Can fitness gear that makes you sweat help you detox your body? People are always clamouring for ways to detox their bodies—look at the popularity of juice cleanses, hot yoga, saunas, etc. But a new line of fitness wear is aiming to be a more budget-friendly way to rid your body of toxins.
By: Karen Kwan
Pommello Sweats is a line of apparel designed to maximize how much you sweat, so as to rid your body of toxin, while also improving your performance as an athlete through hyperthermic conditioning. It’s made of a patent-pending neoprene fabric they say will promote perspiring while also enhancing athletic benefits of heat acclimation, increasing fat-burning efficiency and detoxing the body of chemicals that lead to weight gain.
I was sent an outfit from Pomello to try out: a pair of capris and a workout tank with built-in sports bra. To the touch, it feels like other neoprene fabric I’ve seen before. I tested it out on a quick run on the treadmill. I should note that I do not enjoy sweating (I think I quite dislike it because I sweat a lot), and I also do not enjoy treadmill running (but I opted for the treadmill given the capri length pants). Putting on the outfit, the bottoms slid on easily but the top is very snug fitting with little stretch so I think it took a good five minutes to get on (and after my run, I thought I was going to have to cut it off of me). Once on, the top fit fine, but the lack of stretch makes it a wrestling match to get on.
The gym’s blinds were open so that room was already quite warm. And since I already tend to be a heavy sweater, I couldn’t tell if it was the outfit making me sweat more, but it did feel warm, so I will attribute the extra perspiration to the Pommello outfit. And once I pulled it off of me, the inside of the fabric felt soaked in sweat. The actual outfit while it felt fine when I got it on, when I started running, the bottom the shirt would pull up, so I think it needs to be redesigned with a longer fit.
Will this fitness gear help detox and improve athletic performance? I can’t speak to the latter and haven’t tested it out personally to see if I experience an uptick in that, but as for detoxing, everything I’ve ever researched on this topic says that there’s no proof that we detox when we sweat. It’s a myth that’s perpetuated daily but while exercise benefits our health, there’s nothing definitive about the act of sweating ridding our body on toxins. I’ll try the outfit again but probably for a yoga class versus running. What are your thoughts on the Pommello concept?
Karen Kwan is a regular iRun fashion and travel contributor, and you’ll find her running fashion posts every Friday on Instagram. She contributes to a number of publications and you can also follow her travel and running adventures at Health & Swellness.
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