Cool down after training in the gym. Cooling down after a workout - why is it important for muscles? Why it needs to be done
So, you had a great workout and completed your entire routine. What's next? How to finish a workout correctly?
A mandatory element of any literate training program is the so-called hitch. First, I’ll tell you why a cool-down is needed, and then how to do it.
How to end your workout correctly
When you train intensely, the concentration of various substances in your body increases, which are the result of training. These are carbon dioxide, lactic acid, stress hormones, free radicals, enzymes, etc. In addition, the body maintains an increased heart rate and increased blood pressure throughout the workout. If you do last approach and immediately stop, sit on a bench or lie down, it is possible that you will simply lose consciousness due to too rapid a decrease in pressure. In addition, the effect of stress hormones will not allow you to fully relax and begin recovery. Training stress throws the body's immune, hormonal and nervous systems out of balance. And rapid cooling of working muscles can lead to stagnation of blood and unpleasant sensations and pain.
To prevent this from happening, you should devote 5-10 minutes to the cool-down procedure.
The hitch is special physical exercise for gradual cooling and calming of the body after training.
In essence, a cool-down is no different from a warm-up, except that the purpose and the reverse order of work. The purpose of a cool-down is to return the body to a normal state, remove it from training stress, and give the body the opportunity to disperse all the substances circulating in it to their places.
To do this, it is very useful to work in cardio training mode with a low heart rate immediately after the main part. I consider the optimal heart rate to be 100-110 beats per minute for 5-7 minutes. And then smoothly switch from light running or fast walking to slow walking and reduce your heart rate almost to resting levels.
During this time, you will thoroughly pump blood through the body and it will be able to remove excess from the muscles, bring metabolic reactions to balance, and release growth hormone into the blood, which will reduce the effect of stress hormones. There will be a smooth inhibition of the nervous system. All this will make the exit from training pleasant and very healthy. Cooling down helps you go faster.
So, a cool-down is 5-10 minutes of light cardio training immediately after the main load.
What exercises should I use to cool down?
Here are the options: easy jogging, working on a cardio machine, working with a small weight, working on a step platform to music, walking up stairs or up a not very steep hill, dancing, fighting punching bag, not intense boxing sparring.
If the main part of your workout was cardio training, then the cool-down is a gradual decrease in speed until the heart rate drops to the desired value (100-105 per minute) and after another 5-7 minutes, switch to walking.
Most people don't place much importance on cooling down after a workout. Some simply do not know what it is and what it is needed for. Why is it so important to end your workouts with a cool-down and what exactly is a cool-down? You will find out the answer to these and other questions by reading this article in full.
What is a hitch?
A cool-down should inherently contradict all the work (training) you've done leading up to it. If throughout training process If you increased your heart rate and accelerated your pulse, then the cool-down should help normalize your pulse and return it to its original state. If during the entire workout you stretched and helped your muscles temporarily increase their length (work on flexibility), then after training you need to do light cardio so that the muscles return to their previous state. “The cool-down is a common stretch after strength training with the addition of light cardio, which will normalize your heart rate and body temperature" And if during training your muscles, on the contrary, shorten (muscle pumping), then the best option To complete such a cool-down, regular stretching will serve. It turns out that doing a cool-down is similar to a warm-up, but is done exactly the opposite.
Why is it important to cool down?
At hard training, you begin to actively produce and accumulate lactic acid in your muscles. This phenomenon often leads to the fact that the muscles begin to “ache” and ache, and subsequently this leads to rapid fatigue. Stretching after strength training promotes muscle recovery and also reduces muscle fatigue.
In the process of stretching the muscles (in which the blood has stagnated), increased blood circulation occurs, which helps reduce the load on the heart due to the normalization of blood circulation. Stretching also helps muscles recover faster after strength training. Most people skip their workouts due to muscle soreness, so to try and avoid this, it's a good idea to consistently use a cool-down as the final part of all your workouts, as well as get a massage on your rest days.
As for the psychological state, here too the hitch also has an effect positive influence. When you use a cool-down in your workouts, you and your body calm down and smoothly transition into a calm mode. Cooling down can be used not only to relieve fatigue from tense muscles, but also to relax the nervous system. Cooling down helps relieve fatigue, relax and overcome stress. Cooling down after a workout also allows you to start recovery processes, relieve tension in the joints, and also suppress muscle pain.
What happens during a cool down?
- pulse normalizes
- voltage decreases
- recovery processes are launched
- the level of lactic acid in the muscles decreases
- normal blood supply to muscles is restored
- the tone of intramuscular veins is normalized
Cool down exercises(delay 20-30 seconds for each position) 
After the exercises, you can start light cadio
Why do you need a cool down? TOP 5 facts
- A cool-down is needed to normalize body temperature.
- Due to profuse sweating, waste products in the body are removed from the blood and muscles, which provides an additional stimulus for muscle recovery.
- By cooling down, you prevent blood stagnation in working muscles.
- The cool-down also serves to smoothly normalize work of cardio-vascular system and heart muscle. Abrupt cessation of training leads to excessive stress on the beating heart.
- Cooling down allows you to return the muscles to their original state. When you exercise, muscle fibers contract, so it's vital to cool down after a strength workout to help your muscles recover.
> Cooling down after a workout - why is it important for muscles?
Cooling down after a workout - why is it important for muscles?
Cooling down is a part of training that many people neglect, especially when it comes to strength training. If most trainees understand it, then with a hitch it’s the other way around, even knowing its essence, they still miss this one to save time. important point. Let's define what is meant by a cool down and what are the benefits of doing it.
What is a cool-down and why do you need to do it after training?
A cool-down is a series of restorative and calming exercises that do not warm up, but “cool down” the body after the exercise. Why can't you just finish a strength or cardio exercise and cool down by getting your heart rate back while sitting?
- The fact is that, which increases during exercise, it is important to reduce gradually, thus, by performing calming cool-down exercises, the pulse will be restored to normal without sudden changes, which is dangerous for the functioning of the heart - this, firstly.
- Secondly, it is necessary to ensure the outflow of blood from the muscles, which, through physical activity were filled with blood. Cooling down speeds up the process and blood circulation in the body, which ensures faster transport of nutrients to the muscles after exercise.
- Thirdly, a cool-down allows the muscles not only to relax while stretching the muscles, but also to return them to their normal state, since muscle contraction leads to constant stiffening muscle fibers, and with the help of a cool down you can prevent this. Stretching muscles from a compressed state speeds up recovery and promotes faster growth muscle mass or improving physical performance.
- And fourthly, the cool-down restores nervous system, calms not only the breath, but also the mind, since after physical activity restoration is necessary for all body systems.
Benefits of Cooling Down After Strength Training
- Accelerates muscle recovery, muscle growth and helps increase athletic performance.
- Makes muscles more elastic, which naturally prevents their stiffening, and therefore prevents pain and fatigue from constant contraction.
- Calms the nervous system after stress to the body - physical activity.
- Improves and accelerates the transport of nutrients to the muscles, which is especially important for nourishing muscles after workouts.
- Gradually reduces the pulse, which has a beneficial effect on the cardiovascular system, without overloading it with changes in heart rate.
How to do a cool down
If the training took place in gym, perform or any other at a moderate pace for 5-7 minutes, gradually reducing the speed to a minimum.
And if the training took place in the park or at home, do the same walking around the room or area for 5-7 minutes. This will gradually lower your heart rate without stressing the cardiovascular system.
Cool down exercises
Then, wherever the training takes place, proceed to the next complex.
Exercise No. 1
Stand with your feet wide and inhale, raising your arms to your sides above your head. As you exhale, lower your arms together with your body to the floor: sag below, relaxing your spine.
Exercise No. 2
Stretch to each leg, clasping your shin with your hands, and also in the center. Hold each position for a few seconds, feeling the stretch in the muscles of your legs and spine.
Exercise No. 3
Place your feet together, squat down a little and place your palms under your knees. As you exhale: round your back, extending your round back as far as possible towards the ceiling. Inhale: bend your lower back, bringing your stomach closer to your hips, and look up. Perform several repetitions until you feel your back muscles relax.
Exercise #4
Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, tilt your body to one side, holding your hands above your bare hands in a lock, then to the other. Hold the tilt for 10 to 30 seconds.
Exercise #5
Standing on one leg, pull the other knee toward your chest, holding your shin with your hands. Maintain balance by stretching your glutes and hamstrings as much as possible.
Exercise #6
Then, with the same leg, swing backwards, holding the foot with your hands, pulling the heel towards the buttock. Keep your knees together, stretching your quadriceps. Hold each position for 30 seconds and change legs.
Exercise No. 7
Place one foot forward on the heel, keeping the knee of this leg straight, tilt the body towards the thigh, pulling the toe towards you. Stretch your thigh and calf muscles for a few seconds and switch legs.
Cool down after training in video format
Conclusion
Cooling down is the easiest and most enjoyable part of the workout, so don't be lazy about doing it, considering all the benefits for developing your own body. After all, it is the change appearance body and its health have brought everyone to sports, so why not speed up the approach to the goal with the help of such simple actions that do not take much time.
If you start a workout without warming up, believing that your body is able to “wake up” during exercise, then you are mistaken. The body needs to be prepared for training.
Introduction
We downloaded a special application and are ready to tell you about the importance of warm-up and cool-down in this review.
Any experienced athlete knows for sure that you cannot immediately start working on your body without preparation. Likewise, after active exercise, you should not leave your body in a maximally tense state.
The Bodymaster team tested a simple, free and effective Exercises app for warming up and cooling down, which can be downloaded from the Google Play store.
Most likely, if you are new to sports, at first you will be confused about the concepts of “warm-up”, “cool-down” and “stretching”. Remember what this is different types exercises that need to be performed during a certain period of training.
- Warm-up is a set of exercises to warm up muscles and joints. Are you preparing your body for power loads, improve concentration and perception. On average, warming up before exercise should take about 10-15 minutes.
- Cool down – recovery exercises that help align muscle tone, adjust pulse, blood pressure and body temperature. For this type of exercise, in particular, exercises with a foam roller are suitable (link to review). Experts recommend taking about 5-10 minutes to cool down.
- Stretching is also recommended after training. This complex helps trained muscles return to their original size to build new mass.
You can read more about how to prepare yourself for training and recover after it in our article Warm-up and stretching, warm-up exercises.
You can watch a preliminary review of the application on the Fly Power Plus XXL smartphone in our video:
Why do you need a warm-up before training?
- By warming up before a workout, you don't just warm up your muscles, preparing them for stress. Qualitative changes occur in almost all vital systems of the body:
- The heart rate increases, blood flow increases, and the muscles are better supplied with nutrients.
- Blood pressure increases, also providing rich blood flow to the muscles.
- Muscles become more resilient. Reduces the risk of injury.
- Due to rapid breathing, ventilation of the lungs increases, the body stores oxygen for future use.
- Due to improved neuromuscular communication, the body requires less energy. Consequently, the central nervous system is less overloaded.
- Body temperature rises to 38.5 - 39 degrees Celsius. Due to this, physiological reactions occur more efficiently. In addition, ligaments and tendons become more flexible and elastic.
- The body produces more joint fluid, increasing the volume of articular cartilage. Because of this, it is easier to bear pressure during training.
- Warming up increases concentration and perception to overcome obstacles. It is easier for an athlete to motivate himself to work with his body, it increases positive attitude on the result.
- Body temperature must be increased gradually, without sudden jumps.
- When warming up, take into account the weather, time of day, age and experience of the athlete.
- Warm-up duration is from 10 to 15 minutes.
- Between warm-up and training, no more than 5 minutes should pass, since after this the saturation of the muscles with blood begins to decrease.
Why do you need a cool down after training?
Cooling down restores the body, exhausted by intense exercise. So, after a quick climb from the first to the fifth floor, you are unlikely to be able to do any hard work: you need to catch your breath and relax your muscles. IN sports training the same principle applies. Without effective rest, it will be much more difficult for you to start new exercises, including exercise machines.
Effects of a quality cool down:
- Muscle tension decreases;
- Pulse, body temperature, blood pressure are equalized;
- The central nervous system is restored
- Lactic acid is removed from the body, which causes you to feel a burning sensation in your muscles.
As with the warm-up, it is important to follow the rules during the cool-down:
- Cool-down exercises should not last more than 10 minutes;
- Monitor your pulse - it should not rise above 120 beats per minute.
An exercise bike is perfect for cooling down. treadmill or a foam roller that needs to be used to roll tense muscles. After the cool-down, you can spend some time in the bathhouse or sauna, and also have a massage session.
Warm up and cool down. Exercises in the app
The training course in the application follows a familiar and well-developed scheme. On the main screen, all exercises are collected into two complexes:
- Warm Up (set of exercises for warming up)
- Cool down (cool down after exercise)
You set the time during which you will perform the activities. Based on this time, the application will put together a set of exercises for you. In preview mode, you can see what the mobile program has prepared for you, and also put all the exercises in random order.
The training takes place in the format of visual lessons. The model in the video shows the technique, and the voice instructor gives commands to get ready, start, change sides and finish.
Once you've completed the exercises, your workout is marked on the calendar. So you can see on what day and for how many minutes you worked out and how many calories you burned.
All exercises for warming up before training and cooling down after it are collected in a separate list. Here, each exercise is provided with a visual video card.
If you purchased the premium version for 119 rubles, you are given access to individual training. You set the duration of the workout, the frequency and duration of rest, and make yourself a list of exercises.
The application does not contain any detailed and visual reporting; there are no graphs or tables of your workouts. The maximum you can personalize is height and weight data.
However, complex reporting is not particularly needed here. Warm-up and cool-down application. The exercises are purely practical in nature so that your workout brings the most beneficial results.
Simple warm-up exercises
Let's look at 5 simple exercises for warm-ups that will help warm up your body before training:
Stretch the neck muscles to the sides
Technique for performing the exercise: Stretching the neck muscles to the sides
Place one hand on the top of your head and extend the other along your body. Tilt your head to the side and make a slight effort with your hand on the top of your head. Don't pull your shoulders up. Hold the tilt at the maximum point for a few seconds. Repeat with an incline to the other side.
Delt stretching
Technique for performing the exercise: Stretching the deltas
Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Extend your arm in front of you and clasp your forearm at the elbow. Press your hand to your body and hold for a few seconds at the extreme point. Do the exercise for both hands.
Standing triceps stretch
Technique for performing the exercise: Standing triceps stretch
Stand up straight, bend one arm at the elbow and place it behind your head. With your other hand, grab your elbow bent arm and press a little. Do not make sudden movements; there should be a feeling of slight stretching. Stay at the extreme point for 10-20 seconds. Switch hands.
Technique for performing the exercise: Swing your leg forward and backward
Stand next to a support, a chair or a wall will do, hold on to it with your hand. Swing one arm forward, keeping your leg straight, then swing back. Raising your leg, your back remains straight. Return to initial position. Do 10-20 swings with each leg.
This set of exercises will not take much time and will perfectly prepare the body for training. These 5 exercises can be included after your workout.
Conclusion
Despite its simplicity, the application is perfect for both beginners and experienced athletes. It doesn’t matter whether you warm up and cool down in the gym, or you work out at home. There is no need for additional simulators or equipment - just start the video and follow all the instructions exactly. At the same time, you can safely leave the application in the basic version, although you will have to put up with advertising banners.
You can read more about how stretching affects flexibility and warming up muscles before training, which exercises are the best, as well as about the categories of stretching in our article
Unfortunately, a common problem (by the way, not only for beginners) is the lack of warm-up and cool-down before ANY workout: or cardio.
Think for yourself: you are putting a significant load on unheated muscles, joints, and ligaments. What does this threaten you with: injuries, of course. Research shows that only 5% of exercisers do good warm up before training. Why don't others do it?
Many people think that warming up is a waste of time and there is no need to waste strength and energy on it. But only lazy, uninformed people talk this way. You and I know that a quality warm-up helps protect the body from injury and increases the effectiveness of the training.
Warm-up prepares the body for training, accelerates the blood in the muscles, warms up muscle tissue, develops joints. In addition, the central nervous system (CNS) also needs preparation. According to research from the British Medical Journal: “regular, short warm-up and stretching before exercise reduces the risk of injury during training.” DOUBLE ».
Warming up can be compared to warming up a car in winter - it can drive, but it will languish and may stall. So at the beginning EVERY
training we are warming up.
By the way, it’s not clear why everyone is so lazy to do a warm-up, because it fits into 5-15 minutes, and the benefits from it are immeasurable! After all, we are smart people and first of all we think about our health (how not to go crazy in the fight against extra pounds read
)
HOW SHOULD YOU WARM UP?
Warm-up consists of several parts:
- Cardio
- Joint gymnastics
- Stretching
- Technical warm-up
Enough for cardio warm-up 3-6 minutes.
Running or fast walking on a treadmill, exercise bike, ellipse, jumping rope. This pre-workout warm-up phase is designed to general training the entire body for intensive work, remember, they are performed immediately after warming up. The blood accelerates, the pulse quickens, you can safely move on to the next stage of the warm-up before training.
A little life hack: you can skip this step if you get to the gym at a fast pace 😉
Joint gymnastics is based on the principle: “we spin everything that spins”.
Need to without fail rotate your hands, elbows, head, twist your body, rotate your lower back, hip joints stretch, develop your knees and ankles.
By the way, very good joint gymnastics shoulder joint described by Dr. Bubnovsky in the book “Headaches or why a person needs shoulders.” I advise everyone to read it, especially those who suffer from constant migraines.
You can make it a rule to do hyperextension before each workout: this will help protect the most vulnerable part of the spine during training - the lower back.
Main muscles involved: lumbar region spine, additionally loaded: hips and buttocks. Since almost everything strength exercises require stabilization and a trained lower back; it is the lumbar region that beginners should pay attention to. There is no need to wave your arms/legs like a maddened mill - we do everything thoughtfully, efficiently, without sudden movements, slowly, gradually increasing the pace and intensity of the warm-up.
The stretch should be of the intensity that you can withstand; do not try to do the splits or touch the floor with your nose. 3-5 minutes is enough SMOOTH stretch marks.
Stretching We remember physical education lessons: stretch our arms, back, chest, legs. Below in the article is a set of stretching exercises.
This last one is very important stage you execute directly before basic exercises .
When performing warm-up sets, be sure to do classic squats without weight and at least 10 squats with an empty bar - so that the muscles remember the mechanics of the movement. If the working weight is already significant, then we perform warm-up approaches in the range of 30/50/80% of it. This warm-up will protect you from injury and properly warm up your muscles.
Under no circumstances DO WE START WITH THE WORKING WEIGHT!
The same goes for other basic exercises: deadlifts and bench presses. Let the muscles remember the technique first, and then load it.
In addition to the fact that this type of warm-up will help warm up the muscle, it will also increase blood flow in the muscle being trained, which will have a positive effect on its training.
You should be HOT and sweaty after your warm-up, so don't slack off.
HITCH
Again, very few people do the cool-down, apparently exhausted from the training, thereby making a big mistake. A sharp transition “from excitement to rest” negatively affects our health!
It's like a signal to our body: "you can relax". The central nervous system (CNS) apparatus responds adequately to this signal, and the body begins the recovery process.
The goals of the cool down are:
The cool-down is performed at the end of the workout at a slow and easy pace. It includes stretching And mini cardio .
Stretching restores muscles to their former length and elasticity, and at the same time reduces the recovery process. We stretch the target muscle groups during training. Those. pumped your legs - stretch them, not your arms.
Cardio prepares the nervous system and muscles for rest. Cardio duration is 5-10 minutes, the pace is moderate to slow.
Just don’t overdo it, you don’t need to run for an hour or try to do the cross splits. If you try to actively stretch your muscles, it may cause injury. So during the cool-down, we don’t try to improve the results of stretching, but simply relax the muscles.
It will also help with recovery after training.
A set of stretching exercises
Performing the exercise: Lower your head down, press your chin to your chest and freeze in this position for a couple of seconds.
Then we move our head back and freeze, performing static stretching of the neck muscles.
Similar to the first two, we rotate the head to the right and left
Exercise No. 1
Press your elbow to your shoulder
Performing the exercise: In a standing position, stretch one arm across the chest. We place the other hand slightly above the right elbow and gently pull the hand towards ourselves, paralleling it to the chest. Above the elbow you can grasp it with both the palm and the back of the wrist. At the static stress point inner part the right elbow is pressed to the left shoulder. We pulled one delta, change hands and pull the other.
To strengthen the exercise, you can bend the arm that you are pulling into elbow joint, moving her wrist behind her back.
Exercise No. 2 Pull your elbow behind your back
Performing the exercise: With our left hand we take the forearm of our right hand and pull it (right hand) to the left and slightly up. At the point where the tension in the middle bundle is felt deltoid muscle(in fact, a stretch point) we linger for the required time, after which we change hands.
Exercise No. 3 Performing the exercise: In a standing position, the arm, bent at the elbow joint, is placed behind the head from behind. We take the other by the elbow of the right hand and pull the right elbow down by the head. At the point where the triceps stretch is felt maximum, we freeze and stretch the muscle for 30–60 seconds, after which we change hands.
Exercise #4 Retracting your arms behind your back
Performing the exercise: In a standing position, we put our hands behind our backs, clasp them in a lock and move this “lock” back and up.
Exercise #5 Stretch from the wall
Performing the exercise: stand with your back to the door frame or wall bars, grab the vertical support with your outstretched hand. We turn the body away from the hand and, feeling the maximum stretch of the muscle, freeze for the required time. Then we change hands.
Exercise #6 Reclining bends
Performing the exercise: We kneel down, then sit on our heels and place our straight arms extended forward on the floor. The heels are placed under the buttocks. We pull our arms forward as much as possible, and, feeling the stretching of the wings, continue to stretch our arms for 30–60 seconds.
Exercise No. 7. You can replace it with the exercise shown in the picture :) Tilts with support
Performing the exercise: For execution this exercise you need to stand in front of the support. For example: a table, or the back of a chair, or a gymnastic goat. Lean your elbows on this object, and trying not to bend your knees, bend as low as possible.
Performing the exercise: We lie down on the floor, rest our hands on the floor and raise our shoulders, i.e. We lie with only part of the body up to the waist. We throw our head back and, without changing the position of our body, pull our shoulders and head back and up. Having felt the maximum stretch of the abdominal muscles, we freeze and remain in this position for 30-40 seconds.
Exercise No. 9 Static lunges
Performing the exercise: We put one leg forward, the other one back. Bend both legs in knee joint to approximately 90 degrees. One knee touches the floor, while the second at the stretch point is at the level of the lower back. We change the angle in the knees: instead of 90 degrees in both knees, we increase the bending angle of the back leg, and on the contrary, we reduce the bend of the front leg. Hind leg we move it back, and vice versa on the front one, we lie down with our whole body. When we feel tense back surface hips, freeze. After stretching one leg, switch legs and stretch the second.
Exercise No. 10 Stretch the thigh surface
Performing the exercise: In a standing position we lift right leg, let's take it right hand, reach for the buttock and freeze for 30–60 seconds. We do the same stretch with the second leg.
If it is difficult to maintain balance, then you can lightly lean your elbows on a wall or any other object with your free hand, or move your hand to the side for ballasting
Exercise No. 11 Performing the exercise: In a standing position, we bend over and hug ourselves by the knees, i.e. We take ourselves by the ankles and pull the body towards the legs. Ideally, your knees should be level.
Without fanaticism, we stop at the point where the stretching of the legs is felt maximum and freeze for a couple of seconds.
Exercise #12 known as the fold Performing the exercise: the easiest exercise. We simply rise on our toes, pause a little at the point of greatest tension and lower ourselves. By the way, VERY Effective: instantly relieves fatigue from the legs.
Exercise No. 13 After this simple set of stretching exercises, you will warm up well and forget about the pain in your body after training.
