EOIN EVERARD
You’ve just completed a demanding workout, you look hot and sweating, you’re really tired and want nothing more to just go home!
I wouldn’t recommend it. It is important to cool down. Do some gentle jogging after your session and perhaps a little bit of stretching. Cooling off has a lot of advantages. It specifically aids in lowering your heart rate gradually, lowering your risk of injury, increasing flexibility, lowering your risk of developing DOMS, relieving stress, and preventing blood pooling.
Here are some benefits of Cooling down.
1. Enhances Flexibility
Your muscles are still heated after a workout. You want to be able to communicate to your muscles, “Okay, you can slow down now,” in a manner similar to progressively lowering your pulse rate. During your cool-down, stretch and perform mobility drills to help promote flexibility and mobility for the days after your workout. This will further aid in easing tension and soreness.
Adding some stretches especially if you have areas that get tight is a great way to constantly address issues before they arise. If say you always stretch your hip flexor after your running sessions it allows you to increase the flexibility of these muscles before they tighten up.
2. Reduces Your Heart Rate Gradually
Although it differs from person to person, an adult’s normal resting heart rate lies between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Your heart could be pounding as you exercise. In fact, it’s possible that this is your training’s sole objective.
If your heart rate increases while you are exercising, you should assist it gradually decrease when you are finished. Otherwise, if you quit working out abruptly, you risk feeling faint or dizzy. Your body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate won’t decrease too quickly if you cool off.
Heart rate reduction doesn’t have to be difficult. This can entail walking or just jogging easy after your workout for 5 minutes. A quick tip might be that if you exercise with a group. Cycle to and from the training session. This can be the warm up and cool down done.
3. Reduces the Chance of Injury
You may already be aware that warming up helps your muscles get ready for exercise. This aids in injury prevention and safe training. Cooling off is equally crucial! If you don’t calm down, it will be like braking suddenly when doing 100 mph while driving. The pain and stiffness may worsen in the days that follow as a result.
If you spend the majority of your day sitting down, which many of our occupations require of us, you should pay particular attention to this. Excessive sitting often results in bad posture, which can make your hip flexors and pecs in particular weak and immobile. The outcome? further injury, pain, stiffness, and soreness. This is yet another justification for how crucial cool-downs are, especially for those of us who lead more sedentary lifestyles.
4. Lowers the Risk of Developing DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness )
When you put your muscles under stress in a waythey are not accustomed to, you may get DOMS. Keep in mind that as you strength train, your muscles experience microtears. These tears are bigger after they have healed than they were initially. This is also how your muscles develop.
Therefore, don’t let a minor ache get you down.
But just because something is typical doesn’t make it any less annoying. After a really strenuous sweat session, you could experience some soreness that can be lessened by cooling off. One particular study indicated that an aerobic cool-down helps lessen DOMS by enhancing circulation and aiding in the removal of toxic waste products that would otherwise accumulate in your muscles. This finding was made in the Journal of Human Kinetics. Therefore, doing some modest cardio or even just walking will help to maintain your metabolism and blood flow high, which can aid to lessen the effects of DOMs. Another advantage of cooling down after exercise is this.
5. Promotes Stress Reduction
You may already be aware that doing out causes your body to create a variety of feel-good chemicals and hormones, including endorphins. This continues while you decompress. More dopamine and serotonin will be released by your brain in particular. You experience dopamine’s sensation of reward, and serotonin’s mood-lifting effects. The outcome? Some of the stress you’re presently experiencing will eventually fade. This is why exercising regularly is so beneficial to your mental health.
Be alert and fully present while you calm down. Take it as seriously as you do your main workout and engage in it consciously. You’ll discover that it makes you feel fantastic even on a mental level.
6. Inhibits Blood Pooling
Extra blood is sent to your muscles during exercise to aid with muscle contraction. This is a typical step in the procedure. However, this blood can “pool” up—that is, accumulate—if you don’t calm down subsequently.
After your workout, performing a cool-down ensures that your blood continues to pump in a healthy way. This implies that nutrients and oxygen will circulate throughout your body as they should. In turn, this promotes healing! What does this entail for you, then? You should be fine if you exercise and then go around for even a little while.
What does it all mean, then?
The key reason to cool down after doing a running session is that it helps you transition both physically and mentally. Allowing that little time to tell your body the session is over can help relax the bodies nervous system and also speed up the removal of waste products. This allows you to be in a better place to exercise the next time.
