Wash Your Gi

Class is over, you change out of your gi and stuff it in your bag, leaving the dojo until the next class.  You don't feel like doing laundry that night, and maybe sensei went a little easier than normal on the class so you did not sweat that much.  Your gi will be fine until the next class!  You do this a few times, it becomes more of a habit than not, and then you start to wonder why your gi smells like roadkill wearing dirty gym socks. 


Bacteria are on everything.  The roadkill gym sock smelling bacteria thrive in a warm, moist environment, a.k.a. the skin of your body, and must be washed off regularly in the bath or shower.  Your gi picks up this bacteria along with sweat, body oils, and dead skin cells that you produce when you exercise.  When you take off your gi and stuff it in your bag, not only is the bacteria and its food present on your gi, the moisture from your sweat does not get a chance to evaporate, creating the perfect environment for bacterial reproduction.    








Of course, most of us do not have access to a drying cabinet, so we hang our gi to dry.  You should use heavyweight hangers, as a gi made of 12oz cotton is pretty heavy when it is wet.  Heavy hangers for your gi are definately worth the investment.  I have an antique hanger from an old defunct cleaners for my jacket.  It is essentially a heavy wooden dowel curved into a bow shape with a stout steel hook for the hanging part.  I hang the pants on a separate hanger with clips.  Slapping and straightening the gi after it comes out of the was makes it much easier to fold.  We do a lot of line drying at my house, so I have a garment rack that I hang my wet gi on. 


While we are on the subject of caring for your gi, properly folding your gi after it is washed and dried will give you at least the physical appearance of knowing what you are doing, even if you do not.  This might not be so important in day-to-day class at the dojo, but for a test, especially before the national board, you want to put your best foot forward.  Imagine how it looks (and smells) to a test board to be evaluating someone in a dirty, rumpled gi!  A neat and clean appearance conveys one's humility and respect for others that all true martial artists strive to embody.  An added bonus to folding your clean gi properly:  it turns into a neat compact bundle that fits easily into your bag.








Think of folding your gi as a mental preparation for your next class.  This is what people who practice Iaido (drawing and cutting with a katana, or "iaito" as it is called) do when they fold the hakama, which are the multi pleated skirt-like pants that are worn in that art.  You are making a cognitive shift to focus only on the task presently before you, which is what we are doing during "mokutso," the silent meditation before class begins. 


Folding the Karate gi is so much easier than folding a hakama.  Check this out:






Clean body (and clothing), clean mind...