A hot bath after exercise is actually the worse thing you can do. take a leaf out of Paula Radcliffe's book and have an ice cold bath. i learned this the hard way. my sister took me to her Gym and told her [Miss Olympia] instructor that i went to a gym. i corrected my sister and told Miss Olympia that i was a "member" of a gym, but as i cycled Miss Olympia decided i was pretty fit anyway and told me to do my sister's programme (not that bad an idea really, it's not like my sister is super fit, pretty much a novice when it comes to weights). Only thing is, you know like how normal gym's give you 3 sets of everything to do... well this was a proper man's body building gym and Miss Olympia gave us 5 sets of everything to do!!! And then i came straight home and got in a hot bath!!!
O MY GOD!!! next day i was stiff as a board... but the day after I COULDN'T WALK AT ALL. I'm not joking... i looked like i had poo'd my pants. i could hardly step into the bath let alone sit in it that morning (unfortunately i don't have a shower) and went to work and had to go to a director's meeting and when i walked in they all burst out laughing and one said "have you been at it all night??" It took about 4 or 5 days before i could walk properly again.
apparently when you exercise and you feel like you do, its coz your muscles have bled and getting in a hot bath has the same effect as putting heat on a swollen ankle instead of a cold compress. The thing to do is cool down your muscles, hence why Paula has ice cold baths when she comes in from running.
pretty obvious when you think about it. i'm such a Doh!