Are Cool-Downs Outdated?
If you’ve played soccer, run track or cross country, or swam for a club or school, you’ve done an active cool-down before. It could have even been called a “warm down”, which is a term used mostly in swimming circles.
But why did your coach have you execute an active cool-down? Or as a coach, why are you requiring this post-event for your athletes?
The traditional beliefs around this topic propose that active cool-downs improve sports performance, reduce injuries, and clear lactic acid from the muscles, amongst other things. However, long-standing views are not always in line with scientific fact.
The main reason I want to cover active cool-downs is to inform athletes and coaches so that decisions can be made towards BEST PRACTICE, not just common practice. My aim is that the information presented and the article itself will give you guidance on what is worth the time moving forward in regards to cool-downs following physical activity.
The article is a narrative review; meaning it looked at many other research articles on active cool-downs to combine all information into a digestible form for casual readers. The article referred to is titled, “Do We Need a Cool-Down After Exercise? A Narrative Review of the Psychophysiological Effects and the Effects on Performance, Injuries and the Long-Term Adaptive Response,” by Van Hooren and Peake from 2018.
Let’s start by defining cool-downs, based on how they are described in the article.
This particular narrative review defines cool downs as such: “...voluntary, low- to moderate-intensity exercise or movement performed within 1 hour after training and competition.” Ice baths, compression garments, cryotherapy and other modalities were excluded from the review. Only physical activity was included.
Before we move on, I want to state my position on active cool-downs. I do not plan, agree with, or condone active cool-downs. At no point for endurance and high distance sports should more work, impacts, yardage, etc. be prescribed as a means of recovery. That’s just more load on the body and frankly a little counterintuitive for me. That being said, I will only cover a few of the studied interventions from this article. These will be the most common reasons someone would perform or prescribe an active cool down.
1. Blood lactate removal from the muscles and blood.
Generally, active cool-downs lead to faster removal of blood lactate with a low to moderate intensity. However, this is not always the case and may not even be relevant to the time frame before the next session or have any practical applications. Blood plasma pH levels can have no significant change for active versus passive cool down 80 mins after exercise. Even elite athletes don’t undergo multiple sessions in one day within 90 mins of each other. Furthermore, active cool-downs used to remove blood lactate have not always shown to be an appropriate indicator of recovery (reduced fatigue) and can even hinder subsequent exercise performance.
In summary, there have been some documented benefits of active versus passive cool-downs, but nothing has been overwhelming enough to definitively name it as the better strategy.
2. Reduction of Injuries
This article covers somewhat of a mixed bag on this issue. “Small, non-significant positive effects” were shown in studies covered in this review regarding less neuromuscular fatigue from active cool-down on subsequent training sessions. Others observed that runners who used cool-downs did not have a significant reduction of injury incidence. There were some confounding results based on control groups in a couple of the articles.
Bottom line: Active cool-downs for injury reduction have not been proven, nor concretely negated. More research is needed.
That being said, some of the active cool-downs included “stretching,” which typically means static stretching (where you hold a position without moving). An example of this is standing and touching your toes to stretch your hamstrings. I question the relevance of stretching in cool-downs because the activity is being performed post-exercise and muscles are already warm from activity, which means that they will return to their previous length once you’re down with the stretch. Effectively, you just did the stretch for no purpose. The desired result, in this case, isn’t always what the coach or athlete thinks they want or are getting.
3. Improves Sports Performance
In the review, this point has a chart that lists the factors measured, the cool-down complete and its effect on elements of performance. This is where you see the most trivial, meaningless and sometimes even detrimental results to performance. Without quoting the article, let me sum it up for a few different areas.
Same-Day Performance: Unless your next performance is in 10-20 mins, the research does not support positive results from active coo-downs for multiple competitions in one day.
Next Day Performance: There is no clear evidence that supports an active cool as a method to enhance performance the next day. The conclusion here is that findings vary based on type of cool down, exercises in training, “training age” and fitness level of participants, and the individual’s beliefs and preferences. Given so many conflicting and complex factors, I would suggest that youth coaches, and even high school and college coaches, not spend much time on active cool-downs, as described in the article.
Long-Term Adaptive Response: This refers to the adaptations the body makes to a stimulus. There is no supporting evidence that the body has a positive long-term response from performing active cool-downs.
In conclusion, active cool-downs do not enhance or attenuate performance.
Active cool-downs may not be as good as you once thought, so here are some considerations for coaches moving forward:
Active cool-downs may be adding more physical stress to your athletes, depending on what is programmed. That seems counterintuitive, right?
There is subjective psychological evidence to support individuals who feel like they need to do a cool-down. Let those athletes do one on their own time.
Even though stretching and some active cool-downs have shown negative effects on performance, foam rolling provides small evidence towards reducing soreness, even if only perceived. That might be good for long tournament weekends.
Cold water immersion was not a part of this review but pool sessions were. They did not provide any positive results towards recovery. Don’t schedule a pool session.
Beef up your warm-up and spend more time developing the skills of your athletes.
A walk off the field might be the best “active cool-down” for you.
As always, consider the information above and take into account what’s best for your athletes and unique situation!
-Zack Wallace
ACES Nation Athletic Performance Specialist
