Red Face when exercising

[oopsydaisee]

Recently starting running, which is the first type of exercise I actually enjoy. However, my face gets SO red like a tomato and I find it embarrassing. Anyone know of any tips to reduce this as I am on the verge of quitting because of it. I’ve red taking an antihistamine before can help but I did try it and it didn’t seem to make a difference really.

Heading to the gym to get my red face on 😡😡

Same happened to me in 1983. Put me off exercise for 30 years. Then I realised I don’t care, and at 50, overweight with fibromyalgia I took up running, and have done 3 half marathons since. Red faced and all.

I am exactly the same, but I did find it calmed down somewhat as I got fitter, so keep going and aim for that!!!

Over time I found I don’t get as red when exercising. Your body adapts as you get stronger and fitter therefore it doesn’t need to work as hard.

I'm here to join the tomato face club. Although mine is more beetroot. I've stopped caring so much. It's neutral, it's just a fact.

I hate that others on here have had dick heads make comment about it but that's their issue, not yours. Most people are too busy thinking about themselves to think about what other people look like.

Please please don't stop, you are doing something amazing for yourself. I have always been like this and I am not convinced it gets much better as you get fitter, I also sweat quite a bit.

I was out hiking with a friend yesterday and we stopped at a twee little tourist village for a cuppa. I sat outside a tearoom sweaty, red faced and dusty in outdoor gear with my hair scraped back into a very unflattering pony tail. I felt a bit self conscious but then thought stuff it, this is me at 53 years old happy and out doing something I love. Why should I care?

To the people saying it gets better as you get fitter, no, for those of us with a certain skin type, it doesn't.

I've been into fitness for 22 years. I'm the fittest I've ever been, and currently typically do 10 hours of hard exercise a week (hiking with weighted vest / weightlifting / running / spin).

I go bright red when I exercise, bright red when I do public speaking, and bright red when I orgasm!!

The world of "fitness" has changed and diversified in the last 20 years. Ironically social media has made it easier for "non-athletic" people to get more active and learn more about what average/ normal people do, and be less focused on naturally advantaged people doing well in performance based clubs.

Parkrun has been developed and evolved into a mass participation event for anyone who can get around 5k.
Gyms have become more affordable and more mainstream to people who just want to improve fitness. Exercise, strength and mobility are increasingly being recognised as being essential to aging well, especially from middle-age.
A lot can be done at home with youtube or services like pelaton. There's classes like Clubbercise that take place in dark rooms with disco lighting.

It's a great time to pick fitness up,

IPL helped me with this. It's not cheap though, and it wears off after a while.

Well done OP for starting and enjoying running! Hope it is reassuring that so many of us are also tomato faces 😀I try to telepathically transmit "I've just run 15 miles" (I haven't!!!) to excuse it. I ran this morning, got back a couple of hours ago and had a shower, and I can feel that my face is still warm.

It does improve a bit for me when I'm fitter, I'm very much not fit at the moment, but I'm still much redder than most people I see.

Fake tan on my face helps disguise it. I still look reddish but it's not as obvious as when I'm completely pale. I wear fake tan in the summer on my body but not in the winter when I'm covered up. I don't mean bright orange but when I'm pale I look bright red its really obvious.

yes it also happens to me, so I feel for you, but have no solutions. Bright red, white line around my mouth.

Even worse for me is the face sweating. Buckets and buckets of it, stings my eyes, makes my face puff up a bit, and I don't have to do anything much to get it started. It's just awful, and lasts for ages. It hasn't improved as I've got fitter, and I don't know if I will be able to run in the summer at all, as even walking a couple of minutes is bad enough. I bring endless towels and hankies and so on with me, to no avail, and i've tried all the lotions and potions I can find for hyperhidrosis. Wearing glasses is not easy with it either!!

I've had lots of comments, people asking if I'm OK, stares, etc. as well.

It's just my face, too.

I don’t sweat, but do go tomato faced. An instructor once stopped a class to check I was ok, which put me off exercise classes for 30 years. I prefer to go red faced alone now! A glass of wine does it to me too, one is all it takes!

If you feel self conscious buy green cream (go easy on it til u get used to it!) then put pressed powder over it. Or foundation.

How about camouflaging it? A peaked cap and big wraparound glasses? Like this?

If it really bothers you wear some makeup.

I've been running for 15 years. I'm dark haired and not overweight. Total beetroot every time, all I can do is have a cool shower afterwards to bring it down as soon as possible . Try to accept it as normal - for some people it just is

I get this. When I lived in Asia I had an Asian friend ask if it hurt (she didn't know many white people!)

I tend to sprint finish if I can so marshalls always worry if I'm OK. I've also had fellow park runners check in on me.
I think it's nice that we live in a world where people bother to care for strangers tbh. It's supportive.

My face actually does hurt when it gets flushed! It’s annoying and for that reason I sometimes carry fragrance free oil of ulay (the only one I can stand to put on my skin) on a night out in my bag so I can go and cool down my cheeks. It’s embarrassing and upsetting but I’ve had to accept it as something I have to deal with . Others have far worse! And avoiding exercising will only make it worse in the long run, by upping blood pressure, weight etc etc

A good quality full coverage foundation. There are waterproof foundations and some special 'gym' make up. Haven't tried the latter.

For full coverage foundation, there's Mac Studio Fix, L'Oreal Infalliable Freshwear and Maybelline 24hr superstay. A few layers gently patted into your skin should camouflage most if not all of the redness, depending on how strong the blushing is. Remember to remove it before bed though so it doesn't clog your pores!

OP- honestly, no one else cares what you look like when you exercise- no one.

It's just a physiological result. Could you perhaps look into the science behind it so you can understand it better?

Does anyone else get redder just after they stop exercising? Or is it just me!

Nothing useful to add just sympathy! I also go an outrageous shade of red, it’s embarrassing because it’s not even when I’ve been doing that much. I have never found a solution

Fellow red facer here! I live in a Mediterranean country where all the women seem to barely sweat and only get attractively flushed when exercising, whereas my Anglo saxon colouring goes full on tomato. It used to bother my but now (late 30s) I care much much less.

This has reminded me of an episode when I used to do salsa dancing. The room would get very hot and I'd be sweating buckets, as would most of the men, but the women all seemed fine. Once I was dancing with a very attractive man whom I had a big crush on, and he said to me 'I like dancing with you because you're the only woman who gets as sweaty as I do'. I was so humiliated 😅😅. Looking back 10 years later it makes me laugh though, so there's hope for you changing your mindset OP!

I have just started running again and have this issue. I read that it's worse when you're dehydrated, so make sure you've had a lot to drink before exercise (you should do that anyway). Other than that, I only have sympathy but thanks to this thread will be checking out VBeam and buying some big wraparound sunglasses. And remembering @Love51 's point that people checking on you means they care!