You might often struggle to squeeze workouts into your hectic schedule – to the extent that, after an exercise session, you skip the cool down out of a belief that it is an insufficiently good use of time. However, you would be very mistaken on that point…
In truth, you should set aside time for a cool down after every workout. Wrapping up a workout in the right way can, after all, bode well for your health in the long term – for these reasons…
You can prevent feeling faint
Given how quickly blood can flow through your body as you exercise, you should avoid bringing your workout to an abrupt stop, as doing so could send your blood pressure plummeting.
As a result of this, you could feel light-headed. You could even faint due to blood pooling in your lower extremities and not returning to the heart and brain in time. Shape notes that you could also lower your body’s concentration of lactic acid when cooling down.
Your heart rate can safely slow down
During a workout, your body’s internal temperature will increase and so your blood vessels will dilate. Your heart will also beat faster than it usually would. Therefore, it’s crucial to slowly and safely lower your heart rate as part of your post-workout cool down.
If you don’t cool down, your heart rate could drop suddenly and so increase the stress on your heart – a finding of researched published by the Frontiers of Medical and Biological Engineering journal.
You can avert picking up an injury
If you manage to get through your workout without incurring an injury, imagine how galling it could be to become injured simply because you failed to add a cool down following your workout.
Injuries that can be particularly commonly suffered for this reason include sprains, strains and tears to the lower back, knees, hamstrings, hip flexors and quadriceps. However, by carrying out post-workout exercises including stretching the hips and spine, it’s possible to reduce the likelihood.
You can become more flexible
Want to give your body a greater degree of physical flexibility? It would be best for you to work on this while your body is still completely warm and you are sweating.
However, avoid launching into a toe touch straight after a session on the treadmill. Instead, heed expert advice to initially do some dynamic stretches. Through doing this, you can make yourself less injury-prone, reduce pain in your back and enhance your athletic performance.
Allow the relaxation to set in
An especially powerful benefit of exercise is how it can imbue you with confidence, as Verywell Fit acknowledges. As you enter the cool down stage, you could reflect on what you have achieved during the session and congratulate yourself for working hard.
Making time to feel grateful in this way can cultivate a more relaxed mood – especially if you are at a bootcamp in an exotic setting like Spain or Portugal. You could book your place at such a retreat.