Health Article Review - Are Exercise Cool-Downs Necessary

The article “Are Exercise Cool-Downs Necessary?” gives an answer to an important theory we’ve had wrong for a very long time. Cool down exercise is exercise at a lower intensity right after a moderate level exercise. The lower intensity was said to have helped avoid soreness the following day and flush out the lactate in the legs. But a Dr. Turker, a physiologist and a founder of “The Science of Sport” said that lactate isn’t the cause for the damage of the muscles or the thing that causes soreness the day after exercising. Cooling down exercises does not get rid of muscles. A study done in 2007 had adults, who were healthy at the time walk downward on a treadmill for 30 minutes. This downhill walking exercise supposedly induces sore muscles. Another group of healthy adults warmed up by walking forward for 10 minutes before doing a moderate level exercise. Another group walked upward but as a cool down exercise. The last group did neither. After two days it was reported that the adults who walked as the warm up had the less muscle soreness. The ones who had a cool down exercise reported just as much soreness as the rest. But this doesn’t give you a reason to not regulate blood flow after a moderate exercise. A light jog or walking can help your heart rate and blood flow go back to being steady so you won’t feel dizzy or even faint. Cool downs aren’t dangerous so if you’re already use to doing them then there’s nothing harmful about cool down exercises.