After workout

Question
My son is a competitive swimmer (15yr) - trains 6 days a week, after his swim practices he is very hot, which I fully understand as he just had a hard practice for 2 hours.  But he is still hot even 3 hours after his practice.  Is this normal?

Answer
Mary,
I am not a medical doctor.  I will not be giving you advice based on learned medical knowledge.  However, two things do come to mind.

Typically this would be a result of dehydration and lack of warm-down.  When swimmers just get out of the water without warming down, their body is still at a state of exertion.  They are huffing and puffing and trying to get oxygen to their muscles for recovery.  What happens instead is a build up of lactic acid.  This doesn't allow the body to cool off properly.

This is actually made worse when you don't drink enough water.  This is the stuff that gets the muscles to actually be able to cool off.

These two things combined can create a state of constant fatigue.  When someone gets fatigued after working out, it's tough for their body to cool off at times.

Encourage your son to do a good warm-up and warm-down before/after practice.  The coach is probably giving them one to do, but they are most likely skipping it and getting out.  Trust me, we all did that.  It's just something he needs to force himself to do.  He needs to bring his heart rate back down to normal before he gets out.  He should not be hot when he gets out of the water.

Also, give him a water bottle to drink during practice.  Ensure he drinks it ALL!!!!!!

This should help out.  If you don't see a change, talk to your doctor.
Best of luck.
Eric