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:
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I'm all for giving blood too, but I've been bad and haven't done it in a while... however, if you are giving blood and want to train well... make sure you get a tech who knows how to take blood. In college, I went in to give blood at a school function. After the tech had put the needle in my arm - blood was coming out very slowly and my arm hurt really bad! I told the tech that my arm really hurt - I'm usually a pretty tough person, but he was ticked off that I had mentioned that I was hurting. I will leave the next detail out because it's TMI, but what he did didn't fix the problem. I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. He threw the free t-shirt on my stomach, I figured that it was my time to leave. After I got my glass of Tang or whatever it was - I told one of the people greeting the students donating. I was ticked. My arm hurt for days and my coach was mad at me for even donating. My arm had the worst looking bruise that I had ever seen. That first practice back, I couldn't use my arms... so I kicked. I was back to swimming afterwards - a little tender but I survived.
So, I'm a little hesitant to go back and give blood. Not trying to scare you because I'm sure that is rare... but just make sure you go to a quality place to have it done. Keep up your fluids and eat well.
;)
I'm all for giving blood too, but I've been bad and haven't done it in a while... however, if you are giving blood and want to train well... make sure you get a tech who knows how to take blood. In college, I went in to give blood at a school function. After the tech had put the needle in my arm - blood was coming out very slowly and my arm hurt really bad! I told the tech that my arm really hurt - I'm usually a pretty tough person, but he was ticked off that I had mentioned that I was hurting. I will leave the next detail out because it's TMI, but what he did didn't fix the problem. I absolutely couldn't stand it anymore. He threw the free t-shirt on my stomach, I figured that it was my time to leave. After I got my glass of Tang or whatever it was - I told one of the people greeting the students donating. I was ticked. My arm hurt for days and my coach was mad at me for even donating. My arm had the worst looking bruise that I had ever seen. That first practice back, I couldn't use my arms... so I kicked. I was back to swimming afterwards - a little tender but I survived.
So, I'm a little hesitant to go back and give blood. Not trying to scare you because I'm sure that is rare... but just make sure you go to a quality place to have it done. Keep up your fluids and eat well.
;)
