Cotton Vs Polyester For the Gym: Are You Killing Your Gains Before You Even Start Your Workout?

NADS blogman checking in. Let’s talk about workout gear. In the modern fitness industry, with all the talk about men's health, dieting, and working out, an often-overlooked area of overall wellness is the impact of the clothing we wear during exercise.

Much of the available clothing specifically designed and marketed for intense workout sessions contains an abundance of harmful chemicals that can be counterproductive to the main goals of exercise: building strength, endurance, muscle mass, and improving overall health/wellbeing.

It functions as a double edged sword too, because of the negative impact on the intangible goals as well; goals like becoming more physically attractive to potential mates for example!

A recent article recommends polyester and polypropylene as the best materials to choose when selecting workout gear–but polyester is well known for being linked to multiple hormonal and reproductive issues, and both materials are literally made from plastic. For men, it’s ironic that the clothes we wear when we workout can negatively impact our T levels, one of the primary hormones involved in muscle growth in the first place. 

These materials are part of a large class of substances called “xenoestrogens”–foreign chemicals that have the same effect on the body as estrogen does. In general, prolonged xenoestrogen exposure is linked to a decrease in sexual libido, weight gain, and the development of male breast tissue (man boobs!). For men, all of these are either directly or indirectly counterproductive to increasing strength, as well as detrimental to maximizing an aesthetic, sexually attractive physique. Getting the theme here? 

The effects of prolonged xenoestrogen exposure are so damaging that even testosterone replacement therapy cannot compensate for all of them. If men in their late 20s and early 30s are experiencing gym plateaus or struggling to gain muscle mass, they may immediately look to blame the aging factor, with its accompanying natural decrease in testosterone, then proceed to opt for TRT. When in reality, the culprit may in fact be that for years they’ve been inundating their nether region and entire body with harmful, xenoestrogenic compounds. You can’t really turn off skin absorption unfortunately, so what we put on our skin really does matter.

Exercise is an essential part of self-development & overall health, but if you’re not aware of the consequences of gearing up with the wrong set of clothes before you hit the gym, you may be shooting yourself in the foot (or the nuts) before you even get your training in. The hard truth is that today, toxic chemicals have infiltrated nearly every sector of our lives, and avoiding them is an uphill battle to say the least. That being said, it is not impossible, just difficult, and it requires conscious effort. But nothing worth having in this life comes easy, right? It’s time to take it head on, one step at a time. Reclaim your vitality. You deserve nothing less.