Cool down and recovery
Recovery is an essential part of any training programme and is important to help maximise performance and reduce your risk of injury.
Cool down
A cool down (or active recovery) is a good way of returning the body back to normal after vigorous exercise. For runners, jogging or walking followed by stretching of your leg muscles is all that is needed.
Some people think that stretching after exercise reduces muscle soreness the next day, but there is little evidence to support this belief. However, stretching does improve and maintain flexibility which can help prevent injury.
Rehydrate
Large amounts of fluid can be lost during training, especially during hot and humid conditions. Making sure you drink enough water to replace the fluids you've lost during running is another important part of recovery.
Nutrition
Food helps you recover after intense exercise by refuelling your energy stores and providing the necessary protein needed to repair and rebuild muscle tissue. After exercise, your muscles can refuel energy stores twice as fast as normal so try to eat some carbohydrate-rich foods soon after.
Muscle soreness
Many people experience muscle soreness 24-48 hours after exercise. It is unclear why or how this happens, but there are certain things you can do to prevent this such as cooling down after exercise and doing non-weight bearing exercise (e.g. swimming or cycling).
Publication date: June 2009
