Why you should cool down yourself after working out

Just like warming up before exercise, cooling down after the exercise is equally important.

Most people think that continuous exercise is beneficial without knowing how harmful it can be. During exercises, your heart rate and breathing rate increase rapidly. If this continues for a longer period, it can cause dizziness and instant breakdown. Go through this article to know about the importance of cooling down after a workout session.

Cooling down reduces heart rate:

This is the most crucial reason behind cooling down after exercise. Warming up prepares your body for an exercise because your body muscles remain in a not-so-active stage during resting. If you start exercising suddenly, the heart rate increases straight away. It is bad for your health. Likewise, when you stop exercising, your heart rate starts to decrease. If a sudden drop in heart rate happens, it harms your overall health. Therefore, to reduce the heart rate gradually, cooling down is important.

Cooling down prevents injuries:

Cooling down prevents muscle strain and tears. After an intense workout session, all your body muscles remain very warm, which needs further stretching. Generally, during exercise, continuous strain is applied to muscle fibers, leading to a certain degree of constriction. These stages are prone to get injuries. To bring back the muscle fiber in its original position, you need to perform relaxing exercises or cool down.

Cooling down relaxes your mind:

Exercise always has a positive impact on your physiological and mental health. Due to the secretion of endorphins during exercise, your mind shifts to happy and positive thoughts, improving your mood. Why not amplify this condition? If you take a break of 10 minutes between exercises, you can observe gradual changes in the body. Relaxing can provide a good opportunity for self-inspection while allowing the body to return to its starting position.

Health consequences if you don't cool down your body:

The potential downsides of not relaxing after a heavy workout session are excess lactic acid build-up, dizziness, lightheadedness, and so on. When you exercise hard, blood is circulated mostly to the muscles or legs. As the intensity increases, your brain and heart receive a very low amount of blood leading to dizziness. When there is a sudden drop in blood and oxygen flow to the brain with lower blood pressure, people get fainted. Simultaneously, lactic acid accumulates in your muscles due to intense work out leading to a stage of fatigue.

Discuss with your trainer before starting exercise, he/she will help to set a timetable as well as steps for cooling down your body after a workout.