I'm curious to know if anyone has any noticible effects on energy levels after giving blood – and for how long?

I was out for a ride this Saturday after giving blood on Wednesday and although my endurance was (apparently) unaffected, I couldn't keep up on hills of any significance. It may just have been an off day, but it must take a while for blood levels to get up to optimum – otherwise we could donate every week.

I once went for a ride on the same day of donating a pint and was well down on power (it was an experiment to find out what would happen as no one could give me a definitive answer)- not advisable.

I used to regularly go riding on the Wednesday evening after giving blood with no noticeable effect, however, once I fell off unexpectedly and dislocated a finger – which probably had nothing to do with the donation, but subsequently I've given on a different day. A day later you should be back to normal 🙂

last time (first time ever), I gave blood I was out of action for about a day. Felt awful.

Your blood volume goes back up after a day, but apparently it takes up to a month to get your red blood cell levels (haemocrit?) back to normal.

Haveing had a really low blood count(5.2hg) on admittance to hospital a few years ago, even walking upstairs was a serious strain, then had 4 units of blood overnight, and felt like an olympic racer,loss of blood does have an effect, and according to the DR it takes a few weeks to re build itself.

Oh and THANKS for donateing blood it may save somebodies life.

I hate to say it by people are warned not to do anything strenuous after giving blood – Why are you riding after giving blood – seems a bit silly to me?

You need to take it easy for a few hours after giving blood, but if you do feel faint or dizzy, sit down immediately and put your head between your knees. Ideally, let someone else know if you're feeling a bit faint.

I've not been able to give for a year following trips to Malarial countries, but yeah I'd have to say I noticed a lacklustre feeling in the muscles up to 3-4 days after giving.

And yeah I tried circuits once after donating, it was bloody hard work. Foxyrider, if you are in a restaurant and someone tells you to watch a plate as it's hot what do you do? I and half the other people on here at least have to touch it to find out how hot – hence the post donation experiments 🙂

In fact I need to call the blood people, I'm sure I'm ripe for a bleeding again about now!

When I was at Uni we used to give blood then go straight to the bar. The theory was the less blood the higher the alcohol levels would get. It worked, but I wouldn't advise it.

And you have just reminded me of one of the advantages of giving up training – they used to knock me back for being under the minimum weight – no chance of that any more !

I hate to say it by people are warned not to do anything strenuous after giving blood – Why are you riding after giving blood – seems a bit silly to me?

simple – I like riding my bike – and the way I ride it's never very strenuous :o)

Only time I gave blood it knocked me out for about 2 days. I'm not sure if it was something else on top of it that came down with the lack of blood but I was shot. But I did fill the bag in about 2 minutes which is apparently ill advised.

I gave blood last wednesday, and rode home (15 miles) with no trouble.

Riding in the next day, however, was torturous… it just felt like it does when riding into a headwind the whole time.

I took friday off, and was fine by the weekend.

Dave

ps – I did ask the nurse if I shouldn't be riding, but she said it was fine.

My friend Katy turned up to fitness class two hours after giving blood. She feinted while running and would have hit her head on the deck if we hadn't grabbed her.

Chill for a couple of days to let you blood pressure return to normal levels.

Chill for a couple of days to let you blood pressure return to normal levels

Well this is my question – how long is a "couple of days" in most peoples experience?

Most of us know it is not advised to do any strenuous exercise after giving blood – but you have to know why – like toby1's hot plate analogy.

My real concern is that if I am doing a race/event/etc, does giving blood, 1 week, 2 weeks, ? weeks beforehand, have an effect on performance?

Donated plasma is replaced after 2-3 days.[55] Red blood cells are replaced by bone marrow into the circulatory system at a slower rate, on average 36 days in healthy adult males. In that study, the range was 20 to 59 days for recovery.[56] These replacement rates are the basis of how frequently a donor can give blood.

From wikipedia, but seems reasonable.

In terms of performance, it's your red blood cell count that is important because the RBCs deliver oxygen to the muscle cells that do the work. Hence the efficiency of EPO as a performance enhancing drug…

If I were racing there's no way I'd be giving blood, unless I was already top of the pack.

Bigdonx – about a month I think will be ok.

coffeking – when I say "racing" I mean that in the loosest possible terms! I mean the odd dabble with "endurance" events……not a racer, not near the podium, but don't want to be more last than I am already 😀

I find that injecting a pint or two leaves me feeling fantastic for about a week or so. Best to do two days before an event and you'll be ripping it up.

The blood pressure should return to normal very quickly after giving blood, water is taken from the tissues to replace the fluid lost. The blood is going to be more dilute though so it is harder to get oxygen to everything until blood cell numbers return to normal.

so it is harder to get oxygen to everything until blood cell numbers return to normal

so your absolute maximum output level is reduced, but as long as you stay below that there should be little effect

The blood pressure should return to normal very quickly after giving blood,

Yes and no. Your spleen contracts immediately (boosing your Packed cell Volume a little) and fluid is redistributed into your blood stream fairly quickly. However where does this water come from. Yes your tissues (intersitial fluid mainly) so you are still dehydrated and this will take some time to normalise even after drinking fluids – So thats why a couple of hours of rest is best – if you cycle hard after giving blood your tissues will become more dehyrated unless you are drinking a fair amount of fluid to restore your tissue fluid and counteract the fluid lost in perspiration & breathing and urine output 🙂

On another note if someone said falling off a roof is a bad idea coz it hurts – do you think why – I'll try and see if its true? 😉

Not given blood for over 18 months but before that every couple of months, whenever I got a calling card. Use to notice a drop-off in performance when doing circuits for about a week afterwards. What worked for me were some isotonic drink and energy bars, thinking about it should have taken the advice and taken it easy…

On another note if someone said falling off a roof is a bad idea coz it hurts – do you think why – I'll try and see if its true?

No, because they have told me why – coz it hurts! No one could tell me what happened if I exercised after giving blood.

Even the blood donning helper people said "oohh,I wouldn't do that", "why not? what happens?", "Don't know, I just wouldn't".

So I thought I'd find out for myself – I had a feeling I wouldn't die, otherwise blood donning would have been "no win, no fee'd" out of existance – so I thought it was safe enough to give it ago.

But anyway todays question is about the effects on performance a few days afer the good deed……. don't do the same day exercise thing…….. now that I've found out what happens if you do 😀

I found that giving blood would still have a noticeable effect a week later. I'd feel pretty pooped on the day, but eating lots (and right i.e. get your greens down you in the days before and after) helped.

But even a week later, I'd still be missing a bit at the extreme end of my effort range. Nowadays, I don't give blood in the run-up to a race I care about. Fortunately, it's easy to find a session in London and catch up afterwards.

Perhaps contacting your doctor would have been better – I expect he/she would have told you ins and outs of the repercussions 🙂

BTW I also do the "good deed" but I haven't exercised after giving blood that day. I didn't know exactly know how it would feel / affect me but I knew the theory and common sense told me the advice was there for a reason. I wouldn't expect a blood doning nurse to know exactly why, but they are advised in their training to suggest you avoid it 🙂

[off soapbox] 😉

Mates of mine used to give blood then go and have a few quick pints with hilarious effects after just a few.

They were students and saw it as an excellent way of saving their grant money b8ut still enjoying student life to the full.

Ok, thanks for the replies folks, I guess the answer to my question is "yes, there may be a noticible drop in performance for several days", and now I understand that there is a difference between the lost fluid replacement – fairly rapid, and the RBC replacement – much slower through a different process, I can see that donating blood within a few weeks of an event is probably best avoided (from a performance, not health perspective)

I can also say that I came to no harm through exercising on the same day as giving blood – I only did it once, and stopped when I realised I had significantly reduced energy levels – and I was not alone at any point! However I am now qualified to recommend not attempting such a foolish activity.

I would also like to point out that lots of people told me not to get a rigid ss 29er but, similar to the exercise thing, no one could tell me why……so I did it anyway and found it to be quite a good thing………

No children or animals were harmed during any of these experiments!

Cheers,
bigdonx