Your Health - The warm-ups and cool-downs are essential
Diane Proud

Incorporating a warm-up and cool-down is key to every exercise session, but especially important if participating in a race or a high-intensity training session. The amount, intensity, and duration of the warm-up and cool-down should be individualized according to physical capabilities, environmental conditions, and scheduling of events.

Warm-Up Basics

The health and performance benefits of warming up are numerous. A warmed muscle contracts more forcefully and relaxes more quickly. Speed and strength are enhanced and the likelihood of muscles being forcefully over-stretched, causing injury, is reduced. Greater volume of oxygen is made available to working muscles, enhancing endurance and performance. Improved range of motion around a joint is increased.

There are two types of warm-ups. One is a related warm-up, which incorporates specific skills that will be used during exercise. For example, jogging easy with a few short, intense surges to ensure all muscle fibers are warmed up before going for a long run. Or taking practice shots before a basketball game. Performing dynamic movements is a second type of warm-up. Examples include running drills, calisthenics, and jumping rope. The activity is different from the exercise that will be performed, but it can provide benefits such as enhanced range of motion.

Which type is preferred? If immediate participation in an activity such as a competitive race could result in muscle injuries, related warm-up is preferable. In some cases people experience better performance results with a 10 to 20 minute warm-up that includes dynamic movements and related exercises. Otherwise choose the warm-up that best prepares your body for the exercise session. It should increase your body temperature but not cause fatigue. When you begin to sweat, your internal temperature has risen to a desired level.

Why Cool Down? Cool-down is not as widely practiced as warm-up, but is no less important. Cool-down helps circulatory and metabolic systems gradually return to a resting level. During exercise, blood vessels that bring oxygen and nutrients to working muscles are wide open. Cool-down helps blood return to the heart by alternately contracting and relaxing muscles. If you stop exercising quickly, blood "pools" in these wide-open blood vessels, especially in the legs. Not enough blood returns to the heart, so the heart beats faster to increase the flow. Dizziness or light-headedness results when not enough blood reaches the head. Cool-down also helps rid the blood and muscles of lactate, which is thought to aid in recovery.

After a main workout session or race, continue exercising at a low intensity to let muscles relax and to allow the heart rate to drop to normal. At the end of a training session, static stretching helps prevent muscle tightness and increases flexibility.

Diane Proud is the running pro at Cooper Fitness Center in Dallas, TX, a part of the Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research.