warming down, or lack of

bonk_king

When i go out on my bike i have a few minutes of freewheeling down a hill to the main road before the need to pedal. On the way back if i've had good ride, and i still feel relatively fresh, i also like to go full bore up the hill to my house, a couple of minutes of really hard effort. This usually means that i throw the bike in the hallway and collapse on the floor with the effort. Which means no warm down. I don't fully understand the science behind the warm down thing, other than that sky started the trend years ago and everyone followed their example. What damage, if any, am i doing through not warming down? Am i better doing my hard efforts during my ride and riding steadily up the hill to my house at the end?

Mad_Malx

bonk king wrote:

When i go out on my bike i have a few minutes of freewheeling down a hill to the main road before the need to pedal. On the way back if i've had good ride, and i still feel relatively fresh, i also like to go full bore up the hill to my house, a couple of minutes of really hard effort. This usually means that i throw the bike in the hallway and collapse on the floor with the effort. Which means no warm down. I don't fully understand the science behind the warm down thing, other than that sky started the trend years ago and everyone followed their example. What damage, if any, am i doing through not warming down? Am i better doing my hard efforts during my ride and riding steadily up the hill to my house at the end?

Boardman did a piece on this on one of the ITV4 tdf rest day programmes. There's a belief that it clears lactic acid so helps recovery. Final conclusion was there isn't really much evidence and lots of riders do it because Sky does.

I find a beer while on the sofa works well for me.

Mad_Malx

^I've stopped going now, but when I was doing the gym I found I didn't have enough time to actually achieve anything if I did long warmup and warmdown. Preferred to do short warmup and hammer it for almost the whole time there. No idea about the physical benefits, but I did come away feeling I had done some work.

SCR Pedro

I would rather spend 10 minutes stretching.

Mad_Malx

^for which there is also scant evidence of benefit, using objective measures of tissue damage or subsequent injury.
If it feels good and you like it, fine, keep at it.
I'm just confirming my bias (I can't be arsed doing it) and warmdowners/stretchers will confirm theirs (it makes them feel better), but the bottom line is that the physical benefits are small or non-existent.

Alex99

Mad_Malx wrote:

bonk king wrote:

When i go out on my bike i have a few minutes of freewheeling down a hill to the main road before the need to pedal. On the way back if i've had good ride, and i still feel relatively fresh, i also like to go full bore up the hill to my house, a couple of minutes of really hard effort. This usually means that i throw the bike in the hallway and collapse on the floor with the effort. Which means no warm down. I don't fully understand the science behind the warm down thing, other than that sky started the trend years ago and everyone followed their example. What damage, if any, am i doing through not warming down? Am i better doing my hard efforts during my ride and riding steadily up the hill to my house at the end?

Boardman did a piece on this on one of the ITV4 tdf rest day programmes. There's a belief that it clears lactic acid so helps recovery. Final conclusion was there isn't really much evidence and lots of riders do it because Sky does.

I find a beer while on the sofa works well for me.

It's not clearing of lactic (that happens just with breathing). The Boardman piece suggested that it was perhaps more to do with allowing blood pressure and heart rate to ramp back to normal at a steady rate just makes you feel better. Also that it gives a chance to unwind mentally, which tbh is a big deal after a race.

ugo.santalucia

Warm down if you feel dizzy, don't bother if you don't

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Used to do ~1 mile loop warming down early this year, now I tend just to pootle the final ~0.5 miles directly home.

fenix

If you're at the level of Sky then do the cool down - marginal gains.

If you're not - then do what feels good.

bonk_king

Maybe the sky science train has established that after 5 or 6 hours of full bore racing there are indeed marginal gains to be had by warming down properly. But is it necessary for us mere mortals? My 3 hours of relative tootling along with a few minutes of effort thrown in hardly come close to their effort. I was just a tad concerned that the sudden shock to the body of a full bore effort followed by immediately lying on the floor was counter productive rather than making me a more complete rider.

ugo.santalucia

If you push yourself to the limit and then you stop, you will feel dizzy, hence the need to warm down after a race... as for normal people, it depends how hard you ride your last mile...

awavey

it was BCs track cyclists that Sky borrowed the idea from, I dont think it hurts to warm down, or simply slow up the last mile/half mile instead so you arent pushing things, not easy if theres a big hill in the way for sure, but I know when I used to do parkruns if I just stopped immediately after the finish line and sat in heap, my legs would just lock up and it would be incredibly painful to move, fortunately dont get that so much with cycling now.

Maybe stretching would definitely have helped, as would better fitness, but you will remove the lactic acid quicker through light exercise, which is why they do it I guess

sloppyschleckonds

bonk king wrote:

full bore marginal gains full bore

Cycling 2017

dj58

By all means collapse on the floor after your effort, but please don't throw your bike in the hallway, it won't thank you for it. :shock:

Rodrego Hernandez

awavey wrote:

it was BCs track cyclists that Sky borrowed the idea from, I dont think it hurts to warm down, or simply slow up the last mile/half mile instead so you arent pushing things, not easy if theres a big hill in the way for sure, but I know when I used to do parkruns if I just stopped immediately after the finish line and sat in heap, my legs would just lock up and it would be incredibly painful to move, fortunately dont get that so much with cycling now.

Maybe stretching would definitely have helped, as would better fitness, but you will remove the lactic acid quicker through light exercise, which is why they do it I guess

Sorry but that's just spin.

Cyclists have always warmed down - there's even photos of the ONCE team using turbo trainers back in the 90s.

ugo.santalucia

Rodrego Hernandez wrote:

Cyclists have always warmed down - there's even photos of the ONCE team using turbo trainers back in the 90s.

Not quite, they were actually operating the pumps for dialysis

bobmcstuff

Apparently if you are doing hard workouts late in the evening a warm down can help you sleep more easily.

Not really tried it but it might work, I do find doing it hard to sleep sometimes if I've done a hard workout late.

joncomelately

Sky invented warming down? Funny, because when I was swimming in the mid eighties we used to do 'warm downs', and practically every sports club I've been part of has done one at the end of every training session.

Not sure if it does any good, the evidence does not support definite benefit, so I don't bother any more. I do stretch, otherwise - as people above have said - my muscles complain, but I don't find the need for a cardiovascular warm down regardless of training intensity.

Having said all that my calves, back, neck and shoulders are knackered so maybe don't listen to me....

laurentian

Pretty much any pro sports people warm down. Rugby, football, swimming, athletics etc etc. In these days of sports science and physiology, I would imagine with all these guys doing it, there must be some benefit.

For what its worth, I find the best for me after exertion (Rugby) is an ice bath. Uncomfortable for 7 minutes but amazing results the next day.

svetty

The placebo effect is a strong one......

reacher

Mad_Malx wrote:

^for which there is also scant evidence of benefit, using objective measures of tissue damage or subsequent injury.
If it feels good and you like it, fine, keep at it.
I'm just confirming my bias (I can't be arsed doing it) and warmdowners/stretchers will confirm theirs (it makes them feel better), but the bottom line is that the physical benefits are small or non-existent.

Huge benefits to stretching, one of the most important things you can do especially as you get older