Cooling down after a workout is as important as the workout itself. In this article, you will learn how to properly cool down after a workout, what it is for and what happens when a person does not cool down at all after a hard workout.
What is a hitch for?
A cool down is needed so that your muscles and the body as a whole recover faster after the workout.
It is quite obvious that the faster and better your body recovers, the more efficiently and effectively you will be able to perform the next workout. And also to prevent overwork of the body.
On the graph below, you can clearly see that the level of lactate (lactic acid) in the muscles goes away 3 times faster with active recovery than with passive recovery. On the graph L is the level of lactate in the muscles. Hence the need for a slow run after exercise - to reduce the level of lactate in the muscles as quickly as possible.
It is also recommended to do muscle stretching exercises after a hard workout. This is necessary in order to quickly relieve tension from them.
How to cool down
Cooling down in almost all sports has the same pattern. After training, it is necessary to perform some kind of cyclic type of load at low intensity for 5-10 minutes. For example, running slowly or bicycling without stress. This is followed by a series of static stretching exercises.
Stretching exercises are no different from those performed as a warm-up. What kind of exercises should be performed in warm-up and cool-down, see the video tutorial: Warm up before running workout.
However, the very essence of execution is different. Namely, during the warm-up, it is best to perform exactly the dynamic stretching, that is, with repeated movements to stretch and loosen each muscle.
During a hitch, it is necessary, on the contrary, to focus on static stretching - that is, when performing exercises, fix yourself in a position in which the muscle stretches. And stay in this position for 5-10 seconds. Then loosen and repeat 1-2 more times. And so on every muscle that was involved during training.
More articles that may interest you:
1. Started running, what you need to know
2. Can I run every day
3. What is interval running
4. How to run properly in the morning
What happens if you don't cool down
The biggest risk of not doing a cool down is injury. If the muscles are not relaxed after a workout, then during the next workout, the overstrained muscles have a great chance of getting stretched or other injury. So, overstrained calves can cause inflammation of the periosteum.
Cooling down speeds up the recovery process, so if you train at least 4 times a week, it’s more difficult for your body to recover from the next workout without a hitch. And for the next lesson, the muscles and internal organs cannot come up in full combat readiness. Sooner or later, this will result in overwork.
Conclusion
The cool down, which is a slow run and static stretching exercises, should be done after any intense workout to accelerate recovery and prevent injury. If your workout was a slow run, which in itself is a hitch, there is no point in doing 5-10 minutes of slow running after such a cross. But doing a few muscle stretching exercises will not hurt.
