Cooling down: This is many a times is neglected because of our casual attitude but is an equally important aspect of exercise. Now if you take the water supply for example, suppose we have two taps and simultaneously turn both the valves on. The water from the tank gets divided and if you notice the amount of water that flows is lesser than when only one valve is opened. Now some thing similar happens in the body. When we start exercising the brain sends signals to the heart to send more blood to those muscles which need it the most. This does not mean that if we are not exercising there is no blood in the muscle. Take for example when we travel we always carry an extra bottle of water because we may need it especially if we are going to a place where we need to walk more because we know we are going to need it. Similarly, more blood is redirected towards the working muscle..now the question is, where does this blood come from ?.It comes from those parts of the body which do not at that particular time need that much extra blood to work. Like the organs of your digestive system. These organs need more blood when you eat food to digest them. (That is why you should not exercise immediately after eating the reason being that most of the blood is used in helping digestion. And if you do then the digestive process is hampered). So, now that you know what happens when we exercise lets understand what happens when we suddenly stop exercising . The blood is still in the working muscles most of which is in the legs and the effect of gravity is holding it there. If we stand without moving, our calf muscles are not pumping it back to the heart and there is less blood in the other organs like the brain hence we feel dizzy. Cool down exercises are done for two reasons one to pump the blood back to the heart and two to clear out the waste products that are formed after exercise. There is another aspect to this. What does the chimney of the house or the exhaust pipe of a vehicle do? It throws out the by-products or waste products that are produced from cooking , or burning of fuel. When we exercise our muscles use energy that in the form of oxygen and the food that we eat. We call it waste products because it is not of any use to the body. Cooling down exercises includes controlled breathing along with muscle contraction, which helps clear these waste products. How do you know this is happening. When you stop exercising pay attention to your breathing you will notice that for some time after exercise you tend to breathe heavily before it turns to a normal pattern. you will also feel mild and continuous twitching some thing like throbbing in the muscles immediately after you stop exercise.This is the body’s mechanism to clear out as much as cabon-dioxide as fast as possible and supply fresh oxygen for the body cells to do their function. If this is delayed or not done you may at some point of time have noticed that you tend to get muscular cramps, or faint . This can happen during you exercise session if your body is not able to throw out these waste products in relation to the speed with which your muscles are contracting. Therefore cooling down is very important for recovering of the body after a heavy exercise regime. So do not neglect it.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 07:41:57 +0000