Can We Bath Immediately After Yoga?

Bathing can be a form of relaxation, but is it recommended to do it immediately after you do yoga? Many experienced yogis recommend against it, as yoga builds up vibrations in the body, as well as oils that are good for you, and bathing would wash it off immediately.

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Now that comes from a spiritual perspective since traditionally, taking a bath is something you do before a yoga practice. It’s better to take a cold bath or shower before yoga since yoga seems to heat up the body. And doing it immediately after is believed to drain away energy that is essential. 

Ideally, the good state yoga puts you in, is not something you want to get rid of. And by bathing immediately after, you don’t give the effects of yoga a chance to have a positive effect on your body.

How Much Should You Wait With Bathing After Yoga?

It’s recommended to wait at least 2 to 3 hours while taking a bath, just to stay on the safe side. It’s also worth mentioning that if you’re not a spiritual person and don’t look at yoga from a spiritual lens, you may experiment with bathing right after yoga. 

However, if you want to give yoga a chance to work for you, it’s not recommended that you take a bath right after.

Now, you might find it works for you because you may only use yoga as another means of exercise, but it’s always a good idea to be open to the experience and do it as it’s recommended to get the best results. 

Bathing Before vs. After Yoga

When it comes to taking baths before yoga, the advice it’s very mixed so ideally, you can experiment and find what works for you. 

It’s recommended and tradition to take a bath before yoga, specifically a cold one, as taking a hot one could give you some stiffness before the practice, and make the yoga exercises harder. And by cold, I don’t mean cold as ice, but regular temperature. 

But ultimately, you want to determine what makes your body feel best and whether you are feeling the effects of yoga in you as a guide on what you should and shouldn’t do. 

These are more general guidelines but not a science. But if you want to ensure you follow best practices, make sure you take a cold bath before the session.

Others recommend having a time gap when it comes to bathing before yoga, since depending on the yoga pose you choose to make, it can bring more or less heat to the body, so to not disrupt that flow and let the yoga run its course, it’s recommended to have a similar time gap before bathing before or after the yoga. 

The energy you build up during yoga is essential for the effects of yoga to work for you, so be mindful of how you choose to combine bathing with yoga. 

You may, however, find benefits even if you choose to bathe immediately or after yoga. Taking a bath after yoga can be a way to relax your body from the poses. 

I personally wouldn’t recommend it, since I’d always follow the best practices to ensure results. Now, if you were to take this bath immediately after the yoga, I’d recommend you abstain from taking a hot one considering that yoga heats your body up. 

One advantage of cold showers or baths is that they could store the energy of the yoga practices without draining it off, as a hot bath would. 

And from a spiritual perspective, bathing before it’s a way to cleanse before a spiritual practice to welcome the effects of yoga on a clean space, rather than the energy of yoga mixing off with other energies, considering that taking a bath is a way to cleanse the body from energies. 

What Should You Do Instead After Yoga?

If we look at it from the perspective that taking a bath after a yoga session isn’t the way to go, one thing you can do to cool down is simply take a walk or proceeding about your day as usual. 

I recommend giving yourself some time to cool down and relax right after the yoga practice to reap the rewards of what the practice has to offer, taking a walk has done wonders for me in that. 

Yoga can be exhausting or even difficult for some at first, especially if you aren’t used to being flexible, but it goes a long way in keeping our youth, arguably better than exercise. 

But the cost of that is it can feel energy consuming, but in reality, we’re building energy where our body and organs feel the best, and the mind and body are brought together. 

Over time, it goes from feeling exhausting to energy-replenishing, once you get good at yoga, you might not need to do something in particular to supplement the yoga practice, as the better you get, the more self-sufficient the practice feels. 

When Should You Do Yoga?

It’s recommended that you do yoga on an empty stomach, but the same can be said about exercise. Yoga in itself requires energy and you don’t want to have that energy distributed in both working on your metabolism and the yoga practice itself, so yoga and exercise follow the same guidelines.

It’s optimal to do it in the mornings as it’s a great way to fuel your body with energy throughout the day and keep it throughout the day. 

When it comes to doing it at night, you might want to be wary about that as well. If you were to do it before bed, you might find that you have difficulties falling asleep because of your high alertness from all the energy you got from the yoga practice. 

Not getting enough quality sleep would defeat the purpose of yoga, so make sure your sleep and diet are also taken care of when you begin your yoga practice. 

In general, according to the recommended guidelines, try not to combine yoga with something that requires a ton of your energy if you want to see optimal results.