Showering After a Workout: Does it Help Boost Recovery? (2023)

FAQs

Showering After a Workout: Does it Help Boost Recovery? ›

“Showering is an adjunct to the recovery process that can remove the lactic acid that can be a source of muscle soreness,” OrthoCarolina told us. “Start off the shower using warm water and gradually decrease the temperature to cold as you can tolerate.”

Showering after a workout does help your muscles to recover, and boosts your body's ability to bounce back and be ready for your next workout. That's because showering can get lactic acid, the natural chemical reaction that causes soreness, out of your muscles.

Hot Showers

Relief for Sore Muscles: Similar to the effect of a hot pack over sore muscles, a hot shower can help to relieve sore muscles, muscle tension and knots. The hot water also helps to increase blood circulation in the body that can considerably ease pain, stimulate healing and reduce inflammation.

Take an ice bath

Ice baths, ice massage or contrast water therapy (alternating hot and cold showers) help to recover faster, reduce muscle soreness and prevent injury. By repeatedly constricting and dilating blood vessels it helps remove (or flush out) waste products in the tissues.

Cold showers help reduce muscle soreness after intense workouts. Since cold water has regenerative properties, your muscles will relax and repair after a tough workout.

All that sweat from your workout will cause bacteria and yeast to build up, so if you don't shower, you don't rinse those bugs off and may have an increased risk of irritation and infection, Deirdre Hooper, M.D., a dermatologist at Audubon Dermatology in New Orleans, LA, previously told Shape.

Ideally, you should wait until you've stopped sweating profusely to hit the shower; otherwise, you run the risk of still being hot and sweaty after you've washed. This will vary from person to person, but in most cases, this will take between five and 30 minutes, depending on the intensity of the exercise.

Cold Shower

This means that the blood vessels contract, creating a flush for lactic acid built up in tired muscle tissues. Constricted blood vessels also reduce inflammation that comes with heat, bringing about some inflammatory-related pain relief and decrease in swelling.

Benefits of Taking a Cold Or Hot Shower After a Workout

As for workout recovery, some experts believe showers may help relieve muscle tension because of their effects on blood flow.

Do cold showers speed up recovery? ›

A cold shower can improve your post-exercise recovery by helping to cool the body faster, especially after working out in a hot environment, Laskowski said.

A number of factors can affect the speed with which your muscles recover including the intensity of exercise and your own physical fitness. Sleep, exposure to stress, diet, wellbeing and other lifestyle factors can all determine how long it takes to recover.

Finally, a 2015 study found that cold, applied immediately after exercise, was more effective than heat at reducing DOMS. Interestingly, there's some evidence that cold water immersion may improve immune function.

All in all, your cool-down should take about 15-25 minutes — so, that's the expert-recommended to time you should wait to shower after exercising!

Many doctors say a daily shower is fine for most people. (More than that could start to cause skin problems.) But for many people, two to three times a week is enough and may be even better to maintain good health.

After 30 days of cold showers, most individuals report feeling more alert, having more energy, having healthier skin and hair, improved mental health and resilience, improved circulation, and more.

In general, showering every other day or every few days is enough for most people. Keep in mind that showering twice a day or frequently taking hot or long showers can strip your skin of important oils. This can lead to dry, itchy skin.

So, when you are sweating, your body is still in the process of controlling the body temperature. At this point, it is not recommended to take a shower as it causes a sudden change in body temperature [3], which is not good for your overall health.

Sweat is mostly sterile." Indeed, we've reported that sweat isn't what makes you smell after you work out; it's the bacteria on your skin. In fact, Larson says that overwashing can be harmful for some people. "For older people or people with extremely dry skin, it's probably better for them not to shower," she says.

Why cold showers are good? ›

Cold water strains your body — it goes into “survival mode,” working hard to maintain its core temperature. This stimulates your body to increase blood flow circulation. “Increasing circulation redistributes blood and delivers freshly oxygenated blood to areas of the body that need to recover,” Dr. Hame says.

How to take a recovery-boosting contrast shower. Start with a hot shower (but not too hot; it should not burn) for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly turn down the water temperature from hot to cold. Take a cold shower for 1 minute. Repeat the hot and cold cycle for 5 to 10 minutes for optimal recovery.

One holistic method of treatment that's gaining popularity is hydrotherapy. Taking a cold shower for up to 5 minutes, 2 to 3 times per week, was shown to help relieve symptoms of depression in a clinical trial. For people with depression, cold showers can work as a kind of gentle electroshock therapy.

This concise review provides a sight about the various phases of muscle repair and regeneration, namely degeneration, inflammation, regeneration, remodeling and maturation.

With that being said, different muscle groups tend to have different rates of recovery, with smaller muscles—biceps, triceps, calves—being able to recover more quickly than larger muscles—lats, quads, hamstrings, etc. In addition, different individuals are able to handle different amounts of training volume.

If you're experiencing muscle soreness, you may need only two or three days of rest. Another option is to alternate your workouts to avoid overusing certain muscle groups. For example, if your upper body is sore, work out your lower body the next time you exercise instead.

“The answer is no.” “In fact, taking a cold shower at a time that isn't immediately following your workout can have a muscle growth inducing effect. The exact opposite response as was experienced with the submersion after working out.

After completing a workout, it may be tempting to congratulate yourself with a high-fat meal. Unfortunately, this can undo your workout gains and impair muscle recovery. Foods high in both saturated and unsaturated 'healthy' fat can slow down digestion. This limits your body from absorbing much-needed nutrients.

Between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., your body temperature is at its highest. This may mean you'll be exercising during the window of time your body is most ready, potentially making it the most effective time of day to work out.

Eat after you exercise

To help your muscles recover and to replace their glycogen stores, eat a meal that contains both carbohydrates and protein within two hours of your exercise session if possible. Consider a snack if your meal is more than two hours away. Good post-workout food choices include: Yogurt and fruit.

Should I wash my hair after working out? ›

Many beauty experts say that it's okay to skip your hair washing after a workout. Rinsing with water may be enough. In addition to saving time, skipping your post-workout hair washing every once in a while can actually be beneficial for your scalp health.

Time It Right: One study found that people who performed moderate or intensive exercise three hours before bed fell asleep faster than those who did not. But, the body needs about 90 minutes to return to a resting state after exercise. Avoid working out immediately before heading to bed.

According to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Edidiong Kaminska, MD, the recommended maximum shower time is about 5 to 10 minutes. This is enough time to cleanse and hydrate the skin without overdoing it.

Poor hygiene or infrequent showers can cause a buildup of dead skin cells, dirt, and sweat on your skin. This can trigger acne, and possibly exacerbate conditions like psoriasis, dermatitis, and eczema. Showering too little can also trigger an imbalance of good and bad bacteria on your skin.

“Humans tend to perspire at night,” Dr. Goldenberg said. “When you wake up in the morning, there's all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that's just kind of sitting there on your skin.” So take a quick shower in the morning, he said, “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you've been sleeping in all night.”

The scrotum hangs outside the body in order to keep the testicles at an optimal temperature to produce sperm and other hormones, around 95 to 98.6°F or 35 to 37°C. The idea is that cold showers lower the scrotal temperature, allowing the testicles to produce a maximum amount of sperm and testosterone.

Ice Baths Are Better than Cold Showers for Workout Recovery

A recent meta-analysis found that the most effective protocol is 11-15 degrees C (50-60 degrees F) for 11-15 minutes. Ice Baths will be more effective than a cold shower in this sense, partly due to your own confidence and conviction.

However, one study on cold exposure found that the body releases cortisol when exposed to the cold, while another found that increased levels of cortisol at night may lead to poor sleep. This could suggest that taking a cold shower before bed may be less beneficial for sleep.

While showering after working up a sweat makes sense, there is evidence that showering before a workout can act as a pre-warm up routine with many benefits. Warm showers can help raise your body temperature and loosen up stiff muscles by increasing your blood flow.

Sweating purges the skin of bacteria, dirt, oils, and impurities which helps to purify and rejuvenate your skin. However, sweating when your skin is dirty or letting the sweat dry on your skin can lead to harmful effects including premature aging, breakouts, and excessive dryness and irritation.

Is it OK to not wash hair after workout? ›

Many beauty experts say that it's okay to skip your hair washing after a workout. Rinsing with water may be enough. In addition to saving time, skipping your post-workout hair washing every once in a while can actually be beneficial for your scalp health.

All in all, your cool-down should take about 15-25 minutes — so, that's the expert-recommended to time you should wait to shower after exercising!

If you like to linger in the shower for longer than 15 minutes, you might want to rethink your hygiene routine. According to board-certified dermatologist Dr. Edidiong Kaminska, MD, the recommended maximum shower time is about 5 to 10 minutes. This is enough time to cleanse and hydrate the skin without overdoing it.

Don't wipe unless you're drenched. Sweat releases heat by evaporative cooling. As each gram of sweat transitions from liquid to gas phase, it absorbs 2,427 joules of energy from the body and dissipates the heat into the environment.

The sweat leaves your skin through tiny holes called pores. When the sweat hits the air, the air makes it evaporate (this means it turns from a liquid to a vapor). As the sweat evaporates off your skin, you cool down.

Sweat Aftercare

After a workout, wash off all sweat on your body as soon as possible. Clogged sweat glands can cause skin conditions like prickly heat. Heat and sweat provide a fertile breeding ground for bacteria to fester. If left unwiped, bacteria can settle into your pores and start a breakout.

Cold showers and exposure to cold temperatures have been shown to increase testosterone levels, which can indirectly impact sperm count. Higher levels of testosterone can stimulate sperm production and increase the motility of sperm, which can improve overall sperm count.

“Cold water immersion can actually inhibit muscle protein synthesis, so if muscle growth is a priority, one should save the cold stress for before the workout or at least four hours after a workout,” he says.

You don't have to shampoo every day.

According to Redway, if you're doing heavy cardio daily, you should wash your hair two to three times a week. “Rinsing your scalp in between shampoos will help clean it. And if you have curly or textured hair, co-wash [with conditioner but not shampoo] in between.

Water is effective at washing away dirt, dust, and other water-soluble debris from the hair and scalp without stripping the hair of this sebum. However, Mamelak notes that if there are other oils in the hair (from a haircare or styling product, for example), a good portion of these will be left behind as well.

Should I wash my clothes after every workout? ›

If you didn't get too sweaty, you may be tempted to wear your workout gear again before washing. But experts say you should wash workout clothes after every use if you want to prevent odors. Washing them immediately is the best way to get rid of the bacteria that make them smelly.