What is Cooldown? What Are the Best Cooldown Exercises?

Cooldown is bringing the body back to its normal physiological level by gradually slowing the pace of activity after a strenuous activity or by doing light exercises and stretching.

Cooldowns are exercises you need to do after a workout to help get your heart rate back to normal, to avoid fainting or fainting due to a sudden stop. It is the opposite of warm-up exercises.

Specifically, the cooldown will help your body slowly regulate and cool down, depending on the intensity of your exercise, there are ways to cool down, for example, jogging at a fast pace, then you should continue running from there. Then slow down for a few more minutes and then rest.

Performing this cooldown will help you better limit injury and muscle soreness.

Common consequences of not doing cooldowns

During exercise, your veins will dilate to accommodate the increased blood volume caused by an increased heart rate, if stopping suddenly can cause complications such as the following:

• Varicose vein.
• Fainting, dizzy.
• Heart failure (If you have a history of heart disease).
• Increased chance of injury especially to the ankle.

How to perform cooldown effectively?

As mentioned above, depending on the level and intensity of your exercise, you will perform the cooldown accordingly. And we have 3 steps as follows:

✅✑Step 1: Reduce the intensity again, the most optimal time is in 3-7 minutes. For example, if you are jogging very fast, you are tired, so you should start running slowly for 3-7 minutes and then stop completely.

✅✑Step 2: We also have stretching exercises after exercise to help muscles reduce pain, recover faster and develop better. At this step remember to breathe deeply and evenly. This is a step that is often overlooked by runners.

✅✑Step 3: Drink more water, you should drink more water that can replenish electrolytes to help your body relax and compensate for the amount of water lost during exercise.

The importance of stretching after exercise

As we all know, stretching after exercise is an important step, but it is often overlooked. Stretching exercises will restore the elasticity of the muscles, reducing inflammation and pain.
Stretching helps to remove Lactic Acid in the muscles, increasing flexibility. Each stretch should last for 10-30 seconds and be done to the point of discomfort but not pain.

After accelerating, run slowly or walk gently for about 3-7 minutes, avoiding a complete stop. Running time and speed depends on the fitness of each person.  At the same time, this also helps the heart rate and muscles can return to normal.

Some Of The Best Cooldown Exercises

You can devote 5-10 minutes a day to stretching, either before or after your weight training or cardio, just make sure you warm up before you do this.

Warm-up

You need to warm your muscles up with a brisk walk, jog, jumping jacks or anything to get your body moving and blood pumping. Once you are warmed up then it is alright to do some stretching but doin this before warming up can actually create problems and pulled muscles.

Also don’t just focus on your arms and legs, you need to address all of your joints and muscles from your neck to your ankles. The easiest way to remember to address all joints or muscles is to start at the top or bottom and work your way up or your way down.

Depending on what you’re going to do for exercise you will need to focus a little bit more in this area. If you are going for a run then pay extra attention to your waist, hips, hip flexors, thighs, calves and ankles.

If you are going to do an upper body weight lifting program then work on your neck, shoulders arms wrists, back and again your waist.

Here are some cooldown exercises for your whole body

1- Neck Stretch

Target Muscles: Neck

2- Shoulder Stretch

Target Muscles: Shoulder, Triceps, Latissimius Dorsi

3- Reverse Shoulder Stretch

Target Muscles: Shoulder, Biceps

4- Assisted Reverse Stretch

Target Muscles: Shoulder, Chest and Biceps

5- Pec Stretch

Target Muscles: Chest, Back, Biceps, Forearm

6- Standing One Arm Stretch

Target Muscles: Chest, Biceps, Forearm

7- Scapular Protraction and Retraction

Target Muscles: Scapular, Traps

8- Cobra Pose

Target Muscles: Rectus Abdominis, Obliques, Chest, Back

9- Frog Pose

Target Muscles: Quadriceps, Hamstring, Rectus Abdominis, Shoulder

10- Cow Pose

Target Muscles: Erector Spinae, Latissimus Dorsi, Abdominis, Gluteus

11- Supine Spinal Twist

Target Muscles: Erector Spinae, Obliques, Rectus Abdominis, Quadriceps, Glutes

12- Camel Pose

Target Muscles: Chest, Rectus Abdominis, Quadriceps, Shoulder, Erector Spinae, Pelvic Floor

13- Seated Toe Touch

Target Muscles: Erector Spinae, Hamstring, Calves

14- Quad Stretch

Target Muscles: Quadriceps

15- Hamstring Stretch

Target Muscles: Hamstring, Calves, Glutes

16- Glute Stretch

Target Muscles: Glutes, Hamstring

17- Priformis Stretch

Target Muscles: Hips, Hamsting

18- 90/90 Hip Stretch

Target Muscles: Hips, Inner thigh, İliotibial Band, Obliques

19- Hip Flexor Stretch

Target Muscles: Glutes, Hamstring, Quadriceps

20- Adductor Stretch

Target Muscles: Adductor Magnus, Adductor Longus, Glutes, Hamsting, Calves, Shoulder, Biceps

Bonus: Roller Massage

Treat yourself to a nice massage! You can use almost anything to give you muscles a nice post-workout massage, but foam rollers work very well. However you can use almost anything with a cylinder-like shape. This helps to loosen up the muscle even further, while releasing toxins.