Do You Actually Need to Cooldown at the End of a Ride? The Science
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- Cooling down seems to be a part of every ride or cycling workout, but is there actually a physiological reason for doing it? Is there any benefit to the cooldown? I dive into the science to get to the bottom of this question.
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Laying on the ground gasping for breath is my preferred cooldown.
I just stop and take a breather
You forgot the "and the taste of blood in my mouth" part😅
If you can still breathe you obviously werent training hard enough. 😐
But may this be unhealthy? It's quite a shock to the system to go from 100% to 0%.
Light up a cigarette, crack open a beer.
The two main reasons that I like to cooldown with some zone1 spinning at the end of a ride (particularly a turbo trainer session) are simply that (1) it provides a "nice" transition from a sympathetic/"agitated" nervous state back to a parasympathetic/calm state and before diving back into my day, its the same as why a commute in the car between work and home is nice, to provide a buffer/transitional state for you to adjust from one state to another and clear your mind, and (2) when you've been exercising your body temperature remains elevated after exercise and its simply more pleasant to finish being hot and bothered on the bike (where you have fans) than off it - I still have bad memories from school gym classes where you'd finish your PE session and then have to hurry to get straight to the next class - even if you showered you would still be sweating in your school clothes in the next class, very unpleasant - much nicer to properly cool down and adjust to a "normal" state while still on the bike, *then* have your shower, after-ride snack/shake etc.
Totally agree with XX. Like a lot of things in training, I've thought for a long time the cool down was BS, but at the same time it would be very unnatural to not make some kind of gradual transition from hard work to normal life. There's been a lot of research lately on the sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system , so it would be interesting to see some research looking cool-down from that angle
Yeah, a literal cooldown is often very welcome.
If that's so, I think it's better to cool down in the shower, because that does not feel great when all the workload stress and heat is finally gone and you are only left with all the cold sweat and dirt and fatigue, not cool.
@@XX-is7ps that doesn't make any sense
@@XX-is7ps I don't see 47 likes under your reply to me you sent an hour ago, which I am referring to and which doesn't make any sense.
BHD is right again! I sidestep this dilemma by just stopping Garmin at the end of my hard effort and then coasting home.🤣
Lol I do that once.... and my friend ask me why I cut off my ride.. he said... is it because you trying to average your ride better
And then there is the downside...you post less miles. That could be all the difference in making leading weekly mileage in your group.
@@stevek8829 you could end the ride and start a new one lol
@@raymondhollans ^ this. I actually find it pretty normal to split the ride into a warmup - e.g. when commuting to a group ride, the actual ride, and a cooldown ;)
Backwards hat Dylan had it nailed just get straight off and keep that average speed high 😂
Or, you can do what one person I ride with does. They stop their ride before their cool down and start a new one for the cool down. Make sure you label your cool down ride as such so people don't assume you had a bad ride.
Backwards Hat Dylan nailed it with the beer tent!
Definitely with BHD here: cool-down = post-ride beer.
I stop my Strava recording before cooldown ;)
Correct me if I am wrong, but backwards hat Dylan speaks for all of us (!) when he points out the higher average speed without the cool down.
I mean, if your average speed is 34,1km/h you aren't risking the 33,9 by going easy for 5 min.
I'd rather stop the recording and start a 5 min ride that can easily make private on Strava 😂😂😂😂
Reminds me of "SOI ": Spectator oriented interval training :))))
3rd comment, sorry.
There is a huge mathematical or design problem with these studies.
When you make such a study you usually don't present an average effect, but what's labeled in the studies as CI -> confidence Interval.
Furthermore you are trying to find a good estimator for the true value you are looking for.
That estimator is a point estimator, so a certain number, but but the confidence interval will be around that value and the size of that confidence interval depends on the standard deviation of the observed values and the number of participants.
The last part before we can understand the problem:
A study will always statistically test wether it is POSSIBLE that the observed data is merely randomly different from what you observe if there was no effect. (Read that again, it's somewhat complicated).
In this case: Is it possible to get the data you got, if a cool down has no effect?
If the confidence value of the estimator includes a possible effect of 0 than you can't be sure that it does have an effect.
So, if the effect you are looking for is small and the standard deviation is high then you need a very high number of observations or otherwise the confidence interval will always include the 0.
The p value alone is misleading here. Usually the p value for statistical significance is set to 5%. So if there is a 5% chance or higher that you would get the data you observed, if there was no effect (of cool down) then you would say: No statistical significance.
Basically every study that includes 10 or 20 people by design can't say with certainty that a small effect does exist.
Please consider reading this pdf.
www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9
This should be pinned at the top comment section
I'm old with a haywire heart (exercise caused afib) so the effect of every flaw in training is magnified. I'm just as sore with a cooldown as without and my heart doesn't notice the difference. A proper warmup is absolutely critical though.
The most likely time for an arrhythmia is always during recovery
exercise caused afib - how did you conclude that? Wasn't this some issue with the heart that exercise made worse? (asking as a guy with afib too)
@@lechprotean I had no issues with my heart. My cardiologist was who told me it was the exercise - intense exercise over many years.
@@lechprotean exercise is safe for nearly everybody and risk of arrhythmia the same as at rest. However, after maximal exercise is risky with the adrenaline surge and decreased demand. Such intense, maximal exercise over long periods of time, such as in cyclists, can develop a-fib. Every ride shouldn't be a race.
See my comment above - please allow your adrenaline to reduce by going slow for 5 minutes before the end - don't treat yourself like a race horse in a race esp. with a-fib.
Backward hat Dylan pretty much nailed it at 0:38 …
Great to see you back doing videos Dylan! :)
That's super interesting.
I remember Jan Frodeno said in an interview that he believes the Olympic race will end in a sprint so instead of a cool down he sprinted at the end of every run in preparation for that race.
Turns out he was right and won the triathlon Olympic gold medal.🪙
He also said he barely even stretches and as far as he knows neither do his top competitors.
Now those interview might be 5-10 years old, but he got into Olympic gold shape that way.
Unfortunately those interview are in German but he might have told these stories in an English interview as well...
Yes and Michael Phelps and all the best swimmers in the world stretch and warmup their legs & shoulders before every race so ?
Also in olympic games you don't push your body to the limit like in an iron man, did you ever saw an IM champion sprint on the finish line ? I saw no one ever.
Jan frodeno explained greatly how olympics games are just "a start" in you career and experience and if you look closely the NOR team are doing just the same right now.
Really depends on your effort & your goal.
@R1 Shoulder flexibility and mobility are actually important determinants of performance in swimming. On the hand, natural range of motion is enough for cycling and running, thus stretching is not important and doesn't improve performance as shown by the science.
Have you ever seen triathletes after they cross the finish line in an Olympic triathlon? They usually collapse, having pushed their body to the limit. It is a different kind of limit compared to an Ironman - limit of lactate clearance and tolerance vs. limit of glycogen storage and fat oxidation rate.
And yes, I have seen Ironman athletes sprint to the finish. For example, Chris McCormack and Lothar Leder at Challenge Roth.
@@SimonTheWattopian Agree with the range of motion and stretching.
But so far Olympics are not about breaking records, it's about being the best which is far different and this is why Frodeno explain well how he had two careers : One before the olympic and one after he decided to stop olympics.
-Look at Eliud Kipchoge : did he made a sprint in the last 50m of his sub 2h marathon ?
-Recent Norwegians IM team breaking all records : do they sprint at the finish line ?
-Even Frodeno and almost all IM champions at the finish line ? Look how much videos you want you won't find any sprint.
Why?
Because the race is made way before these 50m and if your body start to fail then it means your performance can be improved. If from start to finish you keep your perfect and higher pace possible without any change and keep perfect nutrition then you can't sprint in the end.
There is a huge difference between "race to be the best" and race to "reach your max human potential" : for 1) your goal is to beat the others then yes you'll have to do whatever it takes to finish first your mentality is not about breaking records or reaching your max potential, it's all about getting the gold medal.
In 2) you know you're among the best and you're not here to prove yourself you're here to demonstrate how far you can go in your human potential and limits. This race is a shot to reach perfection. In this case if you sprint in the end it means you already failed your goal.
Why 1) & 2) are very different? Because Jan started at 1) then said "that's it I'm the best, then what ?"
He decided to stay in the sport and explore his human max potential and switched to 2)
In 1) you sprint in 2) you don't
There is a video quite recent about him. Great interview btw.
@@user-ur5vw1gi4v I agree with you. If you can sprint at the end of a long race, then you probably didn't perform to your maximal potential during the race.
What about stretching? You made a point that Olympic swimmers stretch and warm-up before a race. Are you saying that stretching is more important when it comes to shorter Olympic type of events when compared to longer Ironman type of events?
Thanks Dyaln,
I had a rider ask me recently about the benefits (or not) of doing a cool down after he had to cut short an indoor session. I went looking for studies that showed impact on performance and struggled to find anything to support it one way or the other. Reduction of blood pooling was often cited as a reason for cooling down, but impact on performance was often vague to non existent. It feels like a natural process and I still prescribe it, but it's great to have you looking at these things and passing on the science. Much appreciated. Oh, and I sent him this video.
Lol. That pic of VC is one of my favorites. So happy that keeps making an appearance.
Very interesting. I enjoy the cool down period, as it gives me time to "gather myself" after the workout, especially if I went all out on the last leg.
I'm getting old, so some (upper body) stretching is necessary to keep my back and shoulders in good health.
+1 for backhatdylan!
As for that stretching study, I'm wondering:
1) which specific stretches they did,
2) how long did they hold each stretch,
3) were any of the stretches dynamic,
4) did they do any yoga poses in addition,
5) what were the subjects' baseline musculoskeletal stiffness and flexibility levels,
6) how old were the research subjects.
I think the study outcome would change a whole lot depending on the above. As for me, I'm gonna keep doing 20 minutes of cycling specific stretches and yoga poses in the evenings because it's a night and day difference the next day. It's not a marginal gain, if I don't stretch I can barely move the next day. If I stretch, I can function normally. The research definitely does not match my reality here. And as far as cool down goes, I also feel better with 2-3 minutes of cooldown. Research is only as good as the subjects, inputs and specific protocols used.
Great video, as always.
I like doing a bit of a cooldown after workouts just so I don’t get off the bike sweating and gasping for air. And yeah, as you said, it’s a nice thing mentally. As long as it doesn’t harm performance, I’m reassured. But it’s also reassuring to know I can go on hammering up that short 30 second climb just a two minutes from home if I feel like it, without hurting my next day performance.
What has always worked for me is first hydrate very well and do a good warm up before your ride. Try to get the heart rate up a little and get your muscles to just start to burn and then your warm up is complete. After your workout, hydrate well and replenish your carbs and a little protein helps. Taking in some electrolytes certainly won't hurt either. Cooling down never did anything to help me and stretching hindered my performance. Hope this helps someone out. 👍
Nice to see BHD back on form! Ok Dylan, interesting video, but I need a science-based prequel! When I do a hard group ride, my legs are stiff the next day... what causes this? And if I do my little cool-down routine (about 5 mins) then my legs usually seem ok the next day. I understand that anecdotal eveidence of 1 (me) is not a scientific study, but any thoughts how I might account for this? Maybe lactate is not the reason for the stiffness, are other "toxins" involved?
Thanks again for your surveys, Mr. Johnson! Rgr
What are your thoughts on TENS machines like the power dot for recovery? And what does science say about it?
EMS would be interesting too.
I use it, but only to treat injuries. Learned how to do it in clinic in town recovering from a muscle tear. They do use a fancier machine at the clinic than the PowerDot, but the principle is the same and the treatment feels the same.
I used to have to do 20 mins cooldown if I wanted to avoid agonising cramp. Then I discovered power dot and used that to prevent or fix the muscle cramps. Then I discovered electrolyte salts, no more cramps...... But, oh boy, that power-dot explosive power training seems to be able to train me how to recruit all my muscle fibre for a sprint. It's like a superpower!
Good to know & now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I said to myself after a hard bike race let me hop back on the bike & ride another 10 minutes to cool down….
I would love to see a video concerning cycling nutrition both on the bike, off the bike, and for recovery, for diabetics, especially type 2.
Thanks for tackling the lactate/fatigue issue ! Almost worth a video alone...
I cool down because if I don’t after a sprint, my legs cramp up and are super tight. It feels like I’m washing out latic acid when I’m cooling down
Good timing on the video. I lead bike fitness sessions on exercise bungee at work and I tell them I do a cool down for better mental state getting off the bike.
Mentally the workout seems easier if I've been biking at an easy piece for a few minutes.
Yes. I vaguely remember a study where they hurt the participants and when they ended hurting them less at the end that stuck with the participants when they were asked afterwards to rate the ehm experiment. SO it will help you when planning that next hard workout because the previous one didn't feel so bad (in the end).
Interesting and somehow not surprising in a way. For me, as you stated, a cool down is a mental thing, especially indoor workouts. I find it gives me a chance to reflect on it and think about what went wrong/right, in terms of RPE at least.
Still do a stretch session almost daily though... oops! :D
Hi Dylan, i really enjoy your videos !!! I have adjusted my training with the information from this channel. Question: i would be eager to learn more about the various training zones as a percentage of FTP. I would like to better understand how in should perform the long rides in particular.
Glad to see this. The *easy* road to my house peaks at 18%. The shortcut hits 24%. The ride to the next street up is so steep that I’ve never done it on my bike. (I did it once on my wife’s eBike and even that was tough.) I literally do 50mile rides to/from the local ski resort, and my final third of a mile is by far the steepest segment of the day. So yeah, no ride from my front door ends with a cooldown. By contrast, all my trainer rides end with cooldowns. And frankly, my recovery to the next ride doesn’t seem to differ. Zero cooldown road rides are my norm.
I also like to cool down, even if just for a couple of minutes. Sometimes after a zwift race, I'm a little scared of using my legs for walking and just want to give my legs a gentle chance to recover. And let the heart rate ease down.
I like the comment another user made about going from a sympathetic to parasympathetic state and it made me think of Dylan talking about over training and nervous shock.
I was also thinking about the similarities and differences between a "cool down" and a recovery ride?
Thanks, especially since I asked for a video about that specific topic in a Skype consultation session we had before :)!
Backwards cap Dylan was spot on in his observations, I just had to laugh as every time he popped up it was just what I was thinking. After all the reason you raced so hard was to beat the queues at the beer tent! Why Elise are people going so hard?
I never fully believed that you need to cool down after every workout. I do it after hard efforts because it makes it a bit less painful to get off the bike but doing it after a zone 2 ride was always bs to me. I'm glad that science supports my intuitive believes. I wish I knew about stretching after workout being pointless much sooner though 😀 I still do stretching to improve my range of motion but I never do it after workouts.
And don’t forget it is counter productive before a weights session too !
Cooling down, reflecting on the ride, going through a relaxation and balance cycle, deep breaths, and getting off the bike feeling good makes getting on the bike the next day easier for me.
Research Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes routines after football (soccer) games and long term recovery and performance even in old age. They would really take cool down very seriously. They said it helped them to maintain elite level performance well into their career vs younger peers.
I have exercise induced asthma and a good warmup and cool down are essential to give my airways time to adjust .
Excellent news, straight to the pub after the ride it is then
The line that i remember being fed by a coach who was coaching with lactate and balance-point was that you wanted to do a cooldown to burn any remaining lactate. Always thought that was BS as 1/2 can be re-burned as fuel so how bad could a little lactate be post-event? Thanks for sorting this out a bit, love your content. Cheers.
One thing that I have found that helps is to do a low intensity short workout about 1-2 hours after training (shaking it out?). This (for me) unbinds my muscles and feels better the next day.
Thanks for this. I've never done a cooldown after a race and usually chat to friends, by which time I'm freezing, get changed then go and get cake and coffee. But I do keep active the rest of the day, going in the pits to help(cyclo x) or going for a walk/jog before I drive home. However I do sometimes add on some zone 2 on my indoor workouts as I don't get enough volume , because it is too cold (for me) to train out doors in winter. I live in the UK (unfortunately)
you are the truth dylan
The amount of “myths” you have reviewed is interesting. I am in shock for some of these.
Good to see Jukebox found a spot for BHD.
I cool down, so that I in fact do cool down. I live in a dry climate, so the cool down allows me to finish a ride both cool and mostly dry. No fun going into the house or getting into my car a sweaty mess after a ride. I also agree with the psychological benefit of relaxation during the cool down. It very much is a small reward.
thanks Dylan
I mostly cool down to prevent lightheadedness after a heavy interval or lifting session, especially when having recently just restarted training
I also can't believe you are saying that🙈😱
That's a dangerous statement and does turn the blind eye to the influence of a cool down in the vegetative nervous system - try an all out race at night and go to sleep without a cool down. Have fun with finding your sleep😉🙈
I'm 60. I've had a few (not many) atrial flutter events. I've had the checks done and I'm fine. However, it appears that these problems are correlated with middle aged (late middle aged - gulp) men who do high levels of aerobic / anaerobic exercise. I have 4 friends (USA and UK) who have similar problems all of whom I'd judge to be "fitter than me". There are procedures and drugs to minimise the problem - none of which I need (one of my pals had surgery two are on drugs). My cardiologist told me that the other animal this problem is prevalent in is racing horses. The maximal work of finishing a horse race and then immediate stop has been related to the onset of atrial flutter in both humans and horses (so she says, I don't have the papers). My own experience does relate to this, on the 3 or 4 occasions I've had this, this is been in times of low hydration AND immediate stop of exercise (sprint for the finish line). For 2 years now I've had 1k slow down of letting my heart rate recover to non-stress levels gently and I've had no problems.
So, not directly relating to the excellent debate in the article - but for middle aged+ people, it does seem that letting heart levels gently return to normal (ish) levels is a good idea. Don't act like a race horse.
When I was a swimmer, I absolutely had to do a cooldown swim after a race or I'd cramp up. After the 200 breaststroke, I would start curling into a cramped up ball as soon as I touched the wall. If I didn't get into the cooldown pool to swim it out, that soreness would stay with me for the rest of the day, and I wouldn't be able to race well in subsequent events.
But for training, cooldown swims were mostly mental and a time to socialize-we even have a name for talking while using a kickboard: social kick.
Good research as always, thanks. I normally cool down for practical reasons when outdoors like you said, getting home etc, not so much indoors though. I guess if lactate does return to normal levels faster with a cool down, maybe that is why you see track cyclists doing cool downs as they might have another event later on they have to ride in. More research needed.
Hi Dylan!
We have seen Team sky some sort of revolutionising post race procedure by riding on the rollers after the race and today almost everyone does it. According to your Video this would be useless... but why are they doing it? Any guesses? And another question. What about an easy ride after coming home for maybe 30 Minutes 3 hours after the race?
Ironically, I watched this while spinning down on the trainer after a hard tempo ride. I've gotten off my cross bike, went to the awards, went to the car, drove home, and have lived to tell the tale many times. And, I've also done many times where after a race I went to the car and spun on the trainer easy and been just as fine. It's a mental break for me more than anything.
Lactate has correlation with tiredness and soreness but that doesn’t mean there’s a cause and effect relationship. Lactate is high after anaerobic bouts. I e very hard efforts that cause fatigue and soreness. It is however good fuel and muscle tissue including cardiac muscle as well as brain will use it when intensity drops and oxygen becomes available to burn the lactate off. Going through the shower and rushing off to work will be sufficient to rid lactate. If that is your concern. Which it probably shouldn’t be.
I was told when I was young that I should at least jog a few seconds to allow the heart rate to come down more controlled. I was surprised there was no discussion about that aspect in your video. I just now tried to find a research paper on the topic but could not. In your research for this video did you come across any studies about this? What would be your advice for someone doing very hard 30 second effort repeats? "You can come to a dead stop after" OR "try to allow the heart a few seconds to come down more controlled"
I am very curious about this.
Thanks for the video and sharing the research!
No bike in the background really threw me off lol
Ride easy home? But I need to protect the crazy Strava segment I made that weaves through the neighborhood and finishes on a dead end. No one else has ridden it yet but I know one day Phil Gaimon will come and try to take it.
Useful video, as always, and great all Dylan's content has a scientifically backed basis. I thought it would have been useful to balance out the analysis by looking at warm ups and their potential benefits, particularly given one of the points in the video was around what to do if time-strapped. Warm up is definitely key, physically and mentally, particularly ahead of a hard session. If doing a fitness test or before an event (particularly if a shorter, higher intensity event), it's important to progress body to a state for optimal performance, therefore warming up with some shorter bursts of higher intensity is key to enable vascular shunting, priming the right energy systems, increased energy metabolism, and to instigate homeostatic mechanisms (e.g. sweating). In a structured training session, the warm up is often technically focused - i.e. it will include drills (probably less obvious for cycling, but for triathletes out there, there are plenty of running and swimming specific drills that are usefully built into a warm up). Another component of a warm-up is neurological pathway recruitment - e.g. if you include specific muscle activation exercises specific to the session/sport, then you will carry this through to the session itself and ensure optimal targeting of specific muscles/muscle groups. For example, if you are over-recruiting quads vs hamstrings during running or cycling, then alongside targeted strength training exercises, specific activation exercises (using bands or body weight) can help address the imbalance (in turn improving efficiency and therefore performance, as well as reducing likelihood of injury).
👍 funny, last couple weeks I stopped cooling down, and nothing changed and I was thinking what's the point?
I would love to see a video on indoor power output vs outdoor power output
One thing you did not touch on is the elevated glucose that occurs during intense exerecise probably as a result of increased sympathetic tone. I seem to recall that Inigo San Milan recommended a cool down to help return glucose to normal after intense efforts in one of his podcasts with Peter Attia. YMMV, I will continue to cool down.
But what about the 5 positive Studies on cardiovascular and respiratory system? After heavy intervall sessions I often feel like having low blood pressure, cooldown helps to "get back". Are these findings related to that? Besides, thx for your brilliant content, this is by far the best training cycling channel!
Hi Dylan, a bit off topic due the video content. Will multiple Vo2max session per week increase my Vo2max or will it have an negative impact? (about 4 session per week) if its done in different forms of excessive, for example if I do two intervall sessions on the bike and two cross country skiing?
Cool down, especially on the trainer, just means I don't spend the first 15 minutes off the bike sweating profusely. Cooling off and getting my HR down before stepping off the bike allows my to relax more comfortably.
I'd imagine this topic is very relevant for those atheletes that train indoors. Since I moved back outdoors to do all my training warm ups and cool downs are just part of the 10-30mins till I get to the appropriate terrain to train! I remember hating the cool down period after an indoor session as Id just want to collapse on the floor but I like that outdoor training forces me to put in extra miles
08:36, is there any value in cooldown for cardiovascular health? Meaning going from high heart rate and using the ACT to slowly reduce HR to a more typical level? The heat chart seems to trend towards this but not definitively.
I’d like to see you do something on back to back riding days. For example, if someone has a long ride Saturday and maybe that’s 150tss if they go do 150+ on Sunday is that hurting their performance? Is there a point where it helps vs hurts? Maybe if Saturday is 125 tss a long jard Sunday is ok and you can rack 250 tss? Maybe the body hits a tipping point at 150tss Saturday which makes a hard ride Sunday detrimental? I have no clue what these numbers would be and probably the type of workout matters too. All z2 accumulated over 3 hours is different from gobs of intervals accumulated over 2 hours.
BHD is great in this video!
Yes I need to cooldown when biking in summer because my brain is encased in Styrofoam .I know most helmets have Styrofoam. Styrofoam is probably the best insulator with a very high R value . Another thing I noticed is the older one gets the harder it is to optimize one's body temperature. I prefer biking in temperatures anywhere from ten to sixteen degrees Celsius.
I have also been perpetually confused about the relationship between milk and hard efforts.
Hi Dylan. A question about ftp. Is the 20 minute ftp test really accurate? I mean if I do a ftp test and manage to hold a pace that gives me an ftp of between 200 and 250 watts for 20 minutes (I'm less than average). That does not mean that I can hold an average of 200 watts for a 3 hour ride. Would it not be more realistic to measure ftp over a longer time to get the numbers to be more accurate?
DJ, upending decades of bro-science and the "we’ve always done it this way” coaching philosophy, tossing it on its proverbial head - you’re gonna need bodyguards. Lol!
A complementary piece to this might include impact of foam roller or thestick, which I have used for dozens of years.
Bringing together cool down, stretching and cramping, is there research if cool down reduces cramps after a hard workout? I have the suspicion from research on N=1 that I am less prone to cramping after a hard interval session if I do a proper cool down.
I think the best benefit from a cool down is psychological as you stated. Preventing mental burnout can be just as important as anything but not everybody needs to do it especially if you’re late for work in the morning after your trainer ride. Your run to the shower and speed dressing can be your cool down. 😂
I definitely feel better and agile after stretching. Whether it improves performance I dont know. But it certainly keeps me more agile in the long run.
I remember hearing Chris Boardman expressing surprise (aka taking the piss very politely) on the TV as we watched Chris Froome on the trainer at the end of a horrific TDF Stage explaining that there was absolutely no scientific basis but once Sky started all the other teams followed like sheep
I like a 10 min easy period after an interval session but not sure it does any good - it’s more a transition back to not suffering.
Maybe in those studies the warmup pre fatigues them so they don’t reach the same level of intensity during the workout. Maybe this accounts for why warm up reduces doms and such but cool down does not.
A missed point on cool downs might be for night workouts. If you are trying to sleep at 10pm after a 9pm finish, the cool down might be necessary.
When I was a kid I always thought the stretching we did before practice and a game was silly. Better to run around the soccer field a few times. Interestingly we never did stretching during basketball season, only soccer and baseball.
A cooldown goes a long way in restoring blood glucose to normal levels, which is definitely important for anyone who is diabetic, as lower level muscle contractions facilitate glucose reuptake without the use of insulin. The same reason we should all be taking a 10-20min walk after a meal. It can cut the amount of insulin we need to produce in half. Pretty interesting.
Anecdotally my driveway is a short punchy climb, if I finish a ride by powering up there I don't have sore legs the next day, but do feel some fatigue where I don't feel at my best (I mostly just walk up my driveway).
Why do you think all the teams do cooldowns after stages in grand tours like Tour de France? Do big WT teams have access to research that isn't publicly available? Or is it a psychological thing?
There are a lot of things that WT teams do that are just tradition and a cooldown is certainly not hurting their riders so I don't really see a need for them to stop doing it. I think people assume that WT teams are doing everything 100% correct but we don't have to look very far back in history to know that's not true with riders using loose fitting jerseys, narrow tires, tiny cassettes, etc. I don't see any reason why they won't continue to improve their methods and they'll look back in 20 years at some of the things they do now and shake their heads.
@@DylanJohnsonCycling They are usually downing recovery drinks as they cool down, does it not speed up the absorption rate of fuel?
@@DylanJohnsonCycling Great answer. And they are also doing lots of dubious things we shouldn’t copy too !
Ah, the WISDOM of BHD....timeless.
Purely anecdotal but if I come feel that my legs want to cramp after a hard ride, a walk seems to do way better than adding a couple easy miles of pedalling. It also makes my dog very happy.
Seems to be mandatory for the top road pro's these days though. Ineos, Jumbo Visma etc all seem to do a calculated cool down after stages. Have heard that some riders eg Thomas DeGendt does no warm up, no cool down, no stretching and no massage!
Cooldown helps prevent a potentially fatal bloodclot if your blood is extremely thick, like, for example, if you have very high levels of erythropoietin. Not unheard-of.
that milk joke is legit
I go straight from an FTP Ramp Test into my bed.
I will still stretch after exercise as it is more comfortable afterwards and I like being flexible.
Hi, could you do a video on sugar water as a form of cycling nutrition?
Cooldown for me is largely psychological, so I try to do one whenever I can. The trend to remember the beginning and end of a workout more clearly means I'll dread the next interval session less if I chill for 5-10 minutes at the end of a workout. If there's a recovery benefit, cool? If not, that's fine too.
No bike in the background? All this research on alternative sports? Can only mean one thing... DJ's gonna be on the pro netball team!
I recognize the video on the background at 2:30 :D
When I use race track n field events back in my younger days, I was never convinced about stretching out, during the warm up.( I was just lazy lol) .. I would always tell my fellow athletes, “do you ever see a race horse stretch “ 🧐 go figure 😄👍
I'm mid 60s and I find a cool down just helps bring blood pressure down to resting levels. Without the sudden drop, which stops those dizzy spells
I'm with BHD. Milk does a body good. Besides, team Sky/Ineos riders always cool down, but does that really work without xenon gas, tramadol and "round" wheels?
thanks to you I no longer stretch or cool down...and I sneer at those who do
Backwards hat Dylan starts a new ride on Zwift for the cool down 😅
An easy cooling down lowers my avg speed on Strava, so this is great news.