Why you need to stop skipping cool-downs & stretches

Don't skip the cool-down... your body will thank you for it!

What’s so cool about cool-downs?

Let’s think of cooling down as exactly what it implies: a chance to cool your body down after a workout. It allows your speeding heart rate to slow back down to a resting rate, your body temperature to lower after sweating it out and your breathing to return to normal after gasping your way through the exercises.

Cool-downs are best to complete straight after you finish your training session and can be a reduced pace, lower intensity, active extension of your workout – think marching on the spot, slower-paced punches, an easy walk after a run – or a selection of stretches.

Yes, stretches can make up a part of, or all of, a cool-down.

Which stretch is which?

There are only two main types of stretches to get your head around: dynamic and static. The easy way to think about each stretch is when you would do them.

Dynamic stretches are best to complete before a workout – they are a moving stretch that take the muscles through their full range of motion to get them ready for workout. For example, straight leg kicks, a deep lunge with a torso reach, arm circles.

Static stretches are best to complete post-workout – they are a stretch that is held, without movement. For example, standing quad stretch, lying supine stretch, tricep stretch.

How do you find the right cool-down?

Depending on which Centr session you complete, the cool-down will be integrated at the end of the workout, or we’ll remind you to head to the Explore section afterward to select a cool-down.

In Explore, under Coached Workouts, you will find a growing collection of cool-downs and stretching sessions from your favorite trainers. Use the ‘Style’ filter to search for ‘Cool-downs’ or ‘Stretching’ and choose the session that is right for you. When you find one that hits the spot, be sure to hit ‘Save’ so you can return to it quickly in future.

You can select from different targets (upper body, lower body and full body) in order to match your cool-down to your training target, or to ensure you release muscles that are particularly tight. And while you may have just completed a functional training workout with Da Rulk, you can choose to cool down with Tahl, Alexz, Luke, Bobby, Ashley, Sylvia… take your pick!

Where cool-downs are an integrated part of your workout, the specifics will differ from trainer to trainer. While Michael Olajide Jr. will take you through a slower-paced extension of his workout as a cool-down, lowering your heart rate and slowing your breathing, Ashley and Jorge will guide you through various static stretches that concentrate on the muscles you’ve just slammed (because they’re the ones that will need to be elongated back to their pre-workout state).

And when you’ve made it through one of Zocchi’s high-powered, full-body sessions, he’ll throw an active cool-down (or active recovery) at you. This will maintain your heart rate to improve endurance, promote blood flow to counter inflammation, and reduce the build-up of lactic acid in your muscles.

Are you too cool (down) for school?

Eric can help you stretch it out to maximize both your workout AND recovery.

Cool-downs and stretching don’t need to be reserved for post-workout only. And sometimes, you might complete a cool-down but feel like you need a little bit more.

We’ve got you covered for that too…

Incorporate Eric Goodman’s Foundation Training into your daily routine to improve posture, loosen up the spine, stretch out extra tightness and increase your movement on workout and non-workout days. This whole-body sequence from Eric is a great alternative to warm-ups and cool-downs for optimum recovery.

Or give Tahl Rinsky’s yoga flow sessions a go to loosen up your body or simply slow your pace. Tahl’s stress-release flow will help relieve tightness in your upper body after a tough workout.