Is It Necessary To Cool Down After Exercise?

Stretching after a run in the rain

Back when I was working at the old National Stadium, I'll very often before work or during lunch time run on the track or grass surrounding the track.  Straight after I was done, I'll head right in to the clinic. A person walking past commented how I could do that.

I said I just stopped after running and am heading for the showers as my next patient was due soon. He said I should be doing a cool down after such a hard run.

Well, I was in a hurry to get ready for my patient. I'm sure the patient wouldn't like a sweaty, dripping physiotherapist treating him.

Looking back since primary school, I recall our physical education teachers telling us that we need to cool down after exercise and especially after a race/ competition.

Personal trainers will tell their clients that slowing to a jog and/ or lessening the intensity of the workout followed by stretching to transition out of the exercise session so as to prevent muscle soreness and improve recovery.

Some exercise machines in the gym automatically include a cool down period. After your work out time that you keyed in, the machine automatically reduces the workload and continues for five minutes so you can cool down.

I tried looking for scientific evidence regarding that and it seems none of those beliefs were true.

A study had subjects do a strenuous one time session of forward lunges while holding barbells. This is certain to make untrained people extremely sore due to DOMs over the next few days.

Some of the subjects warmed up before by cycling 20 mins gently. Others didn't warm up but did a cool down after the lunges with a similar 20 mins of gentle stationary bike riding. The rest of the group just did the lunges without warm up or cool down.

The next day, the subjects who warmed up had the least pain while there those who did the cool down and the control group had similar pain. Cooling down brought no benefits to the group.

Two other studies I found on professional football players performing cool down versus no cool down yielded the same result. Measures of performance, flexibility and muscle soreness were similar.

One valid reason to cool down after exercise is to prevent venous pooling (or build up of blood in your veins) after vigorous exercise. Blood vessels in your legs expand during prolonged vigorous exercise, allowing more blood to move through them to supply oxygen. When you stop exercise abruptly, the blood stays in your lower body. This can lead to dizziness or even fainting.

It's easy to avoid venous pooling, just keep walking for a few minutes at the end of your workout/ race and you'll maintain normal blood supply to the brain. Would you consider that as a cool down?

So, there's no real published research showing any negative effect if you don't cool down. If you are used to performing a cool down after your exercise, you can definitely carry on. If you don't feel like it, then you probably don't have too.

Unless future research shows otherwise, don't worry if your friend/ trainer/ coach tells you that you need to cool down after exercise.

References

Olsen O, Sjohaug M et al (2012). The Effect Of Warm-up And Cool Down Exercise On Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness In The Quadriceps Muscle: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Human Kinetics. 35: 59-68. DOI: 10.2478/v10078-012-0079-4.

Rey E Lago-Penas C et al (2012). The Effect Of Immediate Post-training Active And Passive Recovery Interventions On Anaerobic Performance And Lower Limb Flexibility In Professional Soccer Players. J Human Kinetics. 31: 121-129. DOI: 10.2478/v10078-012-0013-9.

Rey E Lago-Penas C et al (2012). The Effect of Recovery Strategies On Contractile Properties Using Tensiomyography And Perceived Muscle Soreness In Professional Soccer Players. J Strength Cond Res. 26(11): 3081-3088.