Your knee sleeves can be your best friend and most trusted ally in many types of exercises that can strain your knees. However, keeping them clean and making sure their hygiene levels are proper are both in your interest as well as that of everyone surrounding you at the gym and even in the street when you’re on your way home? Neoprene sleeves can definitely develop somewhat of an unpleasant distinctive odor. Here are three failsafe ways to prevent or fix that.
- Prevent any nasty smells from developing
The fact that prevention is the best cure for anything is not just an old wives’ proverb. If you put in just a few extra minutes in order to prevent mildew (or God knows what else) from forming inside your knee sleeves, you can actually nip the problem in the bud and prevent any nasty smell from forming altogether. During and after a proper work out, you will naturally sweat a lot, and some of that sweat infiltrates into your gear, especially your crossfit knee sleeves.
The best way to prevent sweat from leading to something worse is to turn your knee sleeves inside out after you’re finished exercising. This will allow them to air dry. Additionally, you can also wash them together with your normal laundry.
- Boil your knee sleeves
If you didn’t manage to prevent the odor from forming, a good way to get rid of it and any unwanted germs and bacteria is to boil your knee sleeves. This is done in a pot of hot water for the duration of 5 minutes, after which you add dish soap to the pot and allow for the water and your sleeves to cool down. The final step is to rinse them, and then let them air dry. Trust us, your once-disgusting knee sleeves will be as good as new.
- Soak in hot water with vinegar
The combination of heat and distilled vinegar is a sure way to kill off any mildew or other bacteria in your knee sleeves that is causing that nasty smell. First, heat up a medium to large pot of water and then pour it into a bucket. Then, add 4 ounces of distilled white wine vinegar. Soak your knee sleeves in the mix for at least 10 minutes, and then add them to a normal load of laundry. This will wash off any residue bacteria that haven’t died during the hot-water-vinegar soak. After the washing is done, air dry the knee sleeves. If you’re in a hurry to get back to the gym, leave them out in the sun. This will ensure they dry faster.
Hygiene is very important in the gym. Even if you’re always clean, you need to be extra careful as to your equipment being at least as clean as you (if not cleaner).
