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...
My :2cents:
I am a huge believer in lots of easy swimming after intense work.
After a long (for me) aerobic workout, I will swim 100 w/d.
In between fast workout swims (say, 50s or 100s with lots of rest), I will swim almost all of the rest time.
Even for a set like 6x 50 AFAP on 2:00, I will swim at least 1/2 way down and back after each.
After a meet race, regardless of distance, I will swim at least 600 or 10-15 mins.
All of this gives me the (false?) sense that I am helping to move the lactic acid, etc out of my system.
YMMV.
It is not a false sense at all: cool down definitely removes LA. I do exactly like you between hard swims on plenty of rest in practice: move around, including easy swimming. Same thing with w/d after races in meets. I never understood why some people would sit on the wall for the entire time of a long rest period in practices.
My understanding is that the article is talking about something different: in terms of muscle soreness, removing LA doesn't do anything. Warming down speeds LA removal, but either way it will be gone by the next day. Since LA in the muscles is not the cause of soreness, leaving it there a little longer doesn't make your muscles more sore.
Again, I'm just paraphrasing the article as I understand it. Obviously lots of people love their warmdown, and that's fine. Half of my own warmdown is in the hot shower; if we had a hot tub, I'd probably use that for the entire thing. :)
My :2cents:
I am a huge believer in lots of easy swimming after intense work.
After a long (for me) aerobic workout, I will swim 100 w/d.
In between fast workout swims (say, 50s or 100s with lots of rest), I will swim almost all of the rest time.
Even for a set like 6x 50 AFAP on 2:00, I will swim at least 1/2 way down and back after each.
After a meet race, regardless of distance, I will swim at least 600 or 10-15 mins.
All of this gives me the (false?) sense that I am helping to move the lactic acid, etc out of my system.
YMMV.
It is not a false sense at all: cool down definitely removes LA. I do exactly like you between hard swims on plenty of rest in practice: move around, including easy swimming. Same thing with w/d after races in meets. I never understood why some people would sit on the wall for the entire time of a long rest period in practices.
My understanding is that the article is talking about something different: in terms of muscle soreness, removing LA doesn't do anything. Warming down speeds LA removal, but either way it will be gone by the next day. Since LA in the muscles is not the cause of soreness, leaving it there a little longer doesn't make your muscles more sore.
Again, I'm just paraphrasing the article as I understand it. Obviously lots of people love their warmdown, and that's fine. Half of my own warmdown is in the hot shower; if we had a hot tub, I'd probably use that for the entire thing. :)
