What are the physical downsides of not doing a cool down after a strenuous workout? I know that your muscles tend to stiffen up, but are their any negative effects on your heart going form 160 bpm down to 80 bpm on it’s own without the recommended cool down period? Let’s say you step off the treadmill after an hour of exercise? Am I doing my body any real harm?
Really? Nobody does this but me?
bump…
It’s perfectly natural for your heart to go from 160 bpm to 80 bpm…the purpose of the cooldown has nothing to do with safely reducing your heart rate.
So is there any downside to skipping the cool down period besides the possibility of muscle cramping? If it doesn’t really matter why do most exercise programs make such a big deal about doing it?
Because muscle cramping is a bitch, and because in general slow changes are better than sudden ones. And I’m just thinking out loud here, but one of the muscles that works hard in any workout is the heart - “muscle cramps on the pericardium” has some really ugly technical names.
Naah, I do it too. I just don’t know if it’s a bad idea or not
I don’t do a cool-down but I don’t exercise at extreme intensity, either.
I think the primary benefit to a cool-down is to prevent blood from pooling in intensely-used muscles after activity stops, especially leg muscles. Your leg muscles tend to pump back the blood. If you run a quarter-mile sprint then suddenly just stop you could get light-headed or even faint as blood pools in your legs. I don’t know whether cooling down has anything do to with cramping.
Had a run on Monday and didn’t take the time to stretch and cool down, because I was freaking cold and thought I’d go ahead and get in the car and wait to get home to stretch.
Well, my legs were in pain the whole way, and when I finally arrived it took an hour to get them loose again. Probably would have been a good idea to just stay in the cold a bit longer and work them before I left.
3 times a week at lunch I run 5K in about 20 minutes, getting my heart rate up to about 90-95% of max. My ‘cool down’ usually consists of walking about 1-2 minutes afterwards. I do that because it feels natural to, I don’t want to just stop immediately. After that I hit the showers and change - so my body is still moving. But I don’t do much more.
I imagine if I finished my run and immediately sat on a couch to watch TV it wouldn’t feel ‘right’. But I also don’t feel like I need a 10 minute light jog/stretch to get back to normal either.
I’ll stop and walk the last 100 meters or so when I’m out for a run (usually 3-7 miles), and hop in the shower as soon as I walk in the door. If I do something like an elliptical workout I just hop off the machine when I’m done and sort of pace around the room for a minute. I wouldn’t call either of these a proper cool-down routine, and I’ve never had any ill effects (cramping and whatnot). My typical stretching routine takes about 20 seconds to complete as well, and I don’t notice any problems there either.
I should have pointed out that the run I was referring to was a ‘long’ run to me, and in the snow, so my hamstrings were thrashed and rebelled. A normal run, I walk 5 minutes or so afterward then stretch, but if I skip it for whatever reason, I don’t suffer any ill effects.
Well, until an MD tells me that I should do a proper cool down I will continue to follow my normal routine and just get off the treadmill without bothering to cool down.
It’s not like I am sprinting as hard as I can and then stop cold. I’ve been doing it this way for 30 years and haven’t noticed any side effects from it.
My 5-mile run ends about a quarter-mile from my front door, and i use that quarter-mile as my cool down period. I walk it briskly, then more slowly, until i’m at a regular strolling pace when i get home. It’s not as much of a cool down as some authorities recommend, but i’ve never suffered any post-run cramping or other problems.
Personally, if I work hard all day and just slam on the brakes, I feel like crap for about 90 minutes and then my lips turn blue and I pass out. It really freaks people out, but I happened to be in a hospital when this happened once and they rushed me to the ER and spent $40,000 to tell me my heart and brain are perfectly healthy and my blood pressure is just fine and maybe I should just be careful to have a cooldown period so this sort of thing doesn’t happen. YMMV
Thanks Emtar KronJonDerSohn. Good to know. I have never had this feeling, but if I ever do I will seriously consider adding a cool down period.
I rarely do a cooldown. I think it’s more about giving yourself time to sweat it out before getting in the shower, because I know if I hop right in the shower I’ll still be sweating as I’m getting dressed. Makes for an uncomfortable day at work when my clothes are sweaty.
I don’t think it has anything to do with your muscles. I tend to just sit somewhere and sweat until I’m done, then head for the showers.
Nuff said.
If you’ve been doing it for 30 years w/o ill effects, why raise the question now? As CookingWithGas posted, the primary problem is getting light-headed or even fainting, as your blood has pooled into your working muscles. Cooling down keeps the blood flowing better, thus providing enough blood for your brain. Obviously, this has not been a problem for you.
I ask now because even if I have been doing something for 30 years with no obvious ill effect that doesn’t mean I’m not damaging something. When I read about different exercise programs they always mention the need to “warm up” and “cool down” properly, although they never mention why it matters so much.
I would hate to drop dead from a heart attack only to hear afterwards that “he really should have cooled down properly and this would have never happened”. 
What do you mean by “work hard all day”?