While most people are conscious of the need to warm-up, and generally diligent about including a warm-up in their routine, unfortunately they often neglect the warm-down. However the warm-down is just as essential as the warm-up. If you fail to do an effective warm-down then your recovery will be hampered. Generally your muscles will seize up if you go from working at a high intensity to a sudden halt.

One of the reasons we forget to cool-down is our live for the day approach to life (in other words, we do a warm-up because we believe it will aid us in the match we are about to play, but flag the warm-down, because the benefits from that aren't immediately evident). However if you're working out or playing sport on a regular basis then the inclusion of an effective warm-down is going to help ease muscle soreness and allow you to complete more workouts or play more games in a fresher state.

In your warm-down you should gradually drop the intensity over a 10-15 minute period at the end of your workout, going from a run to a jog then down to a walk. Include some light dynamic stretches as well to help free the joints.

• Strengthening the External Obliques
• Warming Up
• Carbohydrate Requirements
• Detraining
• Gaining Muscle
• Muscle Soreness
• Active Recovery
• Weight Training For Women
• The Importance of Sleep
• Posture
• Lunges