Mix oxyclean with washing soda and soak your shirts in it for a few hours before putting them in the washing machine with Gain detergent.
I also, despite being in good shape, sweat a ton. I honestly hate it, but there are much worse things to live with.
Anyways, I had the same pit stain problem as you. I found that it was my antiperspirant causing the problem. I switched away from an antiperspirant (which honestly wasn’t really helping me sweat any less anyway) to a straight deodorant (Old Spice) and the problem went away.
Getting in shape, all things being equal, makes you sweat more, not less, since you are training your body to sweat more in response to the greater thermic effect of more intense exertion.
Well shit, time to get out of shape then. 😉
Being fat retains heat and causes sweating too so you have to be out of shape but thin.
But it isn’t cooling (eccrine) sweat that causes pit stains. It’s apocrine sweat that’s released under stress. I don’t think that increases when you get in good shape. Probably decreases with your cortisol.
Adding to this, It raises your metabolism so you burn hotter just generally during the day whilst doing nothing too
I’m a big fat guy who sweats a lot. I’ve never cared about the sweat though only the smell. So my whole life I’ve used nothing but deodorant, NEVER antiperspirant.
I’ve never had problems with either pit stains, nor lingering odor. I’m pretty convinced that antiperspirant leads to more smell; I’m not saying I’m fresh as a daisy at all times, but even at my worst, my odor isn’t that bad, while drier people often stink to high heaven.
Old spice is The Best.
despite being in good shape, sweat a ton. I honestly hate it, but there are much worse things to live with.
I used to be this way, using a sauna daily massively reduced how much I sweat.
Really? I sweat so much quicker since going to a sauna regularly. Though it’s nowhere near daily
If they are white shirts: then use Dish Soap and Bleach. I am assuming your dish soap is alkaline, careful not to add to much or it could build pressure and overflow. Use a soak cycle.
If they are not white shirts: then just do a quick cycle with dish soap or other degreaser, then a regular wash, and you can treat especially bad cases by applying liquid laundry detergent directly to the stain and letting sit half hour before washing.
If you’re conscientious of your impact on the environment and you only wear these specific shirts when you work out: then it doesn’t really matter if they are stained, no?
If you’re some kind of trendy hippy who believes weird diy hacks on the internet: wash with the contents of a can of cola.
Thank you for the good info!
No, these are my general wear shirts, not specific workout shirts. You’re correct that the staining doesn’t matter for those, and I couldn’t care less.
Just would like to be able to lift my arms up and not be thought of as gross when I do care well for myself and my things.
This happens when you pack HE washers too much. For your stinky clothes you need to do smaller loads, and possibly add in some kind of oxygen bleach booster.
From my experience, it’s from the deodorant, not sweat itself. Not sure the fix, but I know people have had varying success with their methods.
I’ll second this. I smelled worse wearing antiperspirant than deodorant. I switched because antiperspirant gives me a rash, but it turns out i smell better with deodorant too.
Same. I kept trying stronger antiperspirant, thinking the sweat was the stink but it turned out it was the combination of antiperspirant and sweat that smelled bad. Deodorant without antiperspirant works so much better for me.
Something I learned recently that I anecdotally believe based on my own experience is that synthetics get smellier faster, trap body odor and enable some types of odor producing bacteria to grow better than most natural fibers which I found interesting as all the exercise materials that are marketed as breathing better are synthetic or blends. I am not certain if there is a specific way to clean these materials to to avoid that but I have always found that if anything starts to smell ensuring that I hang it outside and let the UV go to work always helps but I am in Australia so our UV punches above many other parts of the world from what I have been told.
Citric acid is dirt cheap and does wonders for some cleaning jobs. Many recommend vinegar for these things, but citric acid doesn’t leave a smell and works for a lot of the same things. I guess anything acidic would do.
I have had some success with soaking in a solution of vinegar for min 20 minutes. And or oxy bleach, (not at the same time).
I wash my workout clothes on the roughest setting. Probably shortens the life of the clothes but gets the drink out.
I work out in sleeveless tops.
Had a friend who swore by ammonia for armpit stains on shirts, maybe try that?
Ammonia smells like cat piss. That can’t be right.
I don’t wear antiperspirant, just deodorant, so haven’t tried it. But my guess is that it’s the only thing that dissolves the waxy stuff that is holding the stains on the pits without dissolving the fabric. If acids don’t work, sometimes a base will.
She didn’t smell like ammonia so the scent must come out in the wash.
Vinegar and sodium bicarbonate, scrub a little and throw it in the washing machine. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before start washing.
OMG no, no NO!
Baking soda and vinegar mixed together do fucking NOTHING to clean anything! It never has and it never will! You make carbon dioxide gas and sodium acetate. Neither of which do dick for cleaning.
Stop fucking telling people to do this, it is 100% worthless!
If you want to do anything, buy some sodium percarbonate powder and add that to your laundry. It’s the active ingredient of so-called “oxygen bleach”. Sodium percarbonate is good at removing stains and yellowing from white clothes and helping to take the stink out of smelly laundry. For really nasty stuff, mix up a few tablespoons in a bucket with hot water and let your stuff soak for an hour and then throw it through the machine.
Either that or just spend a little more money on quality laundry detergent. Plain old Tide works quite well for most people. If you have a top load washer, set it so that it fills the tub to the max. Front loaders and super eco-friendly washers are fine for most people, but for those that work outside or do dirty things for a living, you need more water and soap to get your stuff clean.
Borax or 20 Mule Team are good if you have hard water since it softens and will prevent minerals in the water from binding to the detergent such that the detergent remains available for cleaning your laundry vs just getting wasted by hard water. It doesn’t necessarily clean stuff on it’s own, but it just makes the detergent you have more efficient, thusly why it is often called a “laundry booster”. It does have some properties that do help clean, but it is most effective as a pH buffer.
If you have hard water and nasty laundry, you can indeed mix sodium percarbonate and borax with your regular detergent. Soften and condition the water with the borax, permit the detergent to be more effective and the sodium percarbonate (which turns into hydrogen peroxide in water) will oxidize the filth in your clothes to keep things from being dingy and smelly without chlorine bleach.
But the foam makes it seem like something is happening!
Just a heads up that laundry stripping will not remove antiperspirant stains. I’m going through this with my white undershirts and after doing a stripping treatment the shirts came out pristine except for the waxy buildup on the pits.
Use spray on or gel deodorant. It helps a lot.
Wear an undershirt. It will protect your nice clothes from stains. Get cotton ones as it will absorb and breath better.
If you’re a guy it will also make you look more solid. Kinda like a push up bra for dudes.
