The Importance of Warm Up and Cool Down

Like any good book, the key to an effective workout is to incorporate a soft beginning, a strong middle and a soothing end. The soft beginning is the warm up exercises, which is done prior to the actual exercise. The strong middle is the main part of the workout. The soothing end is the cool down or body stretching, which is practiced after the workout is over.

Warm Up

The basic purpose of a warm up is to increase the body temperature and prepare the muscles for the exercises that are to be performed shortly afterwards.  The warm up is generally supposed to be slow-paced and of low intensity.
Warm up helps increase the body temperature. This rise in the body temperature leads to an increased blood flow and a rise in the amount of oxygen provided to the muscles. This delays muscle fatigue and leads to an increase in muscle flexibility, thereby reducing the chances of musculoskeletal injuries.
Warm up is beneficial and significant before any type of exercise as it reduces the chances of the following ailments:
• Muscle pull
• Joint pain
• Musculoskeletal injury
• Muscle soreness

Cool Down

Cool down, often termed as ‘the recovery period’, is performed after one has completed the actual exercise. The cool down, which typically lasts for about 10 minutes, allows the heart rate, breathing and blood pressure to return back to normal levels at a slow and steady pace. It involves low intensity exercising and stretching of the muscles.

Cool down is important as it provides the following benefits:
• It decreases the risk to delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. DOMS is the soreness and pain felt in the muscles after unaccustomed or straining workouts. It usually occurs hours or days after the exercise is performed and is felt the most strongly for around 24 to 72 hours after the workout.
• It helps avoiding fainting or dizziness after the exercises.
• It helps in removal of lactic acid from the muscles.
• It helps in preparing ones muscle for the next time he or she exercises.

Heel pain: Causes, prevention, and treatments - Medical update Today.

Is Plantar Fasciitis causing your heel pain?

Plantar Fasciitis (pronounced: plantar-fa-shee-eye-tis) is a common condition causing heel pain. The pain is felt under the heel or the entire sole of the foot. The heel pain is more prominent on waking up and the pain diminishes after taking the first few steps. This condition may be debilitating for some, making it difficult to be on your feet all day long.

Could the pain you feel, be plantar fasciitis?

Initially, heel pain starts mildly and may be recurrent. Gradually the pain may increase. Look out for the following symptoms by answering true or false:

	Symptoms	True/False
1	My heel is the most tender part of the foot	True/False
2	My pain is worse on waking up	True/False
3	My pain gets better after walking a few steps	True/False
4	My pain causes me to limp	True/False
5	My pain increases on long standing hours	True/False
6	My pain increases after exercise	True/False
7	My pain came after my weight increased	True/False
8	My pain is chronic and it may be on and off	True/False
9	My pain has increased after changing my shoes	True/False
10	My pain has increased because I haven’t changed my shoes for years	True/False

If most of your answers were true, you must get help and please do not ignore.

What may have caused Plantar Fasciitis?

The plantar fascia is a strong stretchy ligament starting from the heel bone up to the ball of the foot. It is designed to bear your weight and support the spring action as you walk and run. However, this Plantar Fascia can get injured by:

• Wrong foot alignment. Flat feet or high arches both can cause this pain. Hence gait assessment   is utmost important to relieve your pain.
•  Standing for long hours may put excessive pressure on the ligament.
•  Lack of calf stretch/ proper warm up before workouts.
• Worn out footwear.
• A sudden increase in weight also puts excessive pressure on the ligament.
• Aging can cause loss of elasticity in the ligament, thus causing heel pain.

What can you do to treat your pain?

Plantar Fasciitis can be treated majorly by non-invasive methods. Following a few simple tips help you in getting relief from your pain

Rest: Spend part of the day seated so that the pressure is relieved off your ligament, especially if you spend most of your day standing or walking. 

Ice: Use cold packs on sole of foot/ most painful region of your foot for 20minutes, 3-4 times a day to bring down the inflammation.

Plantar Fascia Release: You may find trigger points on the sole of your feet. Releasing it with frozen water bottle under the foot might relieve your pain. Roll it gently with some pressure on the bottle specifically in painful areas. Do it for 2-3 minutes under each foot.

Stretching: Stretch your calf at least twice a day. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds on each side and repeat 3 times.

Calf Stretch

Footwear: Avoid being barefoot at all times. If footwear is worn out, change your foot wear. Wear footwear that offers maximum support like sports shoes or sandals. DO NOT mistake soft footwear to be comfortable/pain relieving. Its effects are only temporary (if any). Soft footwear provides only shock absorption. It does not correct the mal-alignment of the foot. Corrective footwear will be uncomfortable initially; however, once you break-in, it will be your new comfort zone!

 Strive Footwear (Corrective Slippers)

Corrective Insoles: Use customized corrective insoles (Orthotics)on a daily basis to get maximum support for the arch and the plantar fascia ligament. Pair the insoles with good supportive shoes for best results. This helps not only in correcting wrong foot alignment but even helps improve performance.

      Customised Corrective Insoles

Dr. Megha Bhatnagar: sports Physiotherapist

http://bouncebackphysio.in/