Why should I cool down? I’m gonna go home and rest anyways….That’s exactly why you should cool down after a workout. We all understand that we should warm up before workouts, but may not understand what a sufficient warm up is, which was talked about in “The Importance of Warming Up.” A lesser percentage understand the importance of cooling your body down after training. If you already have this as a part of your training regimen, then you’re ahead of the curve. Hopefully this will help anyone else still suffering from injuries, regardless of warming up.
During training sessions at 10th Planet Van Nuys, muscle fiber, tendons, and ligaments undergo a lot of stress, causing waste product such as lactic acid to build up around each of these. So, you know when the soreness hits you a day later than you originally expected? If you perform a correct cool down, you can significantly reduce muscle soreness! Once all the blood and waste product has built up around your muscles, it begins to stiffen the muscle, causing swelling and pain. With a proper cool down, it helps in returning blood back to the heart in sufficient quantity to relieve the muscles of lactic acid. Again, the cool down may take just as long as the warm up, but it is very important and very much worth it once you begin to experience the results of it yourselves. Every cool down should consist of:
10 minutes of jogging – this will slowly lower your heart rate
10 – 15 minutes of static stretching (holding deep stretches) – focus on major muscle groups or muscles used the most during workout
and believe it or not, the final stage in the cool down process, is your post workout meal! All 3 of these factors work together to ensure muscle growth and recovery. Don’t sell your workouts short! You’re not training everyday to NOT see results, are you? Take the proper steps to keep your body going and feeling great! Stay healthy and keep training!
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Mike Frausto 
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