The cool-down is the last few minutes of your workout where you switch from stimulating exercise to calming, gentle movement. You slow your breathing and your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal. A lot of people do a cool-down rather unintentionally because our bodies really like the cool-down process. It’s just plain uncomfortable to go from an all-out run or heavy lifting to chilling on the couch. You probably walk around and stretch a little bit while you catch your breath, right? So, what exactly is the purpose of a cool down and what should you do?
What’s happening in your body?
A lot of awesome things are happening in your body as you finish your workout and begin a cool-down.
- Your body has already started recovering from your workout by restocking its energy and oxygen stores.
- Your heart is rapidly pumping the leftover lactate out of your muscles so it can be converted it into energy and building blocks for repairing your muscles. Nothing goes to waste in your body if it doesn’t have to!
- Stress hormones like epinephrine and norepinephrine are removed from your system while hormones for recovery are released.
- Muscle repair and rebuilding are getting underway so you will become stronger and have better endurance.
- Your whole body is recovering and at the same time it’s learning to be more efficient so the next time you do that workout, it’s going to feel a little (or maybe a lot) easier.
3 Ways a Cool Down Helps
1. Optimal recovery
While all these awesome processes are happening, your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and breathing rate remain elevated. This helps your body quickly remove the lactate and stress hormones while providing plenty of oxygen to power the chemical reactions that replenish energy and oxygen stores. While the presence of lactate can cause that slight burning sensation during exercise, it doesn’t actually contribute to muscle soreness after the workout. Micro-trauma to the muscle fibers and the resulting inflammatory response are believed to cause post-workout muscle soreness. The gentle movement of muscles during the cool down decrease soreness by allowing your blood to flow through the muscles. This brings healing nutrients to repair the tissue and removes the pain-causing inflammation and waste products.
2. Avoid Passing Out
The lower intensity movement gives your body a chance to bring your heart rate and blood pressure back to normal. Your heart can’t go from pumping at 180 bpm (beats per minute) to your normal 60-80 bpm in the time it takes for you to set down your weights or hop off the treadmill. Well, it could, but it would require a fainting episode where your blood pressure would bottom out while your body attempted a system reset. This is obviously not a safe or healthy option, so instead, take a few minutes to allow your muscles and heart to redistribute your blood back to your vital organs.
3. Calm Your Primitive Brain
The primitive brain looks at stress and exercise differently than your logical brain. Your primitive brain looks at your workout as a practice session for the day when you need to run away from a tiger. While you worked out, your fight or flight response, or your sympathetic nervous system, was active. When you finish your workout and focus on slowing your breathing, you calm your fight or flight response and allow your rest and digest response, or your parasympathetic nervous system, to take over. Essentially, you’re giving your primitive brain some gentle signals that you’re safe and it’s ok to get back to taking care of the rest of your body. Like I discussed in this article, you need to have a counterbalance to the stresses of life and exercise in order for your body and mind to thrive.
The cool down is the yin to the workout yang and gives you a jump start on bringing calm back to your life.
What Do You Do During a Cool Down?
Luckily you don’t need to spend the same amount of time cooling down as you did working out because your body is awesome. Your body wants to recover as quickly as it can. It might take longer for your heart rate and breathing to return to normal if you are out of shape. The good news is your body is really good at adapting, so keep up the hard work and your workouts get easier and you’ll recover faster!
Your cool down doesn’t need to be complex. Move gently while focusing on taking slower, deeper breaths. If you had an intense workout, you might start by walking as you catch your breath. Then you can do some static stretching while focusing on your breathing like in my 5 minute full body stretch sequence. You can also do some foam rolling or gentle yoga if that’s more your thing. Any of these options will help your muscles relax and recover which will help decrease your soreness and maximize recovery.
A Simple Cool down
- 5 to 10 minutes: walk while you catch your breath
- Followed by 5 to 10 minutes of one of these:
- Gentle stretching – try my 5 Minute Full Body Stretch
- Foam rolling
- Gentle yoga
Make sure to treat your body to a healthy snack and some water to provide the nutrients it needs to recover and keep you feeling amazing.
What’s your favorite way to cool down after a workout?
References
Powers, S.K., & Howley, E.T. (2015). Recovery from exercise: Metabolic responses. In Powers, S.K., & Howley, E.T. (9th ed),Exercise physiology: Theory and application to fitness and performance (pp. 69-72).New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Powers, S.K., & Howley, E.T. (2015). Muscle soreness. In Powers, S.K., & Howley, E.T. (9th ed),Exercise physiology: Theory and application to fitness and performance(pp. 490-491).New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Clark, M.A., Lucett, S.C., & Corn, R.J. (2008). Cool down. In Clark, M.A., Lucett, S.C., & Corn, R.J. (3rd ed),NASM Essentials of personal fitness training (pp. 176-177).Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.