Personal Hygiene

1. Personal Hygiene - 2 mins - With a partner next to you, discuss the importance of maintaining good standards of Personal Hygeine.

2. Personal Hygiene To be Smelly? Or not to be smelly? That is the question……

3. Poor Personal Hygeine?

4. Is this you?

5. Personal Hygiene Personal Hygiene is another way of being the best you can be. No one likes sweaty armpits or greasy hair and apart from it being unattractive, poor hygiene affects performance and can even cause infections.

6. What is Personal Hygiene? Hygiene is the way we take care of ourselves to stay healthy: showering after sport, trimming our nails, and changing into clean clothes regularly. Good personal hygiene is an important part of a sportsperson’s routine. It helps to prevent infection which can otherwise affect performance.

7. Risks There are many risks in not keeping good standards of Personal Hygiene. Everyone should ensure that they follow these good practices:

8. Washing Washing: Everybody should have a bath or shower regularly to help keep them clean and free of odours. Athletes in particular need to wash more than most people because: When we exercise, we sweat. Sweat includes water, salt, ammonia and other waste products. Sweat itself doesn't actually smell. The smell comes from bacteria on the skin feeding on the sweat

9. Showering after Sport

10. Cleaning Your Teeth If you don't brush your teeth at least twice a day, bacteria and plaque can build up in your mouth. This can lead to tooth decay, gum disease and bad breath. You should also get your teeth checked at least once a year by your dentist.

11. Changing your clothes When we sweat, our clothes get damp. If you leave them, bacteria feed off this sweat and they start to smell. Change your clothes regularly and wash them thoroughly to avoid this.

12. Looking after our Feet Our feet need looking after too. We are constantly on our feet, wearing hot, sweaty shoes and trainers. Our feet also have lots of crevices, like inbetween our toes, where dirt and sweat can lurk!

13. Trimming Nails

14. Infections!! If we don’t take good care of our feet, and allow the dirt on our feet to breed bacteria, infections can occur. You may have heard of or experienced some of these already:

15. Athlete’s Foot This is a fungus which grows inbetween your toes. It is caught through contact with the infection, so for example walking on changing room floors and using other peoples towels etc. It can be quite itchy but can be treated using creams and powders from the chemist. You can avoid catching it by wearing flip-flops in communal areas of changing rooms, washing your feet regularly and drying them well, as well as not sharing socks/towels and avoiding shoes that make your feet sweat!

16. Athletes Foot

17. Verrucas These are very easily caught, through walking on communal changing areas and sharing towels etc. They are actually flat warts on the sole of the foot. You can avoid them by wearing flip flops in communal areas and not sharing towels etc. If you have one, you should wear flip flops or even socks when swimming. You can treat them with products from the chemist. It is also important to make sure your shoes fit properly, are suitable for the activity and are changed when they get old to avoid

18. Blisters When your shoes rub on your feet the friction causes a blister. These should be kept clean and dry and covered with a plaster. This will help it to heal on its own. Don't burst it yourself as this increases the risk of infection!

19. Corns Corns are hard pads of skin on the feet and toes. They are caused by rubbing shoes and excessive weight bearing on one part of the foot. You can get corn plasters to help get rid of them.

20. Bunions Bunions are caused by ill fitting shoes, especially high heels! They occur on the joint between the big toe and foot which starts to look larger and inflamed. The only option to correct this problem is surgery.