When you just finish your work out, sports activities, or exercises, have you ever feel like taking bath, especially hot bath? It must be very good to relax our body with the sensation of a hot bath after all of the work-out that we have done.
But maybe some of us ever heard that taking a hot bath after exercise is not good for our body. Some myth even say that it may cause a heart attack! Wow, how dangerous it must be. However, is the myth true?
Regarding the myth that is running around us, some researcher chooses to identify about the effect of taking a hot bath after work out. Before start assuming anything based on the myth, you should know that taking the hot bath after work out is not harmful to our body. In fact, it gives us the health benefits of the hot bath after work out that we never know before.
Health Benefits of Hot Bath After Workout
Let us see the results of some research regarding the health benefits of taking a hot bath after workout:
1. Lowering Blood Sugar Levels
A journal called Temperature gives the fact of their research that taking a hot bath after exercise is not harmful to the body, it can even lower the body’s blood sugar levels.
This benefit is very good for people who suffered from diabetes. The research says that the high blood sugar level after we have our meal will reduce suddenly when we take the hot bath. Much reduce than doing the sports. Try also the benefits of eating dark chocolate for diabetics.
2. Burning Calories
What is not more amazing than burning calories easily? Steve Faulkner and his team of the Temperature journal based on their research say that taking a hot bath after work out for about an hour can burn calories as many as about 140 calories for every person. Amazingly it is as many as the calories that burned after walking for about 30 minutes.
3. Get Rid of Stiffness after Workout
Work out is very good for our body, but stiffness or aches after work out is annoying. A research by Europian Journal of Applied Physiology gets a result that taking a hot bath after work out can remove all the stiffness and aches that you feel after exercising. But to do that, you have to use a hot bath and cold bath alternately.
4. Accelerate Blood Circulation
Taking a hot bath after work out known that it can dilate the blood vessels or usually called as vasodilatation. Because of the dilation of the blood vessels, it can accelerate the blood circulation throughout the body. But remember, the recommended temperature is just about 40-46 degree Celsius.Â
5. Prevent Itchy on The Skin
There are many health benefits of hot bath after workout. Work out, exercise, and sports activities may give us a lot of sweats worse than our daily activities and for some people, it will make the body feel itchy. Taking a bath after exercising will prevent the growth of bacteria in our body skin that can cause itchy.
6. Get Your Ideal Body
If you want to have an ideal body, try to take a hot bath after your exercise. The heat of the water can help you to burn your calories.
7. Relaxation Effect
The heat of the hot bath that you take after exercise will give a soothing effect because it can stimulates your brain and smoothen your blood circulation and also try to use the health benefits of greek mountain tea.Â
8. Releasing Stress
Because of the soothing effect can relax your body, it will help you to feel light and can release your stress too. You may also read the health benefits of honey.
9. Reducing Muscles Soreness
The sore muscles after we have done exercises is really bother us. That is why taking a hot bath after doing exercise will help you relieve and reduce the soreness that may happen worse to your muscles. The hot temperature can improve the muscles flexibility so it will not give the worse joint pain.
10. Relieving Flu
The heat and warm temperature of hot bath will help you relieve your flu because it can steam your lungs and respiratory circulation. Try to take a hot bath if you are struggling with your flu. This way is very useful for those of you who suffered from throat sickness and also sinus. You can also try the health benefits of nasal rinse.
11. Keeping Your Beauty
Do you know why beauty house always provide some facilities such as spa and sauna? The answer is because the warm temperature can open your skin pores so all the dirts from air pollution and daily activities that cannot be cleaned by cool water bath can be cleaned right away. It can also release the toxin from your body just like the health benefits of coconut water.
12. Muscles Growth and Building
Taking a hot bath after your exercise can be very beneficial for people who wants to build their muscles. The warm temperature can burn your calories just like the spa and sauna do.
13. Good after Exercising in The Heat
It is very important for people who do sport activity like athletes to lie in a hot bath after running exercises. It will help your body get used to the heat when you run. But there are some things that you should pay attention such as the heat of the water should be about 40 degree Celsius and you should have cool down your body before taking the hot bath.
14. Overcoming Insomnia
Although some people need to be awake at night to do their work, some other people find it hard to sleep without any particular reason. For those of you who suffered from insomnia, you should try to take a hot bath after you do your exercises because it can stimulates your brain and relaxes your body all out.
15. Keeping Body Health
After all the relaxing, relieving stress, smoothen your blood circulation, and even lowering your blood sugar level, you will get a health body if you take a hot bath after exercise.Â
Cautions and Tips of Taking Hot Bath after Work Out
Even though taking a hot bath after work out is good for the body, there are still some things that you need to pay attention. You have to be aware of these things, so you will not get a negative effect of the activity. These cautions and tips are:
- Aromatherapy – Use any kind of aromatherapy to give you the best relaxation effect to relieve your stress and heavy thought.
- Recommended Temperature – Do not use too high temperature because it will give a negative effect to your body. Try for about 40-60 degree celcius.
- Proper Warm Up and Cooling Exercise – You will be very bothered if you find your muscles sore, to prevent that try to have a proper warm up and cool down your body when you exercise.
- Lower The Body’s Temperature – You should cool your body down first because if you just taking a hot bath directly after your exercise, it will make your heartbeat arise high suddenly which may dangerous and may cause heart attack.
- Resting The Body After Exercise – After your do exercise, you should get your body to rest so you will not get a sore muscle.
Thus, there are many health benefits of hot bath after workout that you can try on.