While it's true that a lot of people turn to 100 percent cotton clothing because it's comfortable, easy to wear and wash, inexpensive, and breathable, it's just not an ideal material for exercising.

To understand why, you need to understand thermoregulation (how your body regulates heat). When your body temperature begins to rise during a workout, your thermoregulation system gets to work bringing it back down to normal, moving heat out of the body. For heat to be transferred out of the body and into the environment—to cool down during or after a workout, for example—it has to be able to access to the outside environment, which means it can’t be blocked by clothing; clothing can act as a heat conductor, meaning that heat can be transferred to your clothes from your skin.

During exercise, the main way that the body thermoregulates itself is through evaporation. When your body gets hotter, you sweat more and this helps you to cool down. But, for sweat to cool your body, it has to be able to evaporate from the skin. (Sweat that stays on the skin doesn't bring your temperature down.) And, the more your body is covered up by clothing, the harder it is for sweat to evaporate and for the body to cool down.

Yes, cotton does absorb sweat. But then the sweat just stays there, keeping the fabric soaking wet; it doesn't get drawn away from your skin. In other words, cotton is not moisture-wicking.

This is where synthetic materials come in so handy. They are moisture-wicking and help dry sweat faster by pulling the sweat away from the skin out of the clothing using tiny, built-in capillaries, and into the environment. Rather than trapping sweat, the synthetic fabric releases it, allowing for the important cooling process of evaporation.

In the past few decades, high-tech moisture-wicking performance fabrics have become the norm in athletic wear, displacing sweatshirts, cotton-Spandex bras, and nylon running shorts. But it wasn't always this way. When moisture-wicking apparel first appeared in the late 1980s, "it was very expensive, and people didn't really see the value in it," says Matt Powell, senior sports industry advisor at The NPD Group. By the early aughts, every major athletic apparel brand had their own variation on this theme: Nike had Dri-Fit, Adidas had ClimaLite and Reebok had PlayDry. But it was Under Armour, Powell says, with its singular focus and branding, that was able to turn moisture-wicking sports apparel into "a massive business." 

The brand launched in 1996, trademarking the slogan "cotton is the enemy" all while selling its skin-tight apparel to professional athletes. In time, the concept trickled down to casual athletes in a big way. By the late 1990s, brands targeted at women, such as Athleta and Lululemon, entered the market — both were founded in 1998 — and helped make synthetic, “engineered” performance fabrics standard in athletic wear.

Trendy or not, for you health, comfort, and performance, the right gear can make all the difference: Wear a cotton T-shirt to hit the gym and you should find that you end up soaking wet and uncomfortably hot. But wear moisture-wicking apparel, and you’ll be provided with a cooling sensation during a workout that can keep you comfortable for better performance.

Grab yourself some moisture-wicking gear and come on in for your complimentary assessment at Success Studio or Success Studio North, both in Charlottesville. Our personal trainers are looking forward to helping you to Live Life on Your Own Terms!