Cold Flashes after running??


I have been jogging for about a month in order to realize my lifelong goal of becoming a runner. With each round of exercise I have noticed an interesting physical side effect: I get cold.   shivering_science

After every run, the minute I start to relax and stop sweating, I get the shivers! It doesn’t happen right away, usually within a half hour after my workout is over. My skin gets cold and I hide under the covers with a cup of tea, or take a real hot shower.  So what’s up with that?

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This images were found on Teach PE.com which also discusses blood flow due to exercise

After doing a random google search, key word: “cold after exercise” I came upon this forum from http://www.3fatchicks.com and they discussed that it may be because of generating a sweat and having it evaporate on your skin, cools you off.

I don’t believe it, because it should go away after the sweat is gone. It doesn’t.

A poster in another forum at Social Anxiety Support.com discusses a condition where the body is trying to clean itself up of toxins from old pooled blood, the key words being “points of stagnation”, which causes the body to react as if going through a severe cold, shivers, runny nose etc. What? I need to go deeper.

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Another post from a karate/balance your ‘chi’ website mentions that exercising increases blood flow throughout the body. This causes new blood to push old stagnated blood through the vessels, carrying away toxins that have built up along with it. The body, apparently, regulates blood flow to organs according to priority of use. From reading another post at TeachPE.com, I am thinking that if you are inactive, like I have been, your muscles don’t need as much blood and then when you start exercising, blood flow to your previously unused muscles increase.

Okay, so why do I still get so cold? Is it a combination of sweat evaporating, and toxin purging that messes with my temperature regulation?  I dunno.

Experts in blood circulation or exercise or runners with experience in this strange  phenomenon comment and let a sista know!  I don’t want to have to consult my old biology (and maybe) immunology text books. That’s doing too much.

Gracias!

Check out Happy Lists blog for ways to improve circulation!


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