When to Donate Blood so As Not to Spoil Your Exercise Program
Donating blood is a great way to help others, but what happens if you come to your next workout with a small pint? Some aspects of fitness bounce back quickly, but you can postpone any race or competition for a few weeks.
Blood donation groups such as the Red Cross advise to refrain from strenuous exercise the same day you donate blood to avoid reopening the wound with the needle and because you may feel dizzy or faint from low blood pressure.
Plasma, the watery part of your blood, will return to normal levels within a few days. (You can help this happen faster by drinking plenty of fluids not only during the bloodstream, but also the next day or two.) A study of cyclists who donated only their blood plasma found that they did not last that long in an endurance race that same day, but returned to normal after two days.
It takes longer for red blood cells to regenerate. These cells carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, so aerobic performance suffers when the red blood cell count is low. The same study on cyclists also looked at the effect of donating whole blood on VO2max , a measure of how much oxygen their bodies can use at a time. This is one of the indicators of aerobic fitness. They found that cyclists’ VO2max dropped 15% on the day they donated blood, but after a week it was only 7% below normal.
How long does the effect last? One study in which amateur athletes participated showed that they exercised normally three weeks after donating blood. Another , more recently, showed that the men in the study (who all donated blood on a regular basis) returned to their fitness level before donating blood two weeks later , although tests showed that their red blood cells were still slightly low. This result prompted the authors to recommend waiting two weeks or more before counting on the best results. The exact amount of time is likely to vary from person to person.
If you participate in races or competitions on a regular basis, blood donation after the race, when you need a few days or weeks to recover and when you know that there are several weeks left until the next competition, may be the best option.
How Blood Donation Affects Your Workout And Race (And 4 Mitigation Strategies) | RunnersConnect
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