Cool Down Tips

Give yourself 5 to 10 minutes for this stage of your workout.

Your body is still trying to get blood to your working muscles. Give yourself time to “reconfigure” where the blood needs to go.

If you slow down too quickly, you could get light-headed, or even pass out!

Don’t forget water. Water is so important in every stage of our workout and daily function.

Please keep in mind that it is possible to lose weight during a workout, but this is not the long-term weight loss the true Fitness Woman is looking for. The fact is that weight lost during the workout is little more than water being processed out of the body in the form of sweat.

While this is a healthy and necessary process, you must replace that lost hydration.

A good rule of thumb is, as a start, you need to drink as much water as you lost in sweat during your workout. For example; if you lost one pound in your workout. Drink 16 oz. of water to make it back up.

If you are working out by yourself, you would benefit from using a timer at each stage of your workout. Using a timer will give you measureable progress. You can keep tabs on how you feel at various times throughout your workout. It will also be easier to see the sometimes slow progress that you really are making.

One of the most helpful cool down tips I have ever incorporated is the habit of writing down stuff about my workout. Take a small notebook along and jot down your warm up, main body, and cool down times.

You will be encouraged to see your consistent efforts be rewarded as your times increase or your workout gets easier at specific points in the routine!

(The first time I got on an elliptical, I could only last for about 5 minutes. Now I can go for an hour! I only know this because I kept track with a little spreadsheet on my phone. Use what works for you!)

Inhale slowly as you are doing any given cool down exercise or dynamic stretch.

As you exhale slowly, slightly increase the intensity of your stretch. If you do this a few times for each stretch, you should see your flexibility improve.

Take a healthy heart rate check before, during and after your main cardio work. That way you will be able to tell when your heart rate returns to normal. (You might want to write down your target heart rate in your notebook!)

Don’t forget that after you are warmed up, your muscles are just right for some flexibility stretching too!

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