After the treadmill: cardio days and the recovery suite

Steady cardio and intervals both warm you up and make you sweat, and a long session on a treadmill or bike can leave you shorter of fluid than you realise. That is the state you would carry into a heat room. A lifting session or a Pilates class usually leaves you less hot and less wet, so the sensible order on a cardio day is not quite the same as after other training.

The machines are on RPM's cardio page, and the three rooms are described on the recovery suite page.

1. Keep moving gently for the last five minutes of the session, at an effort you could chat through.
2. Step off and drink water. On a hot day or after a long session, keep sipping while you change.
3. Change out of wet kit and wait until you have stopped dripping.
4. Check yourself: breathing back to normal, no dizziness, no headache, no nausea.
5. Only then decide whether a room fits today, and keep the visit short. Follow the posted guidance on time in each room.

If you are pressed for time, the suite is the part to drop. A rushed cool-down followed by a heat room is the wrong way round.

A 2012 Cochrane review included 17 small trials of cold-water immersion after exercise. It found some evidence that cold-water immersion reduced muscle soreness in the days afterwards compared with resting or doing nothing. The trials were of low quality and differed in how cold the water was, when it was used and which exercise came before it, and most did not actively look for side effects.

In an exploratory part of the analysis, trials built around running showed larger effects. That is a hint worth knowing, not a finding to plan around. The review did not study saunas or steam rooms, and it does not show that cold water makes you fitter. For how cold water fits around lifting, see heat and cold timing for lifters.

• Reasonable use: an occasional ice bath after an unusually long run or a race, if you like it and your doctor has no objection.
• Not supported: claims that heat or cold detoxes the body, burns fat or speeds up fitness gains.
• Your call: whether any soreness relief is worth the extra time on a busy day.

Heat on top of a cardio session asks a lot of the body. The NHS lists these among the signs of heat exhaustion:

• Tiredness or dizziness.
• A headache.
• Feeling sick, or being sick.
• Heavy sweating, with skin turning pale and clammy.
• Cramps in the arms, legs or stomach.
• Being very thirsty.

If any of them start, leave the room straight away, sit somewhere cool, drink water and tell a member of staff. The NHS advises getting emergency help if someone is no better after about half an hour of rest, cooling and fluids, or shows signs of heatstroke such as confusion, a fast heartbeat or hot skin that has stopped sweating.

This page is general information, not medical advice, and does not suggest that heat or cold suits you. Heat and cold carry real risks for some people, including those with heart or blood-pressure conditions and during pregnancy.

Take a radiographer who keeps running on the treadmill through the summer and has a 10K race planned for the cooler months. She enjoys the steam room and has asked her doctor, who had no objection but told her to drink well and leave if she felt light-headed.

• Monday: treadmill intervals. No suite, because her heart rate takes a while to settle and she would rather cool down properly.
• Wednesday: an easy 30-minute run and a full cool-down, then a short visit to the steam room.
• Thursday: strength work, no suite.
• Saturday: her long run. Afterwards she drinks, changes and sits in the cool changing area. She tries the ice bath once after a hard long run and decides it is not for her.
• Sunday: rest. Her tier allows suite-only visits, so this is the day for an unhurried one.

Her rule: the suite comes after the cardio is finished and she has cooled down, never in place of the cool-down.

RPM is one club on Level 4 of AD HUB Sports Complex in Al Manhal. The cardio photos show treadmills, cross-trainers and an upright bike, with spin bikes in the functional area, and the women-only Ladies section has its own cardio equipment. The recovery suite has a Finnish sauna, an aroma steam room and an ice bath.

• Ask which tier or pass includes the suite, and whether suite-only visits are possible on rest days.
• Ask how the suite works for your section, since men train in the Mixed section and the Ladies section is women-only.
• Ask whether the suite is booked or walk-in, and when it tends to be busy.
• Ask whether towels are provided and whether showers are available, so you know what to bring.

The club opens early and closes late, with shorter hours on Friday: