Travelling with workout clothes
 

I figured I'd post this in the regional forum, since we typically have shorter layovers.

For the folks who use hotel gyms, how do you take care of the smelly clothes? I'm pretty sure that workout cloths will smell pretty bad after a 4 day trip. I've entertained the thought of washing them in the room, but I doubt they'd dry on some of the shorter overnights.

How do you guys deal with it?

Febreze to Go...small bottle, spray the clothes down after the workout and use the small dirty laundry bag found in most closets if you're worried about your other clothes.

http://www.minimus.biz/images/D02-0176401-3100bg.jpg

mesh shorts, board shorts, and mesh sleeveless shirts work good, they only need a couple hours to air out (less if you hang them by a vent, also use hangers they help drying) and then wrap them in a laundry bag with a coffee bag in there and everything is peachy....

As mentioned above, avoid cotton and stick with wicking synthetic fabric.

Wash them in the sink with hot water and soap and rinse well to make sure all the soap and stink is out. Roll em up in a towel and twist the towel to get as much moisture out as possible the put em in a plastic laundry bag. Once your in the plane and at cruise stick em on a hanger and they'll dry completely in about 15 minutes. It helps to have a coat closet in the cockpit and 10 hours legs for this technique, but there's no reason it wouldn't work in an RJ.

Three absolutes:

Ask the guy your flying with if he minds. Be sure to wash them, don't even think about drying sweat out of nasty workout clothes in the cockpit. Underwear stays in your suitcase.

You know those dry cleaner bags attached to the hangers in the closet? Bingo!

I personally go for a under armor look-a-like type shirt for working out. Vents well and dries pretty easily. If it's still damp after a short layover it goes in the laundry bag in the room and into the suitcase.

Shorts aren't a big deal. Typical work out shorts work well.

If you really want to dry them faster out them on top of the air conditioner/heater in the room and put a shoe on top to hold it in place. Works like a charm

Wear your uniform. How else are the ladies at the gym going to know you are a pilot?

Seriously, just toss it in the plastic laundry bag and spray febreeze in it. Also, take newspaper and crumple it up in your shoes. That helps with the shoe smell.

Like others have said, synthetic materials that wick moisture are key. A little trick I learned is hose them down in the shower and microwave the clothes for 30 seconds at a time. (Make sure there is no metal zippers on the clothing unless you want an amateur laser light show..don't ask how I know that). If there's no microwave, the blow dryer works really well too(it's how I heat my food sometimes when there is no microwave). I also keep dryer sheets in a zip lock bag and each day will take out a new one and roll or fold my clothes around the dryer sheet. The dryer sheet coupled with dry clothes makes all the difference.

Like others said use the Fabreeze spray. Also get a couple of the roll up space bags. The space bags are air tight and compact. Be sure to wash the bags out and hang them up to dry when you get home. Using a fresh dryer sheet in the bag will help a lot too.

This is what I do, minus the hang-dry in an RJ :rolleyes:

I don't like to go directly from workout to flying since I'll tend to cramp up so I try to workout the night before or several hours before checkout. This usually gives me time to dry synthetics. Hanging them by the heat/AC vent helps...worst case I put them away wet (plastic lined gym bag) and dry them at the next hotel.