Should you stretch and cool down after a workout?

RunTimer

I favor the POST WORKOUT STRETCH. I've been told that stretching before hand TIRES the muscles (so you can't get the full performance from them). True or no, I find my body reacts best to a cool down than a warm up. And stretching gives me that pause, Mentally and physically, to get back to 'normal'

For more information on post/pre stretching (links within)
http://run-that.com/2014/11/12/its-a-stretch/

slucki01

two really important things that will make a huge difference as you age -- moving and stretching.

RangedLunatic

After a run I need to walk a bit to cool down... easy enough if I run from my apartment, since I can walk through the parking lot and up the stairs and such.

I noticed about two months ago that when I'm running away from home, if I run right up to my car and sit down I'll start feeling faint, vision going grey... it's impending hypotensive syncope, and it would be a very very bad thing if I'd already started the car. :-)

This was never something I encountered back when I was in worse shape, by the way. When My normal blood pressure was 140/90 no little dip after a run would affect me enough to notice. Now that it's closer to 105 the safety margin is a lot thinner.

ninerbuff

Tracey_B_72 wrote: »

ninerbuff wrote: »

Smallc10 wrote: »

Actually if you watch the Olympics - I'm going to reference swimming because it's the most obvious - they have a pool dedicated to cooling down after a race so yes, I have seen athletes do a cool down. In fact I've seen them cut their post race interviews short so that they can get to the cool down pool.

Hmm, I haven't seen it, but that could be due to editing.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

I watched all of the last olympics, actually had the whole time off to watch it and they used to show the swimmers in the cool down pool, divers go of to a cool down pool too and if you watch road cycling and the velodrome you'll see riders on rollers cooling down, then there's the tennis players at wimbledon who have their practice courts where they warm up, I watched a programme on Andy Murray before now and he has ice baths after a game and even had one in a wheelie bin.

I think if these athletes from this mix of sports warm up and cool down theres got to be something in it.

I saw the pools divers got in after a dive, but it looked more like they were waiting in there for their scores. They didn't really cool down either because they still had more dives to do. So did they hang around after the event was over? And with the water swirling around, are those pools warm water?
Ice baths aren't cool downs but actual therapeutic for inflammed muscles. Also common with football players. Ice reduces inflammation.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

maxit

I often get feel faint if I stop a workout when my HR is above 130, so I always keep moving until my heart rate is under 90 (my resting HR is ~47) - it doesn't take long and beats face-planting. Stretching afterwards just feels wonderful.

Sam_I_Am77

RunTimer wrote: »

I favor the POST WORKOUT STRETCH. I've been told that stretching before hand TIRES the muscles (so you can't get the full performance from them). True or no, I find my body reacts best to a cool down than a warm up. And stretching gives me that pause, Mentally and physically, to get back to 'normal'

For more information on post/pre stretching (links within)
http://run-that.com/2014/11/12/its-a-stretch/

Interesting that they would post a blog like that and not post any of the research. First, there are many ways to stretch. Stretching does not tire your muscles before hand and if you stretch properly then you will not hurt yourself. Why should you stretch? When you make a certain movement you have agonist and antagonist muscles. For instance, when you flex your knee that is your hamstrings working as the agonist muscle and your quadriceps (antagonist) should relax to allow the flexion to occur. However, if the quadriceps stay active during knee flexion then proper flexion will not occur and this is how some injuries occur. That situation is called Altered Reciprocal Inhibition. With that being said, if you go into any workout without proper mobility then you actually have a greater risk of injuring yourself then you would if you stretched.

Now, how should your stretch? Keep in mind that this is based on NASM's approach to mobility as it relates to exercise. If you have muscles that are overly tight to where some movement imbalance exists, then pre-workout and post-workout static stretching would be appropriate. A static stretch should be held for 30-seconds. Research does show that as you exceed 45-sec's and get to around 1-min then muscle inhibition can occur. When using static stretching you should follow-up that stretch with Active Isolation or Dynamic stretching to regain any lost neuromuscular control. If you're just a little stiff and need to get your muscles working, then pre-workout you can use Active Isolation Stretching instead of Static. Basically you move the muscle through a range of motion and hold the stretch for 2-sec's but repeat for 5 to 10 reps. You can also do Self-Myofacial Release (SMR) before stretching by means of a foam roller , lacrosse ball, tennis ball, etc.

Before exercise it's a good idea to do some form of mobility work based on your immediate needs. Using myself as an example, I have a very tight piriformis, hip flexors, and quadratus lumborum. Pre-workout I do SMR for those 3 muscles, static stretching for 30-secs, but then I use a Dynamic movement that affects those areas, something like a V-Roll.

There are studies out there that display injury related to stretching, however; don't take a blog's word for it. Go actually read those studies and see what population of people were affected, what type of stretching interventions were done, and what types of injuries actually occurred. Simply saying a study says "x" can be very misleading if you don't understand all aspects of what was actually studied. But when you think about stretching and you understand the basic kinematics of movement and understand the consequences of poor kinematics, then you'll understand why stretching is important.

MargaretSobers

I want to share something with you all. Actually when I started my gym I got very tired and full of stress. So that I decide to not continue. But that time I was very fat. So my mom forced me to go to the gym. Also I was facing Eczema. But truely saying when I continue my yoga and exercise, I started feeling happy and slowly become slim. Because of yoga also my skin become glowing. By regular exercise and use of TCM Recipe product, Traditional Eczema Remedy, I got rid of this disease.

lulucitron

I warmed up when I played volleyball but that's just what the coach did...we jogged, skipped and did drills before we started play but we didn't stretch after...our cool down was taking down the net and putting away the volleyballs. For the gym, my warm up is no weight or light weight at first and I don't stretch after. I superset as a rule so I do my exercises back to back so my muscles never get cold. The only break I take is when I drink water or set up for another exercise. I'm out of the gym quickly. I do practice yoga twice a week so that's my stretch time. Plus I'm a sweaty mess at the end and don't like lying on gym mats. If I'm very sore or injured I'll use my foam roller or tennis balls at home but that's not really stretching.

ninerbuff

At the end of lots of my classes we do 20/10 HIIT intervals (not true Tabata protocol) and when we're done, I have them walk it off and watch the clock to see how their recovery goes. Obviously the faster one recovers (heart beat back to normal) the fitter they are. Then a couple of dynamic stretches and they have their choice to stay after the class (since I'm usually the last class of the day in the evenings in our PT room) and do their own stretching.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition