be the same: men shower right away, while all the women take their sweet time.
So I'm wondering if the phenomenon spreads farther than my group of friends. Do you shower right away after a workout, or do you take your time? And is your boyfriend/husband/lover the same way or does he shower right away?
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