Why is it important to Warm Up and Cool Down before and after my sport or activity?
Simple answer, your Warm Up should prepare you for your sport or activity and your Cool Down should be designed to help flush left over waste product as well as release and lengthen muscles that have been used during your sport or activity.
Unfortunately, most Warm Ups and Cool Downs are only focused on your heart rate. At Spears Strong Warm Ups and Cool Downs fall under an overarching category called ReStarts. We define a ReStart as a moment in time, or amount of time used, to bring your body and mind into union with reality to be fully available to take on the next moments of your life fully engaged to the best of your abilities.
“Our grouping and ordering of movements not only help you let go mentally and emotionally and bring you into the moment, but they are also designed to connect your nervous system to your muscular system and also to alert your diaphragm and heart that fun and challenging activity is coming up.”
For Warm Ups this includes grouping movements together to ReStart you not just physically but also emotionally and mentally helping to let go of any rumination on stress or responsibilities of the past or future and helping you be ready for what’s happening in the time you have set aside that you are Warming Up for. Our grouping and ordering of movements not only help you let go mentally and emotionally and bring you into the moment, but they are also designed to connect your nervous system to your muscular system and also to alert your diaphragm and heart that fun and challenging activity is coming up.
Letting your diaphragm and heart know a fun and challenging activity is coming up definitely sounds like it is getting your heart rate up, but heavier breathing and a faster beating heart doesn’t alone mean you're physically ready for the next activity. When Warming Up, grouping and organizing movements that start by gently sending hydration (blood) not to prime muscle groups at first, but focusing even more importantly to all of the smaller, stabilizing muscles that really need to be a part of your next activity for you to perform at an ability level you enjoy and not be afraid of an injury happening to you while participating. Like your erector spinae, multifidus, rotator cuff group and even the muscles of your lower legs and ankles. They all need extra hydration (blood) for what’s coming up next and big ballistic movements will not send the blood flow to them, so you have to start gently and work up to more demanding movements to prepare you for what you are performing next.
Spears Strongers play pickleball at Hathaway Park. We like to meet up when we can to play this super fun sport! We do a Spears Strong warmup on the court and everyone has their cooldown to do at home! The warmup and cooldowns help keep us feeling good so we can keep playing and playing with more muscles activated thanks to the warmup!
If you’re not new to fitness you know that working out or pushing hard does not make you stronger – fully recovering from your last workout, sport or activity is when you become stronger. This is how it works: when you do a workout and break down your muscles, the level of breakdown is affected by two things: 1. How much demand your workout created for your level of fitness and 2. How hard you pushed yourself in said workout.
After your workout, during moments of very low demand or intensity, your body is using blood flow to repair the muscles you have broken down based on the demand of the workout and how hard you push yourself.
Just like remodeling your bathroom takes time to first demo it and clean out all the junk and then piece by piece your new and shiny bathroom is coming back looking stronger and sleeker with every trip for building material and every step each carpenter, plumber, tiler, electrician, and any other specialty construction skilled technician is taking to get your bathroom to its desired level of function and beauty.
Just like your body is biologically repairing your muscles during low intensity times, the same is true with your bathroom remodel. If your family of four needs to be using the bathroom everyday there is no way you can demo it and then build it back up. You're going to have to not use the bathroom until the whole remodel is done, similar to your body.
The tricky part here with your fitness and workouts is a chicken and egg scenario which is similar to your bathroom having to be out of order for a while. I stated it a few times previously, based on the demand of the workout and how hard you push yourself. Those are two different things, “demand of workout” and “how hard you push yourself.” You can just show up for a workout that has demand and struggle your way through it without pushing yourself. If the workout is designed well just the aspect of completing the workout will break down your muscles leading to recovery needs. When the recovery needs (time, energy/building materials and blood flow) are fulfilled and you are fully recovered, you are now a little bit stronger.
But… if you show up fully recovered from your last workout and have optimally fueled your body for the demand of the upcoming workout and you push yourself to your limits, you are going to be able to push yourself more, creating even more demand in your workout which will break your body down even further than just showing up. With your body broken down even further though, it requires more of all of its recovery needs (time, energy/building materials and blood flow).
Did you see the chicken or the egg conundrum here? If you want to make progress with what you can achieve with your mind and body you need to show up for your next challenge, or workout, fully fueled up and recovered from your last challenge or workout. But the more you show up prepared and are able push yourself more the deeper you break yourself down and the more recovery needs you have. Where do the muscles and fitness come from, or what comes first, the breakdown of the workout or showing up fully recovered from your last workout giving you the opportunity to push even harder?
How does this apply to my Cool Down, you might be asking. Well, the harder you push yourself (or do a repetitive movement for over twenty minutes, golf, tennis, running, rowing, etc.) the more important your Cool Down becomes! The explanation is in the above few paragraphs, but let me explain it a little bit differently.
Say you were out for a run and you unknowingly landed on a big crack in the sidewalk and twisted your ankle pretty badly. What generally happens next is you stop running and start limping along as your ankle is swelling. But why is it swelling and how do you get rid of the swelling?
Well it’s swelling because the trauma of the ankle sprain caused a biological reaction inside of your body to start sending the raw material needed to help with the trauma and start repairing it. If you remember our bathroom remodel I had said the first thing we had to do before we could start building it back up was demo and clean all the junk out of there. That’s also what your body needs to do for your ankle is get rid of all the demoed remnants from the ankle sprain, so how does it do this? Blood flow. And there is the sticky part of this scenario.
When you sprained your ankle you were running and your heart was beating fast and strong. After you sprained your ankle you stopped running and your heart started beating slower and not as strong which then makes it hard to get rid of waste products in one of the farthest spots in your body from your heart. What are you supposed to do then? Well RICE, Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevate.
All of that is correct for the first 15 minutes, but after that get rid of the Ice. How come? Blood flow. Ice slows down the blood flow which can help with initial swelling as it can give your heart some time to get rid of waste product from your run and sprain before sending too much help all at once. But after fifteen minutes putting a heating pad between the sprain and your heart, closest to the sprain (so your lower leg) with the rest, compression and elevation will help flush the swelling out. How come? The warmth above the sprain encourages blood flow. Something else that makes it easier for and encourages blood flow is hydration. One more thing that helps with blood flow in this scenario. Compression.
Now let’s say you went out for your run and you didn’t sprain your ankle. After your run, even if you didn’t sprain your ankle, after your run your heart rate and strength is slowing way down and getting weaker. Now that your run, and depending on how hard you pushed yourself either by pace, distance or terrain, is over, you’re not stronger. It’s not until you fully recover from your run do you become stronger, remember?
And just like there is a best strategic way to take care of a sprain, RICE, without Ice after 15 minutes, there is a best strategic way to minimize the time that is needed to fully recover from your workout or sporting activity. And it starts with your Cool Down.
Your Cool Down should be a grouping of movements in a particular sequence that not only starts the clean out of waste products from your just finished workout or activity but also helps to release muscles that can tighten up or even lock up, especially if your workout or activity has repetitive movements in it. Rather than your heart just crashing down close to your resting heart rate, your Cool Down should be designed to moderately slow down your heart rate to keep the blood flow to all your extremities and internal organs to flush out the waste.
Right after your workout or activity is the best time to do your Cool Down. Why? Just like while sleeping your nervous system and internal organs have different and particular jobs to do compared to when you’re awake, your nervous system and internal organs have different and particular roles to play in your recovery from stress, or I mean your workout or activity than they do when you are under stress, I mean working out or participating in your favorite activities.
“Immediately taking advantage of your raised heart rate and blood flow from your workout along with your neuromuscular system, although fatigued, very active and ready for new stimulus is the quickest and most effective path to be fully recovered (or stronger) going into your next workout.”
Immediately taking advantage of your raised heart rate and blood flow from your workout along with your neuromuscular system, although fatigued, very active and ready for new stimulus is the quickest and most effective path to be fully recovered (or stronger) going into your next workout. ReStarting yourself emotionally and physically from breakdown and carry the load mode to taking a little extra time to do some nice things for yourself that will help you get rid of the things that are not useful for you anymore (waste product or rumination) and rewarding yourself with external things (focused movement, water and healthy food) that are needed for your recovery
If you noticed in the last paragraph I started using some words that are more generalizations than particular to a Cool Down for a workout. The reason why, the word – activity. Or more particularly, your activity that I have been using through this whole section. If I keep with the generalizations we could also generalize that a Warm Up and Cool Down are just bookends to your workout. But you do more than just workout throughout the day and some of those things you do also need you to be ready emotionally and physically and also need you to let go of repetitive motions or rumination. You are a multifaceted person that has hidden repetitive motions in your everyday life that lead to breakdown, not recovery. At Spears Strong we don’t call all of our daily ReStarts Warm Ups and Cool Downs. You’ll have to read some more FAQs and Blog Posts to learn more about ReStarts and how they make your life easier and you more prepared for what comes next.
One last thing about Cool Downs. Just doing your Cool Down immediately after your workout is not going to leave you fully recovered. If we use the bathroom metafor one last time, your Workout is the demo and your Cool Down is cleaning out everything you demoed to give the skilled laborers a blank slate to work from. What you do in between your Cool Down and your next Warm Up will determine if you are fully recovered and fueled up ready to push yourself more than you did last time.