Which is the best practice, to exercise before, or after, a bath or shower? Should I do both, others may need to shower or bathe before or after, but ideally, showering/bathing before and after a workout is the best choice.
Nevertheless, if you can only fit in one of the two, I recommend showering/bathing afterward because that keeps you smelling and feeling fresh for the rest of the day.
There are several considerations when deciding whether to take a bath or shower before or after your workout. Today, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each so you can figure out what works best for you. Let’s start with the exercise before a bath! Read along!
Should I Exercise Before a Bath?
A pre-workout shower can do wonders for your well-being, even if you don’t believe it will! Let’s discuss the pros and cons below!
Advantages!
Many benefits to taking a shower before you work out include:
• Better Blood Circulation
When you are warm, your bloodstream heats up too. This means that the blood flowing through your veins moves faster, opening up all of the little spaces between arteries and veins throughout your body, helping to reduce the chance of heart attacks or strokes.
• Relaxes Your Body
If you’re feeling frazzled after a long day at work, it may not be easy to focus and take deep breaths while you exercise. A relaxing shower beforehand could help clear brain fog and increase your ability to concentrate on what exercises you’re doing.
• Loosen Your Muscles
A hot shower can heat the muscles of your body, making them more flexible and allowing for a greater range of movement afterward.
Disadvantages!
There are a few disadvantages associated with taking a shower before working out. Let’s discuss them below:
• Feeling Sweaty Afterwards
If you don’t shower after working out, you’ll likely feel sweaty and uncomfortable when your body temperature increases. This is especially true if you’re doing a high-intensity workout or during hot weather.
• You Might Smell Throughout the Day!
After a workout, it can feel unavoidable that you’ll start to smell if you don’t shower. This might increase throughout the day if you work out early in the morning.
• Time-consuming
When you’re always running out of time and can’t find it to work out, spending an extra 20 minutes on a pre-workout shower might seem more of a demand than what you can afford.
Should I Exercise After a Bath?
After working out, shower to cool down and prepare for the day. If you’ve already taken one before going to workout, taking another post-workout shower might be different from your normal routine. But let’s discuss the pros and cons before jumping to conclusions!
Advantages!
While most people take showers after workouts to clean themselves off and leave the gym, one may experience different post-workout showering if they had taken a pre-workout shower.
• Helps You Relax
When you’ve accomplished an intense workout routine, it’s normal to experience fatigue. A comforting shower with your favorite soap or body wash will do wonders for the blood flow throughout your system, which helps eliminate toxins that could lead to cramping muscles if not dealt with immediately. That way, you’ll avoid unnecessary pain during workouts and reduce post-workout recovery time.
• Helps You Rinse the Sweat Away
Excessive sweating can also lead to dehydration because your body is losing fluids. It might irritate your skin, especially if you have sensitive skin. Finally, sweat has bacteria, which could cause you to smell. Washing off with water after exercising helps to remove excess sweat from your body and prevents these issues.
• Helps Restores Your Body Temperature
When you’ve just been working out, it helps to take a cool shower. This will reduce your body temperature, so you don’t risk getting sick from sweatiness on an otherwise hot day.
Disadvantages!
You might not believe there is a downside to taking a shower after working out; it helps cool you down and keeps you clean. But that same shower could harm your body too.
• Dry and Flaky Skin
It can leave your skin feeling dry and flaky if you prefer to take a hot shower after working out. If this is the case, it may be due to over-drying from successive showering.
• Time-Consuming
If you need to work out first thing in the morning before going to work or school, it can be tough to take time for a shower afterward. This becomes an even more significant challenge if your workout session is on the longer side.
Is Pasma Real?
Pasma is a condition where muscle spasms occur due to an imbalance of heat and cold in the body.
It commonly happens when people who are ‘hot’ from working out or doing strenuous activities come into contact with something ‘cold,’ such as iced water, which causes muscular pains, often without warning.
Some doctors refute this claim saying that it’s only considered folklore, but others say that this can happen on some level depending on one’s condition.
Whether or not you believe pasma is real does not matter. As you know by now, the expert recommendation is to wait for your body temperature to normalize before you shower, preventing yourself from the hot and cold interaction that supposedly causes pasma. So, don’t skip the light stretch or cool down in your post-workout routine.
Final Thoughts
There’s no right or wrong answer to whether you should exercise before or after a bath or shower – it ultimately depends on what works best for you.
If you have the time and can manage it in your schedule, showering before AND after working out is beneficial. But if you’re short on time or want to conserve water, we recommend just showering post-workout.
Try experimenting with both methods to see which one feels best for you! But if you have to choose one, it’s important to take a shower after exercise.
A warm shower loosens sore muscles and removes the sweat from your last session. Adjust the water temperature from hot to cold when ready for your cool-down routine.
Cooler water after a workout will leave you feeling invigorated and healthy!
Tags: bath, bathing, contrast shower, exercise, shower, showering, workout
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