348 | Should You Do Cool Downs? What is the Best Technique?

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Optimal Body Podcast. I'm Dr. Jen, and I'm Dr. Dom, and we are doctors

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[00:02:05] All right, we're talking about cooldowns this week.

[00:02:07] A couple weeks ago, we talked about warm ups with the research says what we recommend is

[00:02:12] the best warm up, what we do ourselves.

[00:02:15] So we're going to talk about cooldowns in the same kind of aspect.

[00:02:18] And when we're talking about cooldown, I think the reason that it's pressed so much and

[00:02:25] that it is told that you have to do a cooldown is really for injury prevention is what people

[00:02:31] are trying to kind of do.

[00:02:34] How do I properly recover in my body after I do an intense workout?

[00:02:39] And what is the best so that I help to prevent injury and I can perform as good as I need

[00:02:45] to the next day?

[00:02:46] And in the research, I feel like most of them categorized these into passive cooldown

[00:02:54] techniques and active cooldown techniques or cooldown routines or whatever.

[00:03:01] Interrupting talking about cooldowns real quick because it's not just about the movements

[00:03:05] that you do that are going to really help your body recover but it's how we're hydrating

[00:03:09] and replenishing our body that is going to really aid and recovery and this is why it's

[00:03:15] important to get your electrolyte water in. And this is why we talk about

[00:03:19] element so much on this podcast. We can really tell the difference in our body.

[00:03:23] If we go somewhere and we forget our element packets, oh my goodness! I don't feel

[00:03:28] like I'm hydrating as much throughout the day. First of all, because my water just

[00:03:32] doesn't taste as good, so I'm not coming back to it on a regular basis. But too,

[00:03:37] I just don't feel like I have the energy to sustain me, especially when I do a

[00:03:42] workout and I'm sweating. And then I'm not replenishing my body. It just

[00:03:46] doesn't feel the same. And I love that now my friends and family members of ours

[00:03:50] are saying the same thing. They can really feel the difference when they don't add

[00:03:55] element into their water. At least one package a day, and if you... And this is

[00:03:59] what saved me when I was pregnant and breastfeeding a lot. Oh my goodness! And those

[00:04:04] really days especially with breastfeeding, I felt like I was needing the

[00:04:07] water all the time. And everything I felt like I was using within the element

[00:04:14] and getting the electrolytes, I really felt like my body was utilizing it all.

[00:04:17] And I felt so much better. So I really highly recommend adding an element. If you

[00:04:22] haven't yet, please go to the link in our show notes or just type in drink

[00:04:27] element dot com back slash optimal. And you get a free sample pack with any of your

[00:04:32] purchase. So please go check it out try element if you haven't yet. Okay let's

[00:04:37] get back into the science of cooldown. Passive meaning I always think about passive

[00:04:43] stretching because we work in the moving space and like passive stretching is where

[00:04:47] my mind goes right away, but the passive techniques they're talking about are

[00:04:50] more like sauna ice baths. Massage. Massage. Things like that that you

[00:04:57] literally are doing nothing and things are passively being done to you.

[00:05:00] Fulmrolling with that land and active. I think that's more active yeah.

[00:05:04] That would land more on the active because you're actually doing something. I was

[00:05:07] wondering because I didn't see in the research anywhere passive stretching what

[00:05:11] category does that fall under which again is an issue with the research we hear

[00:05:15] active versus passive and we think one thing versus what the methods in the

[00:05:19] research are actually talking about and then active techniques being a more

[00:05:23] active routine whether it's a mobility flow whether it's a lower version of

[00:05:29] the exercise you were just doing if you were on a job or run and you're just

[00:05:33] going you know now on a light jog for five and minutes at the end of that. So what's

[00:05:38] best? What's best to do? I think what's interesting when we look at this as

[00:05:42] well is that in general when we pull the research together and we're looking at

[00:05:46] active cooldowns which is what is thought of to be like the key thing to be

[00:05:51] doing right I can even think of going to workout classes and you know they're

[00:05:55] doing squats and like arms overhead and breathing and lunges and you're still

[00:05:59] doing active movements but you're doing it in more of a low impact and cooling

[00:06:05] down type of way but when we look at the research and again this is hard because

[00:06:10] active cooldowns can mean many things to different people and to different

[00:06:13] exercise communities. In general active cooldowns don't seem to have any

[00:06:20] effect on injury prevention first of all and can in depending on the active

[00:06:26] cooldown that you do can actually have a negative impact on same day

[00:06:31] performance or next day performance. And I think a lot of that really has to do

[00:06:35] with how strenuous is that active cooldown that you're doing and is it

[00:06:39] taxing the body further? And sometimes you might feel like you're not doing

[00:06:44] something as strenuous or yeah this is helping me like come down from the height

[00:06:49] of my workout and I feel like that's what a lot of people talk about especially

[00:06:52] if you have a really intense workout you want to like slowly recover or slowly

[00:06:58] bring that heart rate and everything down but there's not as much research to

[00:07:02] back that where doing the active recovery there are a few things that we want

[00:07:07] to avoid if you're somebody who really likes and enjoys to do an active

[00:07:10] recovery. We want to make sure that it doesn't cause additional fatigue and

[00:07:14] soreness. I think it's funny because one of the recommendations is it's less

[00:07:18] than 30 minutes long. Which most of our workouts from warm up to active workout

[00:07:25] to cool down are 30 minutes or less and so I'm like if anyone out there is

[00:07:29] doing a cool down for 30 minutes good for you and hey maybe if you're a marathon

[00:07:34] runner and we might have some friends that do cool down for 30 minutes.

[00:07:37] Sure have friends who probably cool down for 30 minutes but if you went out

[00:07:41] for a 10 to 15 mile run okay I could get jogging for 15 or 20 minutes to

[00:07:46] come down from that whatever to each their own. Yeah well that's where it is

[00:07:50] individual like if you like it it's not bad but just listen to these if you

[00:07:54] make sure that you're not overdoing it and if you're doing specific activities

[00:07:57] okay the other one is make sure it doesn't impact your glycogen

[00:08:03] recynthesis which essentially mean like glycogen is the fuel we have stored in

[00:08:08] our muscles we deplete that to an extent during our workout and if the cool

[00:08:14] down that you're doing is continuing to deplete your glycogen you know

[00:08:18] storages or your glycogen fuel then that's gonna affect our energy

[00:08:22] throughout the rest of the day if we have too strenuous a cool down and the

[00:08:27] last thing is make sure you're doing something that you enjoy or make sure

[00:08:31] that cool down is something you enjoy which hopefully the workout is

[00:08:33] something you enjoy if you're not enjoying your workouts I would always

[00:08:36] encourage you to explore and find things that fit best for you but the cool

[00:08:41] down should also be something that you enjoy because if psychologically

[00:08:44] you're just like a cool down I got to do it yeah hate it yeah it's not gonna be

[00:08:49] beneficial for you right it's not supposed to be extra work especially if we

[00:08:53] know that it's not necessarily the thing that's going to help an injury

[00:08:56] prevention like if it is something you're hating you don't need to do what we

[00:09:02] can see though being a little bit more beneficial is the passive type cool

[00:09:07] down which I think is is cool to see because all this is saying is like it's

[00:09:13] more for recovery in a sense of its down regulating the body think of your

[00:09:18] savassana at the end of a yoga session you are literally laying down and almost

[00:09:23] falling asleep for some people usually falsely but you're literally taking

[00:09:34] your body from this state of working out and being more active to now down

[00:09:39] regulating the system and getting it prepared for relaxation and recovery which

[00:09:44] is what we that's the whole intention of a cool down is supposed to be

[00:09:49] recovery so if we really want to recover using some of these passive techniques

[00:09:53] like breath work you could do that for one to two minutes you don't have to do

[00:09:56] along you know cool down session if you do one to two minutes of intentional

[00:10:01] diaphragmatic breathing and laying down feet maybe are propped up on something

[00:10:06] and you're feeling your rib cage and and whole like back expand and relax and

[00:10:11] you're doing slow breaths this can take you automatically down into a new into

[00:10:17] a new state same with you know and this is where we then start to recommend

[00:10:21] stuff foam rolling you have to use breath when you're foam rolling because we're

[00:10:26] not trying to fight and break up tissue we're trying to relax and talk to the

[00:10:31] nervous system to down regulates a lot of research behind foam rolling in

[00:10:36] reducing the lay on set muscle soreness in you know helping with some of

[00:10:39] the tension that might be in the muscles from the workout so although it may

[00:10:44] not have fit into that passive category that the research was talking about

[00:10:48] it's definitely not as active cool down as some of the other things we're

[00:10:53] talking about where same with mobility flows or you know doing doing a field

[00:10:58] good mobility flow or doing some passive stretching yeah definitely on the

[00:11:02] lower end of the active things you can do to cool down oh yeah and along with

[00:11:08] breath during that mobility flow or passive stretching session it's definitely

[00:11:12] gonna help bring that nervous system down the place it was at the height of

[00:11:16] the workout I mean especially like if you did the roll into hit program with

[00:11:20] Jill and I that was such a good example of a cool down because Jill used her

[00:11:27] massage tools to actually down regulate the body with breath and it wasn't like

[00:11:34] getting into you know using balls and massaging and being like oh this hurts

[00:11:38] and like tension and all that it was literally I'm gonna lay on the ball open

[00:11:43] up my upper back and use my arms to facilitate a down regulation and Vegas

[00:11:48] response within my body this is the perfect example like I would do a hit be

[00:11:52] so exhausted do this five minute recovery it was only five minutes and feel

[00:11:57] so much different than my body so really if we're thinking of recovery

[00:12:02] ever thinking of down regulating the body there are such easy ways to be able

[00:12:07] to do that without having to do this active cool down but in reality it's what

[00:12:13] feels best for you yes it's so individual and this is where I mean same with the

[00:12:18] warm up when we talked about the warm up is where having the ability to explore

[00:12:22] your own exercise to explore some different methods for warm ups and cool downs

[00:12:27] and finding what over the next 24 48 72 hours or six week training program curve

[00:12:35] helps you feel the best do that you know don't let research tell you how your

[00:12:41] body feels explore a little bit you can use research to maybe direct some of

[00:12:45] your choices yeah but then ultimately what makes you feel the best the most

[00:12:49] recovered the least amount of sore the next day and those are the types of cool

[00:12:54] down techniques that we would recommend you pursue because we want you to feel

[00:12:58] your best we want to lay out information that can again maybe help direct you

[00:13:03] to some choices or offer other options that you can try out but find what works

[00:13:08] best for you thanks so much for listening into another PT pro and remember we

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