Question about treadmill - cool down

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orangelobster
orangelobster Posts: 151
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone (anyone)

5 or 6 days a week I've been doing basic treadmill stuff - brisk walk (3.6), slow jog (4.2), full out run (6.0 or 6.6) - alternating between these. I seem to be making some progress as to how long I can run and how fast I recover (heart rate wise).

I keep it up for 30 to 40 minutes and burn a minimum of 300 calories or so (I know these things are notoriously inaccurate).

My question:

The machine I uses wants a full 5 minutes cool down and I simply don't have that kind of time. I am usually doing this on my lunch break and it's tough enough to squeeze in a decent session in the time I do have.

How important is this full 5 minute cool down? Doesn't wiping down the machine, doing some stretches, walking to the change room, taking a shower, getting dressed and then walking to my office count as a cool down?

Advice anyone? Currently I'm doing like a 2 minute cool down.

Replies

  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
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    Not entirely necessary. Yes, you need some cool down. Depending on how hard you worked that could be as simple as walking to the locker room.

    I think stretching is more important than that 5 minute treadmill cool down.
  • drgndancer
    drgndancer Posts: 426 Member
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    I hate treadmills, but like most runners I find them an occasional necessary evil. I usually just don't set a time on the treadmill or set it to a much longer time that I actually plan to run. When I'm done I either do a shorter cool down manually by slowing the belt down or just hit stop and start doing some stretching. The five minutes that the treadmill tries to force on you isn't really necessary.
  • orangelobster
    orangelobster Posts: 151
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    thanks for advice guys, my dream is to actually get off the treadmill and run outside like a "real runner". However, weather in this part of the world makes that extra challenging.

    Plus I want to get it up to the point where I am actually running for a significant amount of time before going outside (currently I can only go about 5 minutes before I have to revert to quick walk for a minute or so)

    Ultimately I want to do some marathons or iron man type things - I don't need to win, I just need to be a contender.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    I get off and carry on with my day. Even if I do a 30 to 45 minute run outside I don't do any more cool down than get a drink of water, take off my shoes and head for the shower. I haven't died yet.

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