For some, ramping down can be useful. But most folks can skip straight to the shower.
The standard workout arc, whether it’s a yoga class or Peloton session, is usually book-ended by two easier parts: the warm-up and the cool-down. Personal trainers insist on them, physiology textbooks tout them and most video workouts include them.
But for many people, just fitting in a 30-minute run or 25-minute strength session can feel impossible. Do you really need another five minutes to cool down?
The answer is, not really. A cool-down is typically some form of easier movement that acts like an offramp from a workout, allowing the heart rate and blood pressure to slowly recover to pre-exercise levels. For most people, that means jogging slowly after a hard run or stretching after weight lifting. But it could be as simple as a few slow breathing exercises.
While research has shown that as little as nine minutes of dynamic movement before exercise can reduce injury and make a workout more effective, there has been far less data supporting the cool-down, said Andy Galpin, the director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University in Dallas.
If you rush from your spin bike to your morning commute, you likely won’t sabotage your workout gains or recovery. But you could be missing out on other benefits.
What constitutes a cool-down?
“As a general rule,” said Dr. Erica Spatz, a cardiologist at Yale School of Medicine, a cooled-down state is “when the heart rate comes down below 100 beats per minute and breathing returns to normal.”