Cooling Down

For most people, after they have just had a hard and satisfying workout on the track doing a speed workout for instance, the last thing that they want to do is go run an extra mile or two. The workout is the challenging part, and you feel so good once you finish it, that it is annoying when you realize that you still have to go jog around for a little while. The cool down can be very important though, and it is not necessarily something to skimp on.

Unless you have nearly superhuman will power, we have all at one time or another cheated a little bit on the cool down. You remember what I mean, the time when you ran 4 laps instead of 6 because you knew no one would notice, or the time you cut around the block and didn't complete the whole cool down route. Now this may seem harmless, and it is pretty harmless if you skimp on the workout infrequently, but the trouble comes when people consistently skip their cool down. Like I said before, cool downs can suck, but they can also prevent your body from getting injured and help your muscles feel better and more refreshed the day after a tough speed workout when your muscles built up a lot of lactic acid. 

            The cool down is meant to allow you muscles to relax a little bit while you jog around so that your body does not have to go from 100% working and being built up and broken down to being not used anymore and hardening. The cool down provides your body with an in-between state that allows muscles to relax and loosen up. This loosing up of your muscles acts to prevent muscle strains and tears. In addition, cooling down helps to release some of the lactic acid that has built up in your muscles during the workout so that you do not feel as tight when you are trying to get out of bed the next morning.

           Essentially the cool down can be thought of as a stretch that can only be beneficial, so at the next practice when you have to go for a  2 mile cool down following a taxing interval workout, think of the jog as a time to wind down, catch up with your teammates, and care for your body.