COOL DOWN
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DON'T neglect the cool-down!
Everyone is busy but the cool-down is essential to begin taking your body out of the exercise "high" and relieves sme lactic acid build-up in your muscles so that they are not (maybe) sore the next day. Basically cool-down is muscle stretching. You can certainly do more stretches than I have outlined below but these are the minimum. Start cool-down lying on the floor, arms overhead and toes outstretched. A useful exercise is to maximize the stretch on the floor by pointing your toes and your fingers as far as possible from your core. Hug knees to chest - rock forward and back Stretch out the lower back by hugging your knees to the chest, hands on the outside of your legs (shown) or between the calf and the hamstring. Move around a little by rocking forward and backward and then side-to-side (at least 4 reps each). Then drop your knees down to the floor. Knees to floor
Drop your knees to the floor on one side, trying to get the knees flat on the floor. Then rotate the torso so both shoulders are flat, feeling the twist in the hamstrings, the glutes and the lower back. Turn your head away from the knees if you want more stretch. Leg/foot stretch
With your hands, grab your ankle, your calf or your hamstring. DO NOT grab behind the knee joint - very hard on the knees to pull on them. To stretch the foot and hamstrings, pull the leg in slightly rotating the foot one direction and then the same number of times in the other direction - at least 4 times each way. To stretch the calf, point and flex the foot towards your face - at least 4 times. Finally stretch the hamstring by pulling GENTLY on the leg so that the quads touch your abs or, if you are holding the leg straight, you pull the leg in as far as possible. Just to the point of feelign the stretch, not to the point of pain! Hug knees to chest - rock in a circle
Hands around or behind the knees again and now rock around in a circle, rolling out the lower back and the kidneys a little. Then reverse the direction. At least 4 reps per side. Repeat knees to floor and ankle to ceiling - other side
Repeat knees to floor and ankle to ceiling streches on the other side of your body. Remember the top leg during knees-to-floor goes up to the ceiling. Rock up to sitting, the slowly stand up
After repeating the lower body stretch on the other side of your body, hug your knees in to your chest and rock up to sitting, then come up to standing trying to roll up one vertebra at a time. Roll the neck vertebra up last. Quad stretch
Standing, pick a knee, find your balance and grab the shoelaces in the palm of your hand. Push the knee to the floor as you hold the shoelaces rather than focussing on pulling the heel into your glutes. Oblique stretch
Take one foot behind the other and raise that arm to the ceiling. Tip over to increase the stretch of your side. Shoulder & Tricep stretch
Leaving your feet in place, stretch the shoulders by taking the upraised arm across the body and pressing the arm into your body. Don't grab on the elbow with the other hand - grab above or below the elbow. From the shoulder stretch move smoothly into a tricep stretch by taking the arm back over your shoulder and press this back gently with the other hand. Avoid pressing on the elbow. Neck stretch
Finally, do a neck stretch by reaching across your neck and finding the muscle on the shoulder where the shoulder meets your neck - the levator scapulae. Press on this muscle, look down to your chest and then look out (shown) or up. Hold for a couple seconds. Repeat
Repeat these stretches for the other side of your body:
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