Is the Exercise Cool-Down Really Necessary?

Here's a good presentation on lactate clearance and recovery swimming by Genadijus Sokolovas, former Director of Physiology for USA Swimming. The conclusions: Swimming at high velocity yields high amounts of lactate in the muscles. This has negative effects on the ability of the muscles to contract. In order for a swimmer to perform at maximal effort again, lactate must be removed Active recovery (swimming warm-down) is helpful for lactate removal. During passive recovery (i.e. sitting on the bench) lactate removal is very slow Duration of post-race recovery should be 25-30 min for sprinters, 20-25 min for middle distance swimmers, and 15-20 min for distance swimmers Swimming intensity during warm-down should be light for sprinters (about 50-55% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity), light to moderate for middle distance swimmers (55-60% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity), and moderate for distance swimmers (60-65% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity) The post-race recovery protocol should include straight swimming. Warm-down can be substituted with stretching if there is no warm-down pool available. Heart rate during stretching should be low (120-140 beats/min or 20-23 beats/10 sec) The warm-down protocols can also be used for workouts after hard swimming sets. A warm-down will help to recover faster before the next workout In a way this is misleading. Lactate removal to the bloodstream is not the only method by which lactate is broken down. Once oxygen is available again it breaks back into pyruvate and is shunted into the oxygen-dependent fuel cycle. So yes, tests show that lactate flow into the blood is slower when inactive, a result that could be just as due to decreased lactate production thanks to the lower metabolic rate of sitting vs swimming. Personally I think that muscle soreness is caused by damage to the cell tissue and that stiffness is caused by not stretching. It's obviously not lactate since even long practices that are swum below the lactate threshold (the point at which lactate in the blood spikes, most likely due to the rate of production exceeding the rate of use in the muscles) cause my muscles to be sore. I think that warm down takes the place of stretching, and thus are interchangeable (as Sokolovas points out). Personally I warm down about 50, sometimes 100, and focus on stretching out everything when I do it. It's hard to match stretching on land to stretching in the water because you don't stretch the exact same muscle fibers sitting on a mat as you would swimming freestyle.

Here's a good presentation on lactate clearance and recovery swimming by Genadijus Sokolovas, former Director of Physiology for USA Swimming. The conclusions: Swimming at high velocity yields high amounts of lactate in the muscles. This has negative effects on the ability of the muscles to contract. In order for a swimmer to perform at maximal effort again, lactate must be removed Active recovery (swimming warm-down) is helpful for lactate removal. During passive recovery (i.e. sitting on the bench) lactate removal is very slow Duration of post-race recovery should be 25-30 min for sprinters, 20-25 min for middle distance swimmers, and 15-20 min for distance swimmers Swimming intensity during warm-down should be light for sprinters (about 50-55% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity), light to moderate for middle distance swimmers (55-60% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity), and moderate for distance swimmers (60-65% of maximum 100 m swimming velocity) The post-race recovery protocol should include straight swimming. Warm-down can be substituted with stretching if there is no warm-down pool available. Heart rate during stretching should be low (120-140 beats/min or 20-23 beats/10 sec) The warm-down protocols can also be used for workouts after hard swimming sets. A warm-down will help to recover faster before the next workout In a way this is misleading. Lactate removal to the bloodstream is not the only method by which lactate is broken down. Once oxygen is available again it breaks back into pyruvate and is shunted into the oxygen-dependent fuel cycle. So yes, tests show that lactate flow into the blood is slower when inactive, a result that could be just as due to decreased lactate production thanks to the lower metabolic rate of sitting vs swimming. Personally I think that muscle soreness is caused by damage to the cell tissue and that stiffness is caused by not stretching. It's obviously not lactate since even long practices that are swum below the lactate threshold (the point at which lactate in the blood spikes, most likely due to the rate of production exceeding the rate of use in the muscles) cause my muscles to be sore. I think that warm down takes the place of stretching, and thus are interchangeable (as Sokolovas points out). Personally I warm down about 50, sometimes 100, and focus on stretching out everything when I do it. It's hard to match stretching on land to stretching in the water because you don't stretch the exact same muscle fibers sitting on a mat as you would swimming freestyle.