After you have indulged in a vigorous workout such as running, you may want to warm down and do some stretching in order to condition the muscles for the end-of-workout session. This paves way for the healing process to begin. A Port Coquitlam fitness trainer can advise you on the most appropriate stretches or warm down exercises you can do after a workout. Depending on the workout you have just completed, you may find that some warm down exercises are more effective than others.
For a running workout, you may want to do a number of stretch exercises as part of the warm down. Hip flexor stretch can be done as part of a warm down. In this exercise, you take a huge stride or lunge and then bend the front knee to 90 degree while raising the back foot to the ball of the foot. Now lengthen the distance in between the feet. This will allow you to feel a stretch on hip flexors on the back thigh front.
Ensure you keep the toes of back foot on ground. Put the back knee on ground then bend forward so that you try stretching your leg even more. You can hold to this position for about a minute before you swap. Make sure you adjust the positioning of knees and the feet so that you feel a bit comfortable.
Other stretch exercises include calf stretch, standing quadriceps stretch, and front leg stretch. The objective of having the warm down and stretches is to rid out lactic acid that has build up in muscles and which causes a burning sensation while at the same time aiding in recovery of tissue. The after workout warm down will maintain the flexibility of muscles.
Remember if you have had an intense workout, the body will continue to burn calories for an extended time. If you have had a full run, you can warm down by walking for about 500 yard. Walking will let the muscles to continue working and remove the lactic acid that may have accumulated during the workout. After the walking, you can perform some stretches.