There is no such thing as a warm down. Warm down sounds strange. A cool up sounds strange too, does it not? I shall use the term warm up to describe the pre workout exercises and the term cool down to describe the immediate recovery exercises performed after the main workout.
In an earlier post, I discussed the merits of dynamic warm ups before workouts and shared my dynamic warm up routine. A dynamic warm up prepares your body for the intensity of the workout and the range of movements you will likely go through during your main workout phase. In that post I also discussed 2 studies that had shown that static stretching before a workout, actually diminishes performance during the main workout. Static stretching is when you hold a stretch for an extended period, usually upwards of 60 seconds.
The main workout is supposed to be an intense affair. At the end of which, you will, if you are really giving it your all be exhausted. Lactic acid would have built up in your muscles, these muscles will have been compressed and you would have depleted your blood sugars and your glycogen stores. Spent would be the right word.
The cool down is the first and immediate stage in your recovery process. I will discuss the recovery process in a later post. The cool down serves to reset the body physiology to pre workout stage. The cool down should normalise your breathing and heart rate and restore the muscle to its relaxed state.
The first thing you want to do after your run, is to normalise your breathing, then normalise your range of movements and finally normalise the elasticity of the muscles.
I find that standing still and taking deep breaths works better than walking. This way you are focusing on the breath, inhaling, telling your heart to beat slower and exhaling. Simply stand still and take a deep breath through the nose, hold it and visualise your heart pumping slower gradually, then exhale through the nose, pushing all the air out. Repeat until you feel that you are breathing almost normally. I borrow a yoga pose, the mountain pose for my immediate breathing normalisation. Adaptations from yoga poses form much of my cool down routine.
the mountain pose
Running is a unilateral exercise. Your muscles and joints are moving in one direction only, forward. At the end of a run, you will feel that your range of movement is a little restricted. To normalise range of movement, perform the dynamic warm up routine. This routine not only prepares you for movement and oils the joints prior to workout, it normalizes the range of movements after your workout.
Finally we come to the stretches. Let us first understand that stretching by itself can be an intense workout. I am speaking of yoga sessions, where you hold the stretch for a length of time. But this stretching workout is not the subject here. I am still learning more about these. Suffice to know now that stretching restores muscle elasticity and builds muscle strength.
The objective of the stretches in the cool down routine is to restore muscle elasticity and to remove pooled blood that has accumulated in the muscles you have just been using. During workout, your muscles contract, stretching will restore muscle elasticity.
Remember that your muscles requires oxygen and nutrients when you are working it. These are supplied by the blood and some blood will pool in your muscles together with lactic acid, which is the breakdown component of ATP. Stretching will circulate the pooled blood, together with the lactic acid away from the muscles.
These are the stretches that I recommend for you to perform, which again I have borrowed from yoga. I had some yoga training at Real Yoga some years back. My instructor Rakesh Kumar had put me through the paces and made me realize the importance of the stretches. I have adapted some of the yoga poses for my routines. To learn about yoga, I suggest you attend classes with an accredited yoga teacher. Rakesh at Real Yoga is good.
The downward facing dog. Go onto the hands and knees. Move the knees back 4-6 inches. Curl the toes under. Lift the hips and knees up, straighten the legs, and move the chest towards the feet. Hold the stretch for 10-15 counts. The downward facing dog will stretch the ankles, calfs, hamstrings, shoulders and core.
downward facing dog
The standing fold. From the mountain pose, place your hands on your hip, exhale and fold your body from the hips until your chest rests on your thighs, keeping the knees straight and the feet well balanced on the toes and heels. Hold the stretch for 10-15 counts. This standing fold will stretch your ankles, calfs, hamstrings, butts and spine.
the standing fold
The wide stance forward bend. Start with feet apart in a wide stance. Place your hands on your hips. Inhale and exhale then using your hips as the hinge, fold your body downwards while maintaining the neutral curves of the back until the pelvis has no more range of motion. Place your hands on the ground or other support. Hold the stretch for 10-15 counts. The wide stance forward bend stretches your ankles, calfs, hamstrings and spine.
The wide stance forward bend
To recap, my go to cool down routine is:
- Normalise breathing with the mountain pose
- Normalise range of movement with a set of dynamic warm up routine
- Reset muscle elasticity with downward facing dog, the standing fold and the wide stance forward bend.
We are now all set for a recovery meal.
Credits for yoga poses and photos 3D yoga app developed by Body Culture LLC.
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