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Do warm ups and cool downs help with recovery?

06 September 2024 Sports Therapy


Lets start with warm-ups, generally speaking these are going to much more beneficial to you when compared to a cool down. They can look different for different people and change depending on what type of exercise you are doing and how much time you have.

The ultimate aim is for you to be able to maximise your session, whilst helping to minimise your risk of injury. 

So at the start at all of our sessions at Factr we do a general warm-up with the aim of getting your mind and body ready for exercise, by raising your heart rate and increasing the blood flow to your muscles.

It’s also beneficial to include some sort of specific warm-up before going into your working set. This would look something like doing a lighter weight of the exact exercise that you’re about to do for example 20kg BB Back Squat before your 40kg working set. 

 

Your warm-up is going to be especially important if you’ve spent all day sat at your desk and feeling a little stiff, at the end of your warm-up you will be in a much better position to get the most out of your workout compared to if you didn’t do one at all.

In terms of recovery, a warm-up should make you feel prepped and ready to train, whilst minimising the risk of injury. So you won’t necessarily feel more recovered by adding in a warm-up but you will definitely feel a noticeable difference in your readiness to train and get the most out of the session. 

COOL DOWN…. 

Now whether or not you do a cool down is something that is so much more individual. Physiologically you won’t really see any significant benefit from adding a cool down in after your workout, especially when we look at recovery and how you feel post session. If you’ve done a tough workout, the likelihood is that you will feel post workout soreness whether you did a cool down or not. 

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t cool down in some form if you see the benefit of it. It can be a great addition if you like to slow your mind and body down after the high of finishing a workout. Similarly to the warm-up, this is a really good opportunity to switch prepare yourself for whatever you are doing post workout. 

Your cool down doesn’t have to be anything fancy, it could literally be just be walking home post session, spinning on a bike for 5 minutes or adding a few stretches in if mobility is something you’re keen to work on. 

When looking at recovery, adding more onto your plate e.g. an extra 10minute cool down is not going to give you the desired effect that you’re looking for.

 

The best thing you can do is take some extra time away from the gym and make sure you are prioritising the top 5 steps for recovery.

Read our recovery blog here for more information