I have to admit, I do not do a good of a job with teaching my athletes to cool down. Basically, it comes down to time. In my training classes by the time I am finished with strength or conditioning it is time for the next class to start. I normally have the athletes do a quick functional flexibility routine before they head home.

Personally, when I finish my workouts I like to perform mobility and stretching excerises that re-aligns me. If I my workout focused on a lot of pushing exercises, I will do a lot of pulling in my cool down. This makes sense for most people anyway. Most people will do a chest stretch after a bench press. But what is often missed is the exercises not so common.

I spend a lot of time mobilizing my hips, especially my internal and external rotators. I am naturally tight in this area, but after a workout I become even tighter if I don’t mobilize this area. What I have found is if I simply position my hips, or what ever area of the body I am stretching, on stretch and then move my body in all three planes I get a great mobilization of that area.

If we look at how the muscles are designed, we see they are designed to move in all three planes. From the attachments of the muscles to it’s orientation, muscles are designed to load and unload in all three planes. When I perform my mobility in all these planes I feel much more aligned than if I do simple sagittal plane stretching.

Of course there is more to cooling down than just stretching and mobility work. However, it is a great start and it makes me feel better. I now just have to make sure my athletes do more as well.

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