Post Workout Cool Down Stretch Routine
Ten gentle minutes for the lower body and spine with relaxed breathing. Use it to close a session properly rather than stopping cold.
Routines
Day 1 — Full-Body Cool-Down Flow
Static stretches for calves, quads, hamstrings, hips, and low back, ending with mindful breathing.
About this plan
One ten-minute sequence of held stretches for the lower body and spine, to be used at the end of a session rather than instead of one.
It runs a wall calf stretch at twenty-five seconds, a standing Achilles stretch, a standing quadriceps stretch, a lying hamstring stretch and a lying knee-to-chest, with the holds in the twenty to twenty-five second range.
After training is when static stretching earns its place. Before a session it reduces power output temporarily; afterwards the tissue is warm, the session is over, and holding a position for twenty-five seconds produces range that the same hold cold does not.
The Achilles stretch is separated from the calf stretch on purpose. Bending the knee shifts the stretch from the gastrocnemius, which crosses the knee, to the soleus underneath it, which does not. Most people only ever do the straight-leg version and leave the soleus untouched — which matters, because the soleus does most of the work in walking and running.
What a cool-down does and does not do is worth being clear about. It will not prevent next-day soreness; the evidence on that is fairly settled. What it does is bring your heart rate and breathing down gradually, restore range that a hard session temporarily shortens, and give you a few quiet minutes that mark the end of training.
Breathe out into each position and let the muscle release rather than forcing it. If you are shaking or bracing, you have gone too far.
Ten minutes at the end of a session, or on its own on a rest day when you feel tight.
Train this plan in the app
LoadMuscle carries the routine with a demo for every exercise, and logs your sets as you go, so next session you can see what to beat. Free on iPhone and Android.
Want something built around your own schedule and equipment instead? Try the free workout planner.
