The Benefits & Importance of a Cool Down
The warm-up and the cool down, they’re often an afterthought. Especially when you’re crunched for time. BUT we cannot be skipping them! They are equally important as the workout itself, & here’s why..
The Cool Down
The cool down (CD) is what you do after your workout, to bring your heart rate back down and to help your body recover from the workout you just did. Now, it may seem like okay, I get that I can’t just skip the WU, but why can’t I skip the CD? Well, one of the big reasons why you can't just skip the cool down is because you need to bring your heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure back down to their pre-exercise levels. By skipping out on the CD, you inhibit your body from properly returning to its pre-workout state, which runs the risk of injury, feeling dizzy and/or potentially fainting (by blood pooling in your legs), and/or decreases your flexibility. Other reasons why you should cool down include:
letting your heart rate return to normal, at a safe rate
slows down breathing
improves your relaxation post workout
How to Cool Down
Ideally, a CD should last anywhere between 5 & 10 minutes, with 10 minutes being the goal, but again, that isn’t always realistic. Your CD should, at a minimum, include gentle stretching exercises, such as static stretches and/or foam rolling, to help slow down your breathing and heart rate, as well as increase your flexibility.
Say you were just out for a run, your cool down could look like you gradually slowing your pace until you come to a walk. After your walk, you stretch out your leg muscles with static (non-moving) stretches (such as a standing quad stretch).
Or maybe you just did a total body strength training routine, you’d want to CD by foam rolling the areas you just worked followed by some deep, relaxing breathing and some static stretches of the muscles you just worked.
Example Cool Down:
While there is no “right” way to warm-up or cool down, make sure that your CDs allow you to gradually decrease your heart, and breathing, rates, so that they can return to pre-exercising conditions, and to perform some type of static stretches for the muscles you just worked, to help them improve their flexibility, and therefore, their ability to help you achieve the results you are looking for!
Chat soon!
Veronica
PS - Read more about the benefits of a warm-up HERE
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash