Cooling Down.
25 February 2013
I see a lot of amateur sports people. A big thing they all have in common is generally the lack of a cool down or warm up for that matter.
Why is it important?
The main key here is injury prevention. I can testify that this works as I myself used to train twice a day 6 days a week at one point. If I didn’t cool down, I was very sore the next day.
How to do it?
The best cool down is static stretches. Which is putting the muscle into a stretch and holding it there between 20 – 30 seconds.
For example after a run, I would have walked a few minutes first (gentle active stretch) and then did a static stretch on the legs in general, hips and torso.
How long?
Generally the longer the better. But at the very least if you are in push for time, do 5 minutes minimum but 10 – 15 minutes is preferable.
(Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net)