Ka Whiff! Body Odour & Fitness

I made my way to the gym the other day and proceeded to take a shower 🚿🧼before my session. A friend of mine was puzzled😧 by this approach and asked why I bothered to shower before breaking a sweat . I explained my reluctance to strut around the gym with a ‘ka whiff’ 🌪👃🏾as the reason why I did what I did. This reluctance extends beyond a gym setting and I’m hoping to raise awareness on this issue to help others that may be unknowingly ‘disturbing the peace’ in whatever environment they find themselves in.

What determines body odor?
Your nutrition. The frequent ingestion of processed foods lends a very heavy hand on how you naturally smell. Additionally, those spicy foods and add-ons to food that give it flavor or an extra kick do more than just enhance taste; they influence your scent.

Your activity level. Are you a busy body? Motion generates sweat.

Your personal hygiene. Opt to bath once a day (or less for some) and you’re doing your personal hygiene levels a great disservice.

Your clothing choices👕the wrong material affects how you ultimately smell when paired with activity. Some material tends to trap sweat.

How can you improve your body odor?
Bath more
Your overall hygiene practice is a strong determinant of how you smell. Develop a better relationship with water🚿and soap🧼. Mu kazi samba please.

A little roll on doesn’t hurt
It’ll help manage the sweat situation and consequent smell from higher activity levels and basic motion by keeping you dry and fresh. Buy yourself antiperspirant roll on and USE IT.

Mind your nutrition
To make things simple - if it smells strong before you eat it’ll smell strong when you excrete it. Alcohol 🥃 and tobacco 🚬 also make strong contributions to how you smell. If you love a drink at night be sure to hydrate and sleep it off properly or run the risk of having your pores expel the happy juice you were consuming via sweat. Like to smoke? Have a pack of sugar free mint gum in your pocket, it goes a long way to masking the strong smell of tobacco.

Wear appropriate workout gear
This aspect is commonly overlooked and many active individuals tend to just grab whatever old clothing they don’t mind sweating in. Your clothing material choice has a significant impact on how you smell so listen up 👂🏿:

• Cotton absorbs sweat, avoid it. It does not promote the quick drying of sweat. Persist with cotton and you’ll slow boil in your bodily ‘soup’ and likely offend those around you with your less than pleasant aroma.
• Synthetic & other material in the form of polyester, nylon, latex, bamboo & spandex/Lycra are excellent material options for their sweat wicking abilities. You dry faster and repel odors this way. Be sure to check the tags of items you buy or choose to wear when you’re headed out for a fitness session.

If you have a deeper pocket invest in higher end products like Adidas Climacool, Adidas Climalite or Nike Dri-Fit workout clothing that have advanced moisture management technology.


People won’t tell you when your scent gets overwhelming so please don’t assume that you don’t smell; put measures in place that limit the possibility.