Team Sky and their marginals gains doctrine has re-popularized the cooldown, and now most World Tour teams have their teams on trainers in front of the team bus after races, doing long cool-downs.
And I've long heard the maxim about "clearing the lactic acid from your system," from back in my high school track days.
But are cooldowns actually worthwhile?
Some relatively recent research: Do We Need a Cool-Down After Exercise? A Narrative Review of the Psychophysiological Effects and the Effects on Performance, Injuries and the Long-Term Adaptive Response.
That survey sure couldn't find much benefit, though admits there's still a lot that's not known, and hasn't been studied.
For me it has some purely subjective value as a time so socialize about a workout, if in a group. And after races it provides a chance to slowly step down from the wired state that at least I tend to get into while racing.
But it sure would help time efficiency to just skip it the rest of the time.
And I've long heard the maxim about "clearing the lactic acid from your system," from back in my high school track days.
But are cooldowns actually worthwhile?
Some relatively recent research: Do We Need a Cool-Down After Exercise? A Narrative Review of the Psychophysiological Effects and the Effects on Performance, Injuries and the Long-Term Adaptive Response.
That survey sure couldn't find much benefit, though admits there's still a lot that's not known, and hasn't been studied.
For me it has some purely subjective value as a time so socialize about a workout, if in a group. And after races it provides a chance to slowly step down from the wired state that at least I tend to get into while racing.
But it sure would help time efficiency to just skip it the rest of the time.