Is the Exercise Cool-Down Really Necessary? | Hacker News Reader

Is the Exercise Cool-Down Really Necessary?

nytimes.com

19 pointsmhb27 comments

I swam for a D-III school and our coach insisted on a long cool down after every swim meet. It was just ingrained in me that if I didn't do a cool down that I would have built up lactic acid or something that would make me stiff and unable to practice well the next day.

Then one year we went to watch a meet between Texas and Michigan, two top D-I teams that have Olympic champions. At the end of the meet, both teams just packed up and went home, and not a single person did a cool down. I was shocked! It made me realize that a cool down probably wasn't necessary, but I was still required to do it anyways. Our coach didn't really reply to me when I asked him about it.

One thing that those teams did was stretch A LOT before the meet. I think they did something like a full 40 minutes of stretching before they even got in the pool.

I've never seen the point of stretching cold muscles. I don't even warm up before a Marathon. The first mile will be easy anyway as the pack thins out, why waste energy warming up?

As for cool down, the key is this: after a long run, your muscles will be weak. If you cross the finish line and just flop down, that's when you're likely to get hurt, there is not enough tension to protect your joints. A warm down forces you to retain your posture while you recover a bit. That is the mechanism for injury prevention, not flushing lactic acid or whatever.

A lot of young people don't bother stretching at all. However, almost anyone who is middle-aged and is capable of doing the same workouts they did when they were young attribute their ability to work to a committed stretch program. Flexibility is one thing I've really been working on as I near the ripe age of 30.

Stretching afterwards can be a part of the cool-down (tho' Runner's World recently recommended against it, as it would cause further damage). How supple you need to be depends on your sport - it's not one size fits all.

> is capable of doing the same workouts they did when they were young attribute their ability to work to a committed stretch program.

Said folks may be correct, but that just tells us that stretching is valuable. It doesn't imply that warm up and/or cool down is useful, even if many of those folks do their stretching as part of warm up/cool down.

The stretching isn't important as a cool-down, rather it is helpful to do stretching while the muscles are warm and relaxed (the muscles being tired has similar benefits as being relaxed).

One thing that those teams did was stretch A LOT before the meet

Static or dynamic?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/sports/playmagazine/112pew...

I think it was some static stretching with some dynamic stretch cord exercises.

If you aren't doing anything extremely strenuous, then no it probably isn't necessary. But I've done a 100m and 200m sprint and me slamming the breaks at the end generally results in either me feeling faint or simply passing out.

I've never really paid attention to why a cool down was necesary, nor did any of my coaches require it. I just did it because after a good run your sweat glands are wide open and it feels uncomfortable to stand still in the humid, Florida sun.

Accoding to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/health/02well.html?_r=2... , cooling(as in taking it slow) in marathons helps with the fainting/passing out.

Wasn't there this story of a 40+ european guy winning grueling competitions based on sheer stamina than performance.It was a story on Nytimes, couldn't find it.

is this it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/sports/playmagazine/05robi...

I also feel uncomfortable going from 60 to 0 without a gradual cool-down. My cool-down is pretty short, generally 5 minutes and involves me just moving around a little, drinking some water, and doing stretches. Even if its completely unnecessary, I still prefer to, and stretching is always a good thing.

>and stretching is always a good thing.

Dynamic is. Classic static "stretch and hold for 20 seconds" stretching isn't. It's actually hurting you.

I loved this sentence:

”Everyone thinks it’s an established fact," he added, "so they don’t study it."

I wonder how many other places we encounter that this would apply to.

It's well-established that this wouldn't apply to those places.

And the answer (from the article and what I've read elsewhere): no, not as far as any study has ever been able to determine.

there is only one agreed-on fact about the possible risk of suddenly stopping intense exercise. When you exercise hard, the blood vessels in your legs are expanded to send more blood to your legs and feet. And your heart is pumping fast. If you suddenly stop, your heart slows down, your blood is pooled in your legs and feet, and you can feel dizzy, even pass out.

Which is why you sit down or bend over, no?

Marathon runners do a pretty intense workout .. I've never seen one of them do a warm-down at the end.

Similarly a study a couple of years ago by the Australian military (someone Google that for me!) said that warm-ups didn't alter the rates of injury during physical activity.

Marathon runners don't do an intense workout. It's an endurance sport and peak output is nowhere near what a sprinter does.

Run many Marathons?

What is the average running speed of a man? Between 13-20 mph http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_running_speed_... If you define running as 13+MPH then nobody in the history of the world has ever run a Marathon. Yet, some people can run at twice that pace for short distances. So when looking at Intensity as in the instantaneous output, Marathons don't really compare.

All I'm saying is, you run 26 miles then sprint the last 0.1 and tell me it's not intense.

>Marathon runners don't do an intense workout. It's an endurance sport and peak output is nowhere near what a sprinter does.

It's easy to say that from the couch.

Odds are overwhelming that both you, and 99% of the people commenting on this site are incapable of running a mile in under 5 minutes or even a single lap around a 400m track in 75 seconds. Top marathon runners average a higher speed than that for over 2 hours. Winners occasionally have a sub 4 minute mile within the race.

A mile is still an endurance sport. There is a reason the world record for 200m is slower than twice 100m even though they both start from a dead stop and it takes several seconds to hit top speed.

Edit: I dealt with limited lung capacity for a while, it can be vary obvious once you start needing a lot of oxygen really quickly. You can run fast from a dead stop, but distance and recovery time can become insane.

Actually the 100m and 200m records are about the same speed. It's 9.58 for the 100m and 19.19 for the 200m. And before this August when Bolt shattered his previous 100m record, the 200m record was significantly faster than the 100m.

But in any case, both miles and marathons are incredibly intense workouts. In fact, from a physiological standpoint, middle distances are more intense than sprints. Less than 400m isn't even enough to push someone to their lactate threshold. Short sprints are run on the fuel already in the muscles. Obviously, it still takes intense training (and the right genes) to sprint well, though.

http://www.halhigdon.com/15Ktraining/Stretch.htm http://www.indoorclimbing.com/stretching.html

stretch beforehand to prevent injury and after to remove lactic acid and soreness. it's been stressed to me on several occasions that stretching post-exercise is critical, and at our gym we do 10min of yoga after a 1-1.5hr cardio session. i'm still getting used to some of the exercises and my calves need constant stretching or they get tight and painful.

But if lactic acid isn't responsible for soreness...?

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