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The post-workout cool down is just as important as the pre-workout warm up, but many of us skip it — especially if we are short on time. Read the following five things and hopefully they will inspire you to make the time.

1. Cool down by walking or jogging for five to ten minutes. This slowing down helps to cool your body temperature and allows the body to remove the waste products from muscles that were worked.

2. Stretching is an essential component of the cool down. Not only does stretching muscles post workout help increase the range of motion of your joints, but it also continues the cooling down of your hot body.

3. The cool down helps prevent delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), the nemesis of fitness freaks. Post-workout pain often discourages fitness newbies and they lose their drive. So if you are new to the fitness world, don’t cut your cool down short.

4. Cooling down decreases your chances of fainting in the locker room. Abruptly ending a cardio workout can cause blood to pool in your extremities leaving you dizzy and light headed or causing you to faint. It also helps your heart rate gradually return to normal.

5. A cool down helps you end on a calm note by decreasing the adrenaline in your blood stream.

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