We’ve all known that warming up before going for any workout is a must. It helps us gear our muscles and makes them ready for the strain they are about to endure. It also helps in preventing injuries. Warm up exercises loosen up your joints and increase the blood flow to muscles. As your blood circulation and heart rate improve, you are able to work out more effectively.
What most of us skipped during our training sessions, were the cool down sessions, which are equally important. Cooling down can prevent “blood pooling” or chronic venous insufficiency (CVI). It refers to a condition when the blood in your body can’t return to your heart from your legs, because it has expanded in the blood vessels during a prolonged exercise.
Ideally, cool down sessions are about three to ten minutes long, or till you need to stop. According to The Guardian, the areas on which you should focus depend on the parts of body that have undergone training. For instance, lower body stretches can be done after leg workouts. You can also go for a slow walk to cool down.
The best way to measure effectiveness of a cool down session is actually quite simple. Your heart rate should reduce and should move towards the normal rate. A heart rate monitor will tell you so. While there’s no established link between cooling down and reduced muscle soreness, but you can go ahead and do it. It’s all about personal preferences.
There are a lot of cooling down methods you can explore, right from sports massage, dry needling to foam rollers. If at all you experience any sort of pain while stretching, immediately consult your physio or doctor, especially if it persists till the next day. Also, make sure you warm up thoroughly the next time you go for a workout.
