Post-exercise Cool-downs
Why Cooling Down is Essential after a Workout
Finishing a training session properly is the key when it comes to preventing aches and pains the following day. More importantly however, cool-downs prevent blood pooling.
How to Prevent Blood Pooling
Blood pooling can occur if an exerciser does not cool down sufficiently after working out. If the individual suddenly stops exercising the heart will continue pumping blood around the body at its exercising rate for some time. As the muscles will have stopped working they will not need such large amounts of blood being fed to them. As a result the extra blood will begin to build up or ‘pool’ in large muscle groups. The legs are most commonly affected due to the extra influence of gravity.
The problem with blood pooling in the body is that not enough is returned to the heart. This leads to a drop in blood pressure along with other symptoms including: dizziness, fainting and nausea. This can lead to further complications if the exerciser is unfit.
Preventing Muscle Soreness
Cool-downs are essential when it comes to minimising the risk of muscle soreness after a workout. Most muscle soreness is felt the day after a workout and is often felt more intensely if the individual has taken part in a new exercise or some activity they aren’t used to. Not everyone will experience muscle soreness after a workout but a proper cool-down will minimise the risk.
Components of a Cool-down
Cool-downs are very simple and should consist of two elements: lowering the pulse and a post-workout stretch. Lowering the pulse helps the body return to its pre-exercise state and prevents blood pooling. During a workout the pulse rate can be anything above 120 beats per minute depending on the fitness of the individual. The cool-down will aim to lower the heart rate to about 100 beats per minute which is sufficient to stop exercising safely.
A cool-down can be tagged onto the end of the main workout or it can be completely separate from the main workout. It is easy to separate the main workout from the cool-down in the gym as the exerciser can simply swap machines. For example, it the main workout was completed on the treadmill the gym user can then move onto a bike to complete his cool-down. If the user wanted to remain on the treadmill he could simply reduce the speed and intensity at the end of his main workout.
How to Cool-down
Similar to warming up, it is essential to lower the heart rate gradually. Depending on the level of fitness an individual should ensure his cool-down lasts anything between three and 10 minutes.
If the individual was running, the easiest way for him to cool down would be to reduce the running speed to a jog. He would then decrease the jogging speed until the jog became a brisk walk followed by a walk. At this point his breathing should have become more normal and his heart rate will have reduced. The individual should then come to a complete stop to perform the post-workout stretching.
Cooling down properly after exercise
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