You Should Never Get In A Hot Tub After This

Give the hot tub a miss after an intense workout

TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock

It’s not a great idea to get into a hot tub after an intense workout. Yup, as much as it might seem ideal after a session of exercise, it’s something to avoid. According to injury-prevention expert and athletic trainer Liz Letchford, who spoke to PopSugar, “Being in a warm environment or otherwise applying heat to your body after exercise can decrease your body’s ability to attain parasympathetic activation in order to recover effectively … Your body gets stronger during recovery, not during the workout, so it is very important to optimize your recovery time.”

However, she explains that there is an exception. If you’re training for a race that’s in the middle of summer, a soak in hot water can be helpful in terms of getting your body used to the heat. Not only that, but a cold soak in the bath isn’t necessarily going to be much better — research on the effects of cold water after exercise has produced a range of different findings, but it’s thought that it might reduce the effects of the exercise (via PopSugar).

You Should Never Get In A Hot Tub After This

DGLimages/Shutterstock

By Adam England/Aug. 26, 2021 12:01 pm EST

Give the hot tub a miss after an intense workout

TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock

It’s not a great idea to get into a hot tub after an intense workout. Yup, as much as it might seem ideal after a session of exercise, it’s something to avoid. According to injury-prevention expert and athletic trainer Liz Letchford, who spoke to PopSugar, “Being in a warm environment or otherwise applying heat to your body after exercise can decrease your body’s ability to attain parasympathetic activation in order to recover effectively … Your body gets stronger during recovery, not during the workout, so it is very important to optimize your recovery time.”

However, she explains that there is an exception. If you’re training for a race that’s in the middle of summer, a soak in hot water can be helpful in terms of getting your body used to the heat. Not only that, but a cold soak in the bath isn’t necessarily going to be much better — research on the effects of cold water after exercise has produced a range of different findings, but it’s thought that it might reduce the effects of the exercise (via PopSugar).

However, she explains that there is an exception. If you’re training for a race that’s in the middle of summer, a soak in hot water can be helpful in terms of getting your body used to the heat. Not only that, but a cold soak in the bath isn’t necessarily going to be much better — research on the effects of cold water after exercise has produced a range of different findings, but it’s thought that it might reduce the effects of the exercise (via PopSugar).