How is it that something that can make us feel so dirty on the outside helps us feel so incredibly clean on the inside? Yes, I’m talking about that good ol’ sweaty sweat!
In a “Sweat It Out!” article by Lizette Borreli on Medical Daily, it says that “researchers believe sweat analysis could be considered as an additional method for the monitoring of toxic elements in humans rather than just blood and/or urine testing” since “induced sweating appears to be a potential method for the elimination of many toxic elements from the human body.” When remembering or realizing that toxins in the body are released through sweat, it makes great sense why sweating makes us feel so good on the inside.
And, a surprising yet sweet fact about sweat is that it even “lowers kidney stone risk,” according to the article mentioned above:
“Sweating can be an effective way to sweat out the salt and retain calcium in your bones. This limits the accumulation of salt and calcium in the kidneys and urine, which is where the stones come from. It is no coincidence people who sweat tend to drink more water and fluids, which is another prevention method for kidney stones,” Borreli explains.
Borreli also shares that “a study presented at the 2013 American Urological Association conference in San Diego, Calif., found even walking for a couple of hours a week could cut the risk for developing kidney stones. Mild to moderate activity changes the way the body handles nutrients and fluids that affect stone formation. Sweating helps flush out the system more efficiently because it demands more hydration from the body.”
It is no coincidence people who sweat tend to drink more water and fluids, which is another prevention method for kidney stones,” Borreli adds.
Sweat and Fight Satan at the Same Time
I was recently talking to my friend, Anita, soon after a kick-boxing class she attended, and one of the first things I noticed when she appeared in front of me was how fresh she looked. However, I had no idea at that time that she had not long ago come out of a sweaty kick-boxing class. Within minutes of our conversation, we were chatting about spiritual matters as we always do, and she went on to explain that in class that day, participants were instructed to hold a squatting position while moving their arms as if they were boxing someone. The instructor wanted them to go hard. But, Anita, not wanting to imagine she was hitting a person, said she imagined she was giving Satan a serious beat down while beating him away from any aspect of her life, including her home and family. “I imagined I beat him so badly that I knocked him right into the water, and then he couldn’t bother anyone,” she told me with her hearty laugh while demonstrating her boxing technique. Considering Anita went into such a zone during this process in class — to the point that the instructor stopped the class to ask if she was okay — makes me think that she really may have succeeded with “drowning” Satan. 🙂
Anita continued her story, explaining that the harder she punched that devil, the more the sweat poured from her body, and the better and more cleansed she felt. Then, it was about 45 minutes later when I saw her, and it was that fresh appearance I instantly noticed about her. (For the record, she always looks fresh, but it was something different and deeper this day, which made sense to me after she explained her sweaty story.) Turns out, not only did Anita knock the devil out, but she knocked toxins out of her body, too. “I feel so deeply cleansed,” she repeated a few times as though she had just been baptized.
Sweat to Knock Out the ‘Blahs’
As for me, although I had a successful week of eating 100% clean while participating in a friend’s “5 Days of Raw Green Goodness” challenge, on the workout side of things, I hadn’t really sweated as much as I would have liked to this past week. I had taught my “Stretch & Relax” classes, which definitely provide an opportunity to produce sweat, but I hadn’t sweated as if I had taken an internal shower. I was missing sweating to that degree, so it was plain and simply time to sweat — and sweat big — to also get me out of a somewhat blah-feeling moment I was experiencing. Initially, I thought a nice, long shower would be the answer for washing away the ‘blahs’, but that didn’t even completely do it. Guess what did, though? Hardcore Sweat!
I pulled out the 30-minute SWEAT workout on DVD by well-known fitness trainer, Chalene Johnson, and got my sweat on. Very quickly, my blah-moment was so gone. Before long, my face, neck and tank top were very wet, and sweat could be seen on my exercise mat. Sweating not only cleansed me, but it energized me so much that I headed straight outdoors to cut the grass after my indoors workout was done.
“You picked the perfect time to do that (cut the grass),” my neighbor said to me, since the temperature outdoors had refreshingly dropped. “It was a very impromptu decision,” I said to him and his wife, as I stood there talking across the lawn in my gray sweat-stained shirt. “After I got this sweaty from a workout,” I explained while looking down at my obviously-sweaty shirt, “I figured I might as well come outside and sweat some more, but this beautiful-feeling cool air is actually making me cool off.”
Go Sweat!
Although I may have landed the perfect time, temperature-wise, to cut the grass, my advice to you is to not wait for the perfect time to exercise and sweat. Simply fit it in! The movement combined with the release of toxins via sweat is sure to make you feel amazing, because sweat also “boosts endorphins,” says Borreli, so “sweating it out…can help put a smile on your face.” And that’s precisely what happened to me on the day I needed to sweat the ‘blah’ away.
Here’s to sweating and smiling! And, don’t forget that something that can feel sticky on the skin and may even smell stinky at times is the very thing that can also make life feel so sweet. Now, go sweat!
