About “Cooldowns”...
Archive post from 4/3/23
I got a reader question about this and have added a section in my updated “Rowing Warmup” article last month to address “cooldowns” (or the amusingly named “warmdowns,” if you prefer).
I feel strongly about the importance of a warm-UP. We can identify the physiological effects of a warmup, whether or not we’ve achieved them, and how this affects subsequent performance.
Not so much with a cooldown. What physiological processes are we actually doing, facilitating, or achieving by intentionally doing easy exercise after doing harder exercise? Respiration, heart rate, core temperature, etc. will all gradually decline on their own back to pre-exercise baseline. There's no immediately subsequent performance to measure an effect the way there is with a warm-up, and lots of factors that influence recovery in the longer term. If we say cooldowns improve recovery, well, what is recovery ? And does it actually?
Authors of a 2018 research review analyzed 145 studies to compare active cooldowns (easy exercise within an hour of completing hard exercise) versus no-tech passive cooldowns (sitting, lying, or standing without walking). They conclude that an active cooldown does not improve performance later in the day (and may even negatively affect it), has no effect on next-day performance, and does not reduce muscle soreness, accelerate general recovery, improve immune system function, or increase range-of-motion.
They add that there are no substantive empirical standards for cooldown protocols. This makes studying the cooldown, determining potential effects, and making recommendations challenging. Their final word is that an active cooldown likely has no benefits, but also likely has no negative effects either, so athletes may choose to do it or not based on their own individual preferences.
I do believe that athletes should not go straight from training to seated and sedentary. For example, if you finish your final piece on the erg or water or your last set in the gym and immediately go sit on the couch or in a car, that tends to feel bad immediately after or later in the day from intensely worked muscles going straight to a static, seated position.
However, rowers typically have to paddle the boat back to dock, dock it, carry it up to the boathouse, and put oars away. The same during the few-to-several minutes of putting away gym equipment, packing up, and leaving the gym. This is all “cooldown time” in my book. Athletes strength training from home gyms or erging at home actually are at risk of going straight from training to seated and sedentary, and should make plans to avoid this.
If you must, my go-to post-exercise activity is simply a short, easy walk. The research review authors propose the following general guidelines: keep the intensity easy, the joint impact low (ie. probably don’t jog or run), the duration shorter than 30 minutes, and allow the athlete to self-select their preferred mode of exercise (eg. walk, bike, erg, etc.).
