Is the Exercise Cool-Down Really Necessary?
Full article here:
www.nytimes.com/.../15best.html
Excerpt:
The idea of the cool-down seems to have originated with a popular theory — now known to be wrong — that muscles become sore after exercise because they accumulate lactic acid. In fact, lactic acid is a fuel. It’s good to generate lactic acid, it’s a normal part of exercise, and it has nothing to do with muscle soreness. But the lactic acid theory led to the notion that by slowly reducing the intensity of your workout you can give lactic acid a chance to dissipate...
Interesting article, thanks for posting. It does square with my experience that recovery from practice doesn't seem to depend on how much warmdown I do. It also made sense to me that LA levels will recover to normal by the next practice whether or not one warms down.
Then again, maybe I'm just looking for something to excuse my poor post-practice warming-down habits.
Meets are a different story though. There are a number of studies showing that LA levels recover significantly faster with warm-down (eg, in 30 min as opposed to 60 min). I don't think it is a good thing to begin a 2nd race with LA levels already elevated if you can help it.
Interesting article, thanks for posting. It does square with my experience that recovery from practice doesn't seem to depend on how much warmdown I do. It also made sense to me that LA levels will recover to normal by the next practice whether or not one warms down.
Then again, maybe I'm just looking for something to excuse my poor post-practice warming-down habits.
Meets are a different story though. There are a number of studies showing that LA levels recover significantly faster with warm-down (eg, in 30 min as opposed to 60 min). I don't think it is a good thing to begin a 2nd race with LA levels already elevated if you can help it.
