50+ Lifestyles

Save Your Skin for the Summer

By Logan Anderson, BA, CPT, CIFT
Owner of All Strong Fitness LLC

Enjoying yourself throughout the summer means being able to do all the activities that you want outdoors. To be able to enjoy the outdoors fully, you need to take a few different safety precautions to get the most out of your experience. One of the things that is often overlooked when going into the summer months, is the true affect that the sun has on our skin health. The overall health of your skin is incredibly important to not only reduce the risk of skin related ailments, but also to decrease the aging and wrinkly look that comes with excessive sunlight. One of the best ways to protect yourself from the sun is through the use of sunscreen consistently applied throughout your time outdoors. Let’s take a look at some of the ins and outs of sunscreen, and how they can be applied to your life.

When you arrive at the store to purchase sunscreen for yourself, it can be extremely overwhelming when looking at the large amount of options available to purchase. Personally, I wish there was literally one option to choose from. Unfortunately, numerous different words such as “sport ready,” and “broad spectrum,” make the already confusing purchase of sunscreen even more daunting. Because of this, I hope to take some time to clear up some of the
different aspects of purchasing sunscreen.

The first thing that I always look at is SPF. What is SPF? SPF simply is an acronym that stands for sun protection factor. SPF is usually based off of a value that indicates how much UVB light is being blocked from reaching your skin. UVB rays are the rays that burn and irritate your skin with excess exposure. As mentioned, the SPF values are based off of a designated number, where SPF 15 blocks about 93 percent of all UVB rays, SPF 30  filters out 97 percent, and SPF 50 is an almost complete UVB block, at 98 percent. So even though SPF 50 is higher than SPF 30, it only protects you 1% more from UVB rays. In addition to this, the SPF scale only takes into consideration UVB rays, not taking into consideration UVA rays. UVA rays are the rays that lead to aging skin that looks more wrinkly with increased sun exposure. When you are looking for sunscreen, it is important to find a sunscreen that has “broad-spectrum” in the description, as this helps cover both UVA and UVB rays.

When deciding on whether or not you should buy a cream or a spray, it really depends on preference. Creams are typically better than sprays when used. This is mainly because people underestimate how much time you need to spray sunscreen on to have it be effective. It is recommended to spray for six seconds on an area for it to be “covered “from the sun. In addition to this, if you’re somebody that has asthma or difficulties breathing, the cream option might be better to avoid any unwanted spray sunscreen reaching you. At the end of the day, a cream or spray works about the same. Just make sure that you are reapplying ever 2 hours of sun exposure. If you sweat a lot, you may be interested in purchasing a “sport” version of sunscreen that helps reduce the sunscreen that is sweated off.

At the end of the day, don’t overthink the purchase. If you are using a sunscreen that is about 30 SPF, and applying liberally every two hours, then your skin will be perfectly safe during some of the brutal summer days.

With your knowledge in hand, go enjoy the rest of the Midwest summer before it’s too late. Although I hate to say it, we will be dusting off our winter coats in no time!

Logan Anderson is the owner of All Strong Fitness LLC. For more information, please visit allstrongfitness.org.