I'm a big believer in giving blood and do so whenever I can (every 3/4months).
Now when you donate they take around 500ml (around 1/8th of your blood). They say not to do intense exercise for 24hrs and the blood will rejuvinate within a few days. But surely with your donation goes lots and lots of red blood cells (that carry oxygen to the muscles) that you've worked so hard to get. These surely cannot redevelop back to the full capacity on their own, and therefore by giving blood you're taking a backwards step in your fitness. Donating blood is almost the reverse process of blood doping - instead of swopping your blood for some fully charged with red cells, you're giving 1/8th of them away! daft for anyone working hard to constantly improve fitness.
Am I right with my theory? and has anyone else felt terrible during training for some weeks after donating? :cane:
I donate blood every 56 days (for the most part). I can speak intelligently about how your body regenerates red blood cells relatively quickly after their loss, but I would just be pulling information out of my rear end! I do know that a diet high in iron and vitamin C is supposed to enable your body to replace red blood cells more rapidly. From what I read, the vitamin C promotes more rapid uptake of the iron, which is an important component of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen! I'm sure that on some level, donating blood while trying to maintain aerobic conditioning has a negative impact, but I don't know that I've pushed my body to that level yet.
Now I'll let people that know more than I do weigh in on the discussion of your theory.
I donate blood every 56 days (for the most part). I can speak intelligently about how your body regenerates red blood cells relatively quickly after their loss, but I would just be pulling information out of my rear end! I do know that a diet high in iron and vitamin C is supposed to enable your body to replace red blood cells more rapidly. From what I read, the vitamin C promotes more rapid uptake of the iron, which is an important component of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen! I'm sure that on some level, donating blood while trying to maintain aerobic conditioning has a negative impact, but I don't know that I've pushed my body to that level yet.
Now I'll let people that know more than I do weigh in on the discussion of your theory.
