Have you ever had your coach or fitness instructor tell you that you need to do your cool down to flush out the lactic acid and help prevent muscle soreness? Taking a couple of minutes at the end of a workout may have some value, but it is not going to prevent muscle soreness. We addressed muscle soreness in a prior blog and pointed out that current research shows that muscle soreness is not caused by lactic acid buildup, and even if it were, a cool down does not flush lactate out of the muscles. And if you read last week's blog, you know that massage has numerous benefits but moving lactate out of the muscles is not one of them.
Research has also shown that cooling down has little effect on aiding recovery, increasing flexibility, increasing strength gains, or preventing injuries. So it might seem that a cool down is a total waste of time. Not entirely. The primary benefit of cooling down after a hard workout is that it prevents blood from pooling in the extremities which can cause dizziness and fainting. By exercising at a lower intensity level for a few minutes after a hard or maximal effort, you enable your circulatory system to slowly return to a resting state while maintaining proper blood pressure. A second reason for doing a cool down is that it feels good psychologically. Taking a few moments to move gently and feel the relief and accomplishment of having completed a challenging workout feels good.
Those couple of minutes that we take at the end of our training to do gentle core exercises are perfect for keeping your bodies moving and starting to bring your heart rate down. We know, "gentle" is relative, but compared to those overhead presses and push up chains, the core work is gentle. Follow that with a couple of minutes of truly gentle stretches and you are ready to go on your way!
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