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...
I basically got in the habit of warm-up and cool-down when I was in the army. We'd always start out with jumping jacks and other stuff like that (but we didn't call them jumping jacks). Then we'd move into the pushups, situps, etc...and then head out for the run. We'd always do some light stretching for about 5 min after we got back before they'd let us go.
Since I don't always have even a day between workouts (sometimes just 12 hours), I find an easy 200 cool down after swimming keeps my legs from cramping, eases my arms, etc...so I can run or lift that night. Same thing after a run, I usually like to do a 3-5 min gradual cool down, into a walk (over the summer I even did a 2-300 easy swim after running).
After races like the marathon and splash and dash, they usually have things setup to have cool-down almost mandatory. After the marathon, there was a winding fence with different stations periodically (some had bananas, oranges, ice cream, etc)...kept you walking through this before you could connect with outsiders.
Whether or not I need it, if it makes me feel good, I'll continue doing it.
I basically got in the habit of warm-up and cool-down when I was in the army. We'd always start out with jumping jacks and other stuff like that (but we didn't call them jumping jacks). Then we'd move into the pushups, situps, etc...and then head out for the run. We'd always do some light stretching for about 5 min after we got back before they'd let us go.
Since I don't always have even a day between workouts (sometimes just 12 hours), I find an easy 200 cool down after swimming keeps my legs from cramping, eases my arms, etc...so I can run or lift that night. Same thing after a run, I usually like to do a 3-5 min gradual cool down, into a walk (over the summer I even did a 2-300 easy swim after running).
After races like the marathon and splash and dash, they usually have things setup to have cool-down almost mandatory. After the marathon, there was a winding fence with different stations periodically (some had bananas, oranges, ice cream, etc)...kept you walking through this before you could connect with outsiders.
Whether or not I need it, if it makes me feel good, I'll continue doing it.
