The Importance Of Cooling Down After You Exercise
There are many articles about warming up before exercise. It's important to warm the muscles to get them pliable and avoid injury. However, cooling down after exercise is just as important, but it's often skipped. Why? In some cases, people don't realize it's important, but in most cases, they're tired and mentally done with anything that involves moving one more minute. It doesn't have to be that difficult. You can cool down, without significantly adding to your workout time.
When you first finish your workout, your circulation is increased.
The increased circulation sends the blood supply to all parts of the body, warming every muscle. Much of the blood remains in the limbs. If you suddenly stop, it can cause the blood to pool in the extremities. If you suddenly stop, it can lead to blood pooling in the arms and legs because of reduced circulation. When that happens, there's not enough for the brain and people feel dizzy, weak ,or faint. In most cases, it's not a medical emergency, if you have a pre-existing condition, it can be. It can also cause injuries from falling.
Taking a few minutes to cool down can aid in recovery.
DOMS----delayed onset muscle soreness---is a condition that happens approximately 24 to 48 hours after a workout. It causes sudden pain that's almost unbearable. It can happen after an intense strength-building exercise or after a long run. It causes abnormal muscle contractions that occur due to microtears in the muscle. A California State University study following participants after strength training showed that cycling sessions to cool down reduced the potential for DOMS dramatically. The conclusion was that the mild circulation and stretching of cool down aided in muscle relaxation, lowering the risk.
Cooling down helps avoid injuries.
Just like warming up helps prevent injuries, the same is true of cooling down, but not as directly. When you warm up, you loosen the muscles, an intense workout adds to that flexibility. After working out, leg muscles can feel like jelly. The warmed muscles are pliable, making it the perfect time to do range-of-motion stretching as a cool-down exercise. You'll improve your range of motion while your muscles are more flexible.
- Stretching after a workout can be a cool down must be the correct type of stretching. Dynamic stretching, such as lunges, should be part of a warm-up. Static stretches that stretch and hold, like the cobra pose from yoga, are excellent for cooling down.
- Lactic acid can build up in the muscles after an intense workout. Ten minutes of cool-down exercises can help remove this waste byproduct from muscles and prevent burning pain and nausea.
- Static stretches, mild bicycling, and swimming are good exercises for cooling down. You can also modify your intense exercise, like walking after a run.
- If you aren't sure whether your body has cooled down enough, your heart rate will tell you. Cooling down allows the heart rate and breathing to return to normal, lowering body temperature and increasing endorphins.
For more information, contact us today at Habitat Health & Fitness
People exercise for many reasons. Some like the energy it gives them or the exhilaration felt after working out hard. Others appreciate the changes it makes in their bodies and how good they look. Most people know that working out also provides health benefits when it's done regularly. Even when people exercise to lose weight, better health is often one of the reasons for weight loss. While seeing body changes doesn't happen overnight, you'll often notice more energy relatively quickly and feel less stress almost immediately after a workout. That's because exercise is a stress buster. It burns off stress hormones and sets your body back to normal.
While working out is an important part of weight loss and fitness, nutrition also plays an important role. We have local farmers in Lakeland, FL, that grow some of the healthiest options, such as leafy greens. You get many health benefits from adding leafy greens to your diet. They're high in fiber and water content, so they're filling, yet have only a few calories, improving weight loss potential. Depending on the green, there are a wide variety of nutrients, too. The potassium in leafy greens like spinach can help reduce bloating, relieving you of excess water weight.
No matter what your age or gender, there are a lot of reasons to start working out this year. If you live in Winter Haven, FL, it's even easier to increase your activity than it is in colder climates. Walking more is one way to increase your activity and any increase is good, but is walking enough? You need more than just cardio and lower leg strength to be truly fit, which is why you should make this year devoted to your health and start working out to round out your fitness program.
Staying in shape can be difficult for busy people, but it's those same people that will benefit from it most. Maintaining a crowded schedule requires extra energy, which you'll have if you workout regularly. Busy people often are under stress, another reason is that the busier you are, the more important it is to exercise. Exercise is a stress buster. It burns off the hormones of stress and replaces them with ones that make you feel good.
A lot of people focus on losing weight to get healthier, and sometimes do it to excess. They fret if they've gained a pound and get ecstatic when they've lost one. While losing weight is an excellent goal, in the general scheme of things, it doesn't matter, especially if you're losing inches. When you stay the same weight, but shed inches, it means you're building muscle mass. Muscle tissue weighs more per cubic inch than fat tissue does, so even if you don't lose a pound, but change your body's composition to more muscle mass, you'll be thinner and wear a smaller size.
Changing your diet to a healthier one is important for both your health and to help you lose weight, but what foods are best? In Winter Haven, FL, you hear all sorts of stories of crazy diets and stories of super foods that magically make you thinner. Unfortunately, there is no one magical food. While some foods will help boost weight loss, that food has to be part of a healthy diet if you want to be successful.
Choosing almond butter for sandwiches and snacks over peanut butter does sound a little trendier and can provide a welcomed change. Is almond butter healthier or just something different? Are you better off opting for other types of nut butters, like almond butter? What does the nutritional breakdown say?
People who choose to become vegans or vegetarians, choose a plant based lifestyle. The difference between the two is that the vegan diet is more radical. While vegetarians may not eat animal flesh, they may eat dairy products or eggs. That can make a huge difference in the available nutrients that are readily available. Clients in Winter Haven, FL, have asked whether there are pitfalls to plant based diets and whether vegans or vegetarians age faster.