Research
Adherence
Post-exercise active warm-down (jogging and stretching) accelerates the recovery of neuromuscular performance (jumping, sprinting) and reduces muscle soreness compared to passive rest.
After your game or hard training, do not just sit down. Spend 10-12 minutes doing light jogging and stretching. This simple active recovery helps your muscles recover faster and reduces soreness for the next few days compared to just resting.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Performance in vertical and broad jumps was impaired in both groups, but less so in the group that had warmed down. This group recovered to pre-match values more quickly than the inactive participants... Muscle soreness ratings had almost abated 48 h after playing in the individuals who had warmed down in contrast to the increased ratings with successive days in the control group.
Why this rating
Based on a single study of university soccer players (Reilly and Rigby, 2002) with a crossover design; results show clear trends but the sample size and population are specific.
Source
The use of recovery methods post‐exercise
Thomas Reilly et al. · Journal of Sports Sciences · 2005
DOI 10.1080/02640410400021302
narrative_reviewCited 245×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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