Cool Down: The Last Step

For my final blog post, I'll be talking about recovery measures. Recovery measures, aka cool downs, are just as important as warm-ups and the exercise itself.


The point of cool down, as described by my book, is that "People have to let their bodies recover and reestablish their mental vigor" (Wessinghage, 101). In other words, your bodies need to slow down and relax in the proper way to be able to work for you again. In my case, after running a good run in the morning, I need to properly relax my body so to prevent any consequences. The effects of cool down "... over the long term, they are more effective than medicines in treating nervous overstimulation and sleep disturbances, and they involve no harmful side effects" (Wessinghage, 102).


I learned many cool down methods such as good sleep, warm baths, and massage. However, what I'm going over is cooldown runs and stretching.

For my cooldown run, I took a nice easy run up my alley. The point of a cooldown run is to increase blood circulation and any muscle regeneration needed to my body.

Cooldown Run

The aftereffects were rather tiring, as my legs were fatigued from all my running that morning, but slowing down gradually got the "running" feeling out of my legs.

Next, I underwent some stretching exercises. "Stretching exercises.. should also be integrated into the cooldown process in order to keep fatigued muscles from shortening and to return the muscles to their normal tone" (Wessinghage, 102). When I did XC and Track & Field, I followed some cooldown stretches I had learned from my coaches and my team.

Exercise #1

Exercise #2

Exercise #3

As I have done these stretches before, they were relatively simple for me to do. The point of Exercise #1 was to flex my joints between the thigh and knee. Exercise #2 had me stretching my hamstrings on the side of my thighs. Exercise #3 involves me stretching my core muscles, or the torso muscles between my chest and legs. After finally completing my workout, I felt relieved it was over.

I hope you enjoyed reading all my blogs, perhaps even learn a thing or two. Even if you won't consider any running as one of your top sports, I hope you can utilize the information and incorporate them into helping your physical health.

Wessinghage, Thomas. Running: Detailed Advice on Equipment, Technique, Training, Competitive Running, and Sports Medicine. Barron's Educational Series, 2001.