Donating blood before a ride - fatigue?

[consumer]

Hey dudes

Can you share your experiences with how tired you all felt before a standard blood donation ? Please include timing of blood draw to riding or exercise if you felt good enough to try!

Thank you all

[TheJoe]

I am sure I have done it but do not remember. I usually feel fine after donating. I know they say no heavy lifting for the rest of the day but that might be just a little over cautious. I would be concerned of bacterial infections if you go too soon after donating and if it is the time of year to worry about that. Where I live when the water gets hot we have to worry about staph infections so right now I would not do it personally.

[LePhasme]

Depends what kind of kiting you're doing after I would say, if you're just freeriding in 20kn I think you would be alright, if you'll be boosting in 40kn or in heavy surf where you might need to swim in difficult conditions I would not.
I know that doing rock climbing after a blood donation I can feel the difference and there has been a couple of time I started to feel bad (like a low sugar level type of feeling) and weak, so I wouldn't do a strenuous activity that might lead to injury or worse if I'm not 100% after a donation.

[knotwindy]

Yes, it’s much more likely to effect your endurance than strength so it would be fairly easy to get into situation you might have trouble getting out of without realizing it. Of course this depends upon the health you start at and your overall nutritional levels.

[Dave_5280]

I gave blood once on a Friday afternoon and the next morning while putting the ski rack on the car the muscles in my back spasmed so bad I dropped the rack. It felt like an electric shock. It was over quickly but my back felt sore. I stopped donating after that. Also my track club’s coach strongly advised against donating.

[nothing2seehere]

My experience is that it varies from person to person. My wife is barely affected by it and will happily go to the gym afterwards but I find I get pretty wiped out by it for a couple of days. I get the worst reaction of everyone I know though so in all likelihood your reaction is going to be milder.

[tkachuk]

A small study of 12 people:

Time course for recovery of peak aerobic power after blood donation
Tyler B Judd 1, Stephen M Cornish, Trevor S Barss, Irina Oroz, Philip D Chilibeck

Abstract
Peak aerobic power (VO2peak) is decreased after blood donation, but the time course for full recovery is unknown. We measured VO2peak and exercise time to fatigue before and weekly for 4 weeks after 450-ml blood donation at a blood donor clinic, to determine the time course of recovery. Twelve moderately active individuals (2 women, 10 men; 24.3 ± 5.2 years) of average aerobic fitness .......

We conclude that blood donation causes a significant decrease in VO2peak for between 2 and 3 weeks. The practical application of this study is that aerobic power in people of average fitness will be decreased, up to 3 weeks after donating blood. Despite this, there is no effect of blood donation on performance as measured by time to fatigue during an incremental test on a cycle ergometer.

[consumer]

Wow! Thank you for finding a paper. That is incredible the effect is detectable for up to 3 weeks. I guess that makes sense given that’s about the right cycle time for red blood cells.

[jakemoore]

There are two issues:

Loss of blood volume early after the donation. This will normalize when you consume salt (hours) and your body synthesizes more albumin and other normal blood proteins. (days to weeks). Even fit people who have never had problems with blood donation occasionally experience orthostatic hypotension and faint.

Loss of aerobic capacity and fatigue due to relative anemia. This will normalize as your body makes new blood cells (weeks)

I would definitely not go on the water for 48 hours. On the day after donation I would consider challenging myself with some light to moderate aerobic exercise on land to gauge capacity.

[Blackened]

I'm a regular plasma donator. There is serious exercise fatigue for about 6hrs and mild fatigue for about 24hrs. I haven't done strength work afterwards as my arm doesn't function super well, but kiting or mid-low intensity exercise doesn't give me a lot of problems. Generally, as long as I have some simple carbs and plenty of water I'm good to go.

Plasma is a bit easier though as they give you most of the good stuff (like oxygenators) back .