Lesson Learned: Don't take a hot shower right after a hard workout

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amusedmonkey
amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
edited December 2015 in Fitness and Exercise
I pushed myself extra hard running today, and since I was in a hurry to make it to an appointment I jumped right into the shower without resting even for a second. By the time I finished my shower I felt lightheadedness, extreme weakness, shakiness, numbness in my hands, tunnel vision, nausea, ringing in my ears that turned into some weird whooshing sound like a hybrid between an old TV without a signal and water running and I felt like I was losing myself. I sat down immediately and within minutes I regained enough composure to finish dressing. It took 2 cups of water, high sodium pickles and 15 minutes for me to get back to normal.

Apparently since blood pressure goes up during exercise, an immediate hot shower after a half-arsed cooldown will cause a sudden drop. Lesson learned...

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  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    Wow. Glad you didn't pass out or otherwise hurt yourself. And glad it passed.
  • tcaley4
    tcaley4 Posts: 416 Member
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    How far did you run? Do you drink water while running? It sounds like you might have got a little dehydrated as well.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »
    Wow. Glad you didn't pass out or otherwise hurt yourself. And glad it passed.

    Thank you! It was tough but it passed. I thought I'd share so others don't repeat my mistake.
    tcaley4 wrote: »
    How far did you run? Do you drink water while running? It sounds like you might have got a little dehydrated as well.

    It wasn't a long run, it was 20 minutes with 3 minutes of warmup and cooldown, so barely 15 minutes of actual running. I did drink water, but my heart rate was over 85% almost the whole time.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 612 Member
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    How long have you been running?? You may want to check with your doctor. I do 60 mins of cardio keeping my heart rate over 80% with a 5 min cool down and straight to the shower, haven't experienced any problems.
  • beemerphile1
    beemerphile1 Posts: 1,710 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I pushed myself extra hard running today, and since I was in a hurry to make it to an appointment I jumped right into the shower without resting even for a second. By the time I finished my shower I felt lightheadedness, extreme weakness, shakiness, numbness in my hands, tunnel vision, nausea, ringing in my ears that turned into some weird whooshing sound like a hybrid between an old TV without a signal and water running and I felt like I was losing myself. I sat down immediately and within minutes I regained enough composure to finish dressing. It took 2 cups of water, high sodium pickles and 15 minutes for me to get back to normal.

    Apparently since blood pressure goes up during exercise, an immediate hot shower after a half-arsed cooldown will cause a sudden drop. Lesson learned...

    Sounds more like dehydration than anything else. The shower may have contributed but you were probably dehydrated.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
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    ScubaSteve1962 wrote: »
    How long have you been running?? You may want to check with your doctor. I do 60 mins of cardio keeping my heart rate over 80% with a 5 min cool down and straight to the shower, haven't experienced any problems.

    Not long, but this level of exertion is new to me. I usually stay at around 65%-75%. This time I was short for time so I decided to attempt to squeeze a 30-40 minute workout into a 20 minute time slot.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    Oh yes. Been there. Learned the hard way.

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