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

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Cool down can help clear waste products generated from the workout. Same principle can be applied to your recovery between reps. When we train our 800m runners, sometimes I have them explicitly use standing rest or very light jogging to stimulate more lactate tolerance during the following rep. Other times we run more of an active recovery to clear waste products if the goal is to extend the number of reps we can do in the workout.

It's a time to mentally digest the work out and chat with your teammates (if you have any). I sure don't do a cool down after a long run. I stop. rest enough so I can drive home, and that's it.

While it is a good time to bring the body back to some sense of homeostasis, I don't think that it's necessary and the science doesn't show that it is, but I feel like it puts a nice bow on the the workout session.

no point , especially after long sessions. just teaches you to run slow when tired when you want to run fast tired!

kipchoge doesn't cd

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

truly recover? As in not hammering the warmup and cooldown? Thanks Captain Obvious.

A 10 minute cooldown run and light stretching with teammates after a hard workout? No better feeling.

I like rope skipping before and after.

Before - for warm up.

After - for clean up.

Rope skipping helps the lymphatic system to expel toxins.

Q1 wrote:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2010.481721#:~:text=High%2Dintensity%20exercise%20training%20contributes,is%20cleared%20by%20active%20recovery

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Cool down can help clear waste products generated from the workout. Same principle can be applied to your recovery between reps. When we train our 800m runners, sometimes I have them explicitly use standing rest or very light jogging to stimulate more lactate tolerance during the following rep. Other times we run more of an active recovery to clear waste products if the goal is to extend the number of reps we can do in the workout.

First, lactate is not a "waste" product. What other "waste" products do you think need clearing that will not be cleared before the next training session?

Second, even high level levels are going to be gone by the time most of use exercise again. Even if you do a hard run at 7am and come back with an easy run at 5pm, your lactate levels at 5pm are going to be "normal".

Third, I do not consider what one does between reps as a "cool down" so you are bringing a different topic.

Runner10287 wrote:

A 10 minute cooldown run and light stretching with teammates after a hard workout? No better feeling.

Well, I can think of a few "better feelings"...

But back to this. I agree on one level that the social aspect is good. Stretching is not a bad thing to do either.

George Ilie wrote:

I like rope skipping before and after.

Before - for warm up.

After - for clean up.

Rope skipping helps the lymphatic system to expel toxins.

What "toxins"?

I started taking a gel after my workouts during the 'warm down'. My thought is that when your metabolism is high, the direct carbs can help speed the recovery.

I don't know if it really helps but i feel better if i have 1-2 miles to run after a hard workout. Before that, i was barely making it home.

Lactate is a "waste product" in that it's a product of a metabolic function not directly used for energy. You can recycle lactate for energy depending on what current metabolic theory you adhere to. Mostly semantics.

Your article comes to the same conclusion as mine: "Active cool-downs accelerate recovery of lactate in blood..."

Whether the blood lactate level is actually an important marker for recovery is pretty contested in the literature, but the anecdotal evidence of jogging for 10-15 minutes post race vs hopping right on the bus to go home tells me the cool down is at least somewhat relevant.

Long story short: Yes, but not for the reasons most of us think.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5999142/

The cooldown does have a moderate long-term effect on adaptation to the performed workout exercise. That's about the only thing I can find that research actually supports.

That being said I'd argue that the long-term aerobic impact a few extra miles after your workout has is one of the biggest reasons we do it. It's an easy place to put extra miles without much impact. Thinking about this more, I'm probably just stating the same thing as point #1 above.

Very simply, it reverses the process of the warm up. Why do we warm up? Shunt blood to the periphery, raise core temp, prepare the body's CNS for race or workout, avoid or minimalize usual spike in HR over the first .75 miles, etc.

You'll find as you get older, if you don't warm down, BP can drop precipitously, blood pools in the extremities, putting extra stress on the heart and you end up passed out on the ground. How much warm up and cool down do you need? For the vast majority it's a lot less than you think, but it does vary between individuals. I would think for most, including elites, the warm up doesn't need to be more than 10-15 minutes. Cool down about the same. Those doing 3-4 miles and more are doing nothing more than padding their mileage and quite possibly negatively impacting their race

or workout performance

samcallan wrote:

George Ilie wrote:

I like rope skipping before and after.

Before - for warm up.

After - for clean up.

Rope skipping helps the lymphatic system to expel toxins.

What "toxins"?

Arsenic, cadmium, mercury, lead and chromium are all airborne pollutants we breathe when we run.

How rope skipping helps remove them more than any other activity or inactivity is doubtful though.

You can't exercise without using lactate to make ATP so there's that.

Grassrunner wrote:

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.

This is just a pile of bro science a.k.a. garbage.

"Lowers your heart rate"?

You know what lowers your heart rate more?? Walking. Resting. You don't run to lower your heart rate.

"Eliminate waste products?"

This is an old wives tale. 'Run for 20 minutes are all of that lactate will just sit there' No. It will be cleared whether or not you cool down. No measurable difference.

"Repairs micro injuries"???

In no possible world does running at ANY pace "repair" an injury.

i find it great to kick off the recovery. Sure, it feels like crap doing it and I used to hate doing them but when I stopped I noticed that my legs didn't recover as well. Maybe it helps shake out some of the junk from the workout, idk.

I don't believe in a cool down for cool down's sake. we do it for the mileage. i don't obsess over it. if we're at an indoor meet, and there is a foot of snow outside, forget about it.

it's just a good way to pick up 8 to 10 miles per week.

i am also straight up with my runners about it. I say there is conflicting information about it. if you want to look it up, there is a lot online. THe biggest boost you are going to get is the extra miles added to your base.

I never warmed down. And look at me today.