The Purpose of a Cool Down for Distance Runners?
After a Saturday morning long run with your local running group you decide to hop in your car and drive 10 minutes home. Once home you head to the shower to freshen up and are off to enjoy the rest of your day. However, did we just miss a golden opportunity of injury prevention and recovery with a post-run cool down? The answer too that question is YES!
Not only did our runner mentioned above fail to cool down after his run, but he failed to take advantage of a cool down that can have injury prevention benefits and maintain his mobility.
A cool down after a run is meant to return the body to its baseline level of function. This includes a lower level of activity that will redistribute blood flow, enhancing lactic acid and other metabolic waste removal from muscles, reducing the body temperature, decreasing your heart rate, and returning to a normal breathing rate.
In the case of our runner above, he went from a high level of activity in running to a very low level of activity, sitting, in a short period of time. This 10 minutes spent sitting driving home in the car actually becomes your cool down! Cooling down while sitting is not what you want. Why? Because your bodies tissues will shorten and adapt to that position.
Also, your bodies lymphatic and venous system will not be able to clear the metabolic waste as efficiently in the sitting position and this will interrupt your recovery process. In other words, lactic acid and metabolic waste will build up and take longer to clear out.
Now that we know the benefits of a cool down, how do we fit one into our busy schedule? Great question! I want you to dedicate the last half mile of your run to your cool down. Thats right! Instead of running the last half mile, slow down the pace to a slow jog or walk, add in lunges with a twist, step grab pulls, heel walks, toe walks, side lunges, etc. Use this time to still move, but move with less intensity.
The great thing about this is we can target specific areas that are “ Hot Spots”. Now a hot spot is an area of our body that is giving us issues. It’s not necessarily keeping us from running, however it is an area that is painful and we are aware of it.
For instance, this could be knee pain that occasionally acts up. If this knee pain were to arrive during our run we could add some dynamic cool downs and specifically target this area to make sure there’s less metabolic waste and there is less tissue tightness that may occur after exercise.
What if you perform a proper cool down and then have to go to work and sit for 8 hours a day? Great question! The answer is to stay as active as you can! Frequently stand up at your desk and reset yourself ( will talk about reseting ourselves in our next blog post!). Shoot for every 30 minutes. Now, what if I want to try a standing desk? Is that good for me? How do I stand the right way? These questions and more will be answered on our next Blog Post: STANDING DESKS. Are they worth it, and how to stand properly!
Have more questions our Maryland physical therapy clinic specializes in PT for runners. We have three clinic locations in Gaithersburg, Frederick, and Columbia. Reach out for a free consultation.
