Feeling chills after a workout?

[Ground Dragon]

I was going to post this on the Underground but I can't get the login to work right now for some reason.

I crosstrain in bjj, and have recently taken up judo as well. Last night I went to bjj class for one hour, which was fairly exhausting but nothing too extreme, and then had judo for about an hour and a half after that. By the time my judo class was done though, I was thoroughly exhausted, my legs were drained and wobbly, but it felt like I had just had a great workout. I was pretty much soaked in sweat, but had drank plenty of water throughout the 2 1/2 hours.
After I had gotten home and eaten and started winding down for bed, I got really cold, like I was having chills. I also felt weak, well maybe it's just really exhaustion.
This has happened occasionaly after a particularly grueling bjj class. I am in pretty good shape, go to bjj 2-3 times/week, judo 1-2 times, and my shaolin class once a week, lift weights 3-4 times a week, go running 2-3 times a week and do bodyweight excercises 2-3 times a week. My nutrition isn't the best, but compared to most folks I'm ok in that area. I do drink some on the weekends, but not excessively and almost never drink during the week.
It's not a huge deal, I feel fine today, but it kind of puts a damper on the rest of my night. I needed to walk the dog, but couldn't go outside because I was so cold, and it's not that cold here right now, maybe 55-60 degrees at night. It's almost like I had flulike symptoms and just wanted to crawl in bed. I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong or that it isn't a sign of a bigger issue. The only reason I ask is I just don't feel like I should be experiencing that.
I've never experienced it before. Could it just be simple exhaustion, dehydration, poor nutrition,
overtraining? I really don't think it's overtraining because I took Sunday off and throughout the week I hardly ever feel like I'm just absolutely killing my body, except on those nights when my bjj class is a little extreme. And even then I will usually take the next night off.
Maybe it's just my body readjusting to normal temperature levels after being at a high level for a couple of hours.

Any help or insight is appreciated.

[Scarletmantis]

I've got a wierd "occasional" post workout symptom myself: after I get through with a particularly grueling training session (especially one that's aerobic, following a wieght training session), I can smell Ammonia. It's not comming from my environment as it happens sometimes no matter where I'm at. I can almost taste it it's so strong. My doctor says it's nothing (how the f@ck can it be nothing?!?), my Acupuncturist says it's "impurities leaving my vital essence" (what can I say, she IS an Acupuncturist). Someday I'll probably drop dead and they'll both figure out I had Diabetes or something! :rolleyes:

Ground Dragon, old Pathology notes are starting to filter through my consciousness. If you're feeling chills, it means that your core body temperature is out of since with your surface temperature. It's like a self enduced fever, and it's caused by dehydration. See, your body uses water to help regulate your temp. through perspiration/respiration.

My guess is that you're sweating profusly during your class sessions, but reluctant to break off your matches for a water break (I used to do the same thing). Now once you're done, your body dosen't have enough water to bring your core temp. back down, but your surface temp. starts to normalize. This makes the outside air feel colder than it is, since your core temp. is so much higher than usual. It's exactly the same thing that happens when you have a fever. Your core temp. is above 96.8, but you feel cold.

Taking a couple of breaks for water during your sessions should alliviate the problem. You might also want to "load up" on water a few hours before your practice.

Good Luck

P.S.-Oops, I just read your post again and saw that you "drank plenty of water". I don't know how much "plenty" is to you, but a great way to ensure you REALLY get enough is to wiegh yourself before you work out. For every pound of bodywieght you "lose", and you'll lose plenty with how hard you're working out, drink twelve ounces of water. That, coupled with a good half gallon or so two hours prior to your workout, should keep you adequatly hydrated.

[WarriorX]

I would be inclined to agree about the water loss affecting you bodies ability to thermoregulate efficently, you may find that your core temperature is going up during training as the sweat you are producing will be soaking into the gi you are wearing, it is the sweat evaporating from the body surface that cools you, not the act of sweating itself, any sweat absorbed into clothing or falling on the floor is just wasted water.

Current fluid uptake advice is to drink 300 - 500 ml fluid about 30 mins before training, then about 150ml every 10 - 15 mins, for a 2 .5 hr session that is between 2.5 - 3 litres of water, add that to the 2 litres a day that you should also be having, it is a fair amount of water to take on, try an isotonic carbohydrate drink if drinking plain water gets too much.

A simple check would be to weigh yourself before training, on accurate scales and minimum clothing, and after training, completley drying yourself first, any difference is almost entirely due to water loss, and weight lost should be replaced 1.5 times (1 kg of weight = 1.5 litres of water/fluids).

Neil

[Ground Dragon]

Thanks for the advice. I feel like I'm getting enough rest and enough to eat. The water thing is probably it. What is an isotonic carbohydrate drink?
I was thinking Gatorade would be good to drink to, I was trying to stick with water though since it's cheaper.

[WarriorX]

Gatorade is the type of thing I mean, you can also get powdered versions from health/sports shops that you make up yourself, you save some money on packaging that way. The types that have balanced electrolytes are the best, as you lose a lot of sodium and potassium while sweating, which can lead to muscle cramps etc. Using a balanced isotonic drink means you will take more of the water into the body as well, not just pass it straight through (which has the effect of stripping more electrolytes from the body).

hope this helps

Neil

[Kevin73]

If you are getting "chills" that is a sign that your body is getting very dehydrated. The best thing is a steady supply of water to not get that way in the first place, but something like Gatorade will help replenish things. Or if you like both try the gatorade water they have, it only has a little bit of flavor to it but has vitamins/minerals to it as well.

Amonia smell, I can't be sure from my biology/chemistry days but I think that some of the byproducts in your sweat will break down into that. Think of a cat's liter box when it smells like that, I think it is the urea in the sweat.