effect of donating blood on lifting

i lift MWF on the standard starting strength routine. probably giving on Friday after my workout?

anyways, i have never done this before and want to know what to expect. recovery time, when can i lift again, will it reduce my lifting load, pain, AIDS!? let me know about your experiences!
thanks

i gave blood for the first time in a dozen years about a month and a half ago. make sure you're hydrated, take it easy immediately afterwards, but you should be able to lift again by Monday. and don't give blood on a full stomach.

i actually felt faint about 9/10 of the way through, probably b/c i wasn't sufficiently hydrated & ate only an hour before donating. if things feel wrong, tell 'em, and they'll get your feet above your head. i felt fine again, then stood up, grabbed a sprite & crackers, and sat down -- and a few minutes later felt really, really faint. never felt like that before, not even squatting (companion said my lips turned white). they laid me back down and i was fine in a few minutes, and left w/o further complications after about 10 minutes sitting up straight.

soooo consider skipping your friday workout, or putting the donation way after, certainly after you've digested any PWO nutrition. you can ask them how long to wait before lifting again but they'll give you an unnecessarily conservative estimate, IMO.

the donating is good for you though, to get some iron out of your system. the ladies do so once a month there's less pain than getting a shot (I got three shots recently since donating blood, so the comparison is fresh in my memory) and there's zero risk of contracting HIV.

insightful!
and WTF throttle to this weird faintness thing you got. if you ate an hour beforehand and got in a little trouble, are w supposed to eat right before?
nevertheless, what's wrong with iron in the system? i drink tap water and i've realized it is LOADED with iron (college plumbing sucks, iron oxide from rust FTL).

i'd appreciate anyone else's experiences as well.

nonono don't eat solid food for a few hours beforehand. i overdid it in both directions -- i didn't eat enough the rest of the day then tried to make up for it right beforehand. not sure if either was what put me over the edge but no reason to test it.

You should not be doing any heavy lifting after your donation for at least 24 hours. Sometimes, I just wait 48 hours to start lifting or whatever. Whole blood donations are quick, easy and not painful at all to me. Platelets take forever and are a b!tch.

Not only should you hydrate beforehand, but also afterwards for the rest of the day as well. They say to not have caffeine before giving and 24 hours after giving because it dehydrates you.

Do what they tell you to do before you give blood, and then give it, and wait 2hrs if you want. I knew people who gave blood and the next hour were in the gym when they used to do that stuff on campus. Not everyone responds the same.

Then after a day you are all good to go.

bmxcetera said:

They say to not have caffeine before giving and 24 hours after giving because it dehydrates you.

Click to expand...

It's not really a diuretic usually because it's such a big part of our diets today and our bodies are adjusted to it.

People who drink soda and coffee all day - do you really think they are dehydrated?


--

I gave blood and did cardio a few hours later. Was fine giving and fine later. I don't get people with weak constitutions. But i have B+ blood and those are supposed to be hardy people

I've actually seen it affect the much older people trying to donate and who were consequently turned away because it dehydrated them. Younger ppl, u r correct, hydration never has been an issue for me when giving and one time I drank a full throttle beforehand

I too am B+

Give it a good 3 days afterwards for you to recover back to it.
I needed about 6 days to recover, I dunno why.