Learn cool down drills that will improve sprinting technique, speed up recovery and help prevent injuries. A good post workout routine that includes specific cool down drills is a critical component of sprint training. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to speed training and most track and field events in general.

As sprinters progress to higher levels with more intense training, the ability to recover after workouts and stay injury free becomes more and more important. Having a good warm up and cool down routine can mean the difference between a great season and being sidelined with a hamstring injury.

In this post I share with you the approach of coach Karim Abdel Wahab to getting the most out of the cool down. These drills work for sprinting, long jump, hurdling… and include:

1. Drills that reinforce proper sprinting form and develop the ability to maintain proper sprint mechanics while fatigued.
2. A backwards component for glute activation and injury prevention. Studies have shown that sports that have backwards movements (i.e. basketball, tennis…) have fewer hamstring injuries than sports that only move in a forward motion (i.e. sprinting, long jumping, running…).
3. An aerobic component that helps to flush the lactate out of the system. Athletes that finish their training sessions with light aerobic work recover faster and have better subsequent workouts.

Coach Karim Abdel Wahab is a big believer in using our cool-down to develop qualities and skills, and not to only cool down the system. Of course, he’s a big proponent of having some aerobic component of our cool-down to flush the lactate out of the system. It’s been proven to be very effective in accelerating recovery. But we also want to address some technical qualities in our cool-down to make the most out of our training session. The two drills that coach Karim Abdel Wahab basically uses are A-runs and backward skips.

Their athletes do A-Runs or high knees in the cool-down, making sure they’re having the ability to drive their knees up under fatigue. And we want to be able to make sure that they can hold good posture and good mechanics under fatigue. So they go down 20 to 30 meters doing A-Runs to make sure that they can drive their knee up when they’re tired.

And on the way back, we do backward skips. The reason why coach Karim Abdel Wahab likes backward skips a lot in the cool-down is their glute activation. As a matter of fact, we use backward skips in the warm-up as a glute activation, and in the cool-down we do backward skips to activate the glutes. It’s a great glute activation drill. A lot of studies have been showing that the sports that have backward movement, like back pedal and backward shuffle, they have the least amount of hamstring injuries. So what we’re trying to do is to have a backward component in our warm-up and in the cool-down to make sure we’re having great glute activation to reduce the possibility of having hamstring injuries.

Cool down drills:

Include:

1. An easy aerobic component. Flushes lactate out of muscles. Speeds recovery.
2. A-Runs for 20-30 meters out. Good tall posture. Head looking forward and shoulders back. Foot lands flat underneath center of mass. Thigh is at 90º. Foot is dorsiflexed.
3. Backward skips for 20-30 meters back. Back is straight, good posture. Heel is close to glute. Full leg extension (critical to engage glute muscles).

Bibliographic references:

• Outperform. (2020). Sprinting Technique | Cool Down To Sprint Faster [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/U4njGYOkrkE?si=PYmV_0upHT8B1jXl