Why do we warm down? Is it necessary to warm down? What is the point of it?

Ya sometimes it's pointless but the paranoid freaks want to hit weekly mileage totals or get the lactic acid out of their legs. It's easy amd relaxing after a full tilt workout anyways.

We warm down coz we are in the heat. The lust makes us warm down there.

i just find it tiring sometimes. like the workouts over. why run for like another mile.

I use walking back to the car as a warm down.

Isn't there scientific evidence that it significantly decreases injury risk when compared to just finishing the workout and stoping completely?

I don't always warm down, but when I do, I call it a cooldown.

lets see it then pal

Sub-8 Mile wrote:

I don't always warm down, but when I do, I call it a cooldown.

So you don't warm down and cool up??? Weird.

I've always wondered about this. Sometimes if I finish a workout near my house, I'm tired so I call it a day. Is there a point to jogging another mile or two other than to fulfill a mileage goal?

Steve The Addict OFFICIAL -----^^^^^ wrote:

Ya sometimes it's pointless but the paranoid freaks want to hit weekly mileage totals or get the lactic acid out of their legs. It's easy amd relaxing after a full tilt workout anyways.

I never used to do much warm up and never any cool down. But as I've run higher and higher mileage, I'll do very long runs with a workout in the middle. That results in a big warm up and big cool down. The whole time I tell myself it's to "get the lactic acid out of my legs" Lol. But it's really just because I've become a mileage junky. So, I think you're right.

Webbster wrote:

I've always wondered about this. Sometimes if I finish a workout near my house, I'm tired so I call it a day. Is there a point to jogging another mile or two other than to fulfill a mileage goal?

The theory is as follows:

Just as a warm-up prepares your body for the workout, the cool-down helps your body return to a state of rest. The cool-down relaxes your muscles and lowers your heart rate and breathing from your workout intensity. It helps your body to eliminate lactic acid and other waste products faster and to repair micro-injuries. It also provides your muscles with oxygenated blood, which speeds up the recovery process and helps you avoid sore muscles. All of these positive effects of cooling down help you to recover faster from your training and be ready for your next workout sooner.

Taken from :

.

I'm going to do a search to see if there is any actual research with objective measurements to back this up.

well im not sure any of these phrases make any literal sense nor does the coupling of one of these words with the other seem anything less than arbitrary

Yeah, it's semantics. Anyhow, here's something I found on "the cooldown" by Steve Magness. No research cited by gives his views fwiw.

https://www.scienceofrunning.com/2019/05/the-cool-down-whats-the-point.html?v=47e5dceea252

Here's a more academic-style article out of U of Penn giving a more scientific appearing explanation but again, no cited research to back their explanations.

https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/musculoskeletal-and-rheumatology/2017/february/injury-prevention-three-cool-down-steps-for-runners

I read this response from Molly in her comments section on Strava:

Molly Seidel

honestly that was a huge thing that changed for me going college to pro; when I made the warmup/cooldown truly recovery then I had the energy to do much more quality in the actual workout

Valley Heat wrote:

I read this response from Molly in her comments section on Strava:

Molly Seidel

honestly that was a huge thing that changed for me going college to pro; when I made the warmup/cooldown truly recovery then I had the energy to do much more quality in the actual workout

Took her going pro to work this out?!

I don't think a cool down/warm down is that important, just about important enough to not skip but no need for much more than a few mins jogging or walking.

I don't know where I read this stuff but a explanation was..

We do hard and easy right. That much is obvious.

The point is to recover after esp a hard workout.

When we quit immediately after a workout and go back to real life stress, we don't recover. Your body is swirling with stress hormones and there's no growth.

We might think we are cuz we aren't physically moving but our psycho brains are mitigating that recovery cuz we gotta deal with life, work, family, kids, friends, drama, school.

As much as a warmup tells ur body to get ready, the cool down tells ur body. Thank you - it's over. Time to rest now. Think of it like a relaxing yoga or meditative thing. Done properly, this turns off fight flight & releases different hormones to allow you recover.

For all the lonely people out there, there was psychological benefits too. Basically, after a hard workout, don't speed home. Spend few moments with your team or friend.

There's some sort of bonding and feel good brain crap that helps us recover if we are in mental comfort socially. Think of it as a hug for the brain. For a lonely sport this serves as a crutch.

I don't have the references but try approaching the cool down with intent in an holistic, mindful manner. The exact mile distance is what doesnt matter.

As a high school coach I always told my questioning athletes that it was for discipline.

"After a race or hard workout what is one of the last things you feel like doing? Running some more. So, go do it and enjoy being that much tougher than the average person." I also told them that working on perfect form while really tired helped with proper muscle memory.

It is also a great team builder in the fact that everyone just put in an effort that challenged them and are now sharing their experience so the camaraderie involved is a big bonding experience for most.

It's very important for championship swimmers to do a very gentle cool diwn swim between heats. It helps them come down from the massive adrenaline high of each race to relax and prepare for the next race, often on the same day.

The same principle applies for runners but is perhaps less essential.