I have been training now for the Breast Cancer 3-day walk here in Michigan. I’m up to about 7.5 miles in a single walk now (this is definitely more work than I thought it would be going in, and I am fairly healthy), and my largest problem stems from something a little personal.
After walking for a while, it seems that certain areas of my body (all right, since I need your help, it’s the bottom of my nutsack) get a little tender. Now, I wear briefs that are neither too tight or too loose, so I expected that the support given by them would help fight the chafing, but nope, eventually things work their way around so that my legs seem to pinch things a little with each step, and they only way to solve the problem is with ahem a little manual adjustment. Not something accomplished without embarassment if you’re on the sidewalk of a well-travelled street on your training walks, and certainly not something that is going to make people want to talk to me if I’m walking with thousands of other people…
As an aside (speaking of embarassment) on my last training walk, I came back home, nearly collapsing, and my wife said “I hope you didn’t walk all the way like that” at which point I noted that my fly was open…for the whole walk. Hopefully not too many people noticed.
As a lifelong active fat person, I prefer Caldesene powder, and after the exercise, if it still hurts, Desitin Creamy (also good for soothing sunburn!)
Now, I don’t have nuts myself, but I’ve put this stuff on my sensitive girly bits and they both work wonders.
Get some lycra shorts and stuff your goods to one side of the seam. Works great. Another helpful thing is a product called “body glide” which looks like stick deodorant but is a waxy kind of thing to reduce friction. Apply it to your inner thighs and your dangling bits. I do some distance running and I find these are adequate to address the chafing problem.
so the guy says to the pharmacist, “Do you have anything for chafing?” And the pharmacist says, “I think we have something down here in aisle 5 that might work - walk right this way.” And the guys says, “If I could walk that way, I wouldn’t need the powder.” Ba doom, chink.
I wear wicking (polypro) boxers when I run or do long hikes. REI sells them, something like $10-$20 for a pair. They keep moisture away from your skin and so your flesh doesn’t rub against the cloth which can cause tons o’ grief.
While we’re on it, I’d also recommend a pair of polypro sock liners under your good wool socks (which you are of course wearing on long walks, cotton = agony). About $7 and they work wonders, keep your feet cool, dry and blister free and at the end of the day your socks glide right off your feet. Oooh.
