What should you do after a work-out?

"The last 8 hours of your day are long...
but 1 Hour of Running 
will be the shortest hour 
that will change your life forever."

So you've done your running or your run/walk and you worked out hard...  It's hot and you just want to go home a veg out on the couch...

This is not a good idea!


Your body needs warming up before exercise and now it needs cool down.

Why do you need a cool down?

Warming up - prevents injury and strain (big tears in the muscle fibers),  and helps to loosen up the muscles. It also helps to raise your heart rate gradually.

Cooling Down - also prevents injury by slowly bringing your legs to a more static motion and lets the heart rate have a chance to slow down, meaning the blood pumping to and from your heart can have a chance to slow the flow!  When you suddenly stop an aerobic exercise on the spot, the whole work-out can go against you! You could feel  uncomfortable hours after or feel the affects up to a week after.

What should you do after a work-out?

The best thing to do is to walk around and stretch for another 10 to 15 minutes. If you are in a rush than make sure you keep moving so that your muscles don't become stiff.  It's always good to have a water filled bottle handy so that you can get in a few drinks to hydrate. We all sweat, why not make your cool down more comfortable by bringing a towel or extra shirt.
I find that sometimes I'm sweating so much that I run straight to my car to get another shirt.

When YOU really don't have time or even want to cool down...

I know that a large percentage of you don't have time to do anything more than the work-out, nevertheless it's important to make time! Doing the warm -up and cool down actually prepares your body for building a stronger technique in your  running or run/walk program. When you miss these moments, you risks your program coming to an halt!

 Take your program seriously and plan for those extra moments that are crucial to getting better and staying healthy! Just like you do when you have to brush your teeth!

Good hard discipline and weekly scheduling is what it takes! Go the next time and give yourself a whole hour of your time.

If it's difficult to schedule a run think...

"The last 8 hours of your day are long...
but the 1 Hour of Running will be the shortest hour 
that will change my life forever."