One of my 6 AM’ers recently asked why people finish a workout and immediately lay on the ground. Most people coming from a sports background are programmed to do a warmup, complete their exercise, and then do a cool down before leaving the gym or field. But watching any of the .com videos or many of our athletes here at Crossfit Vancouver, the common practice is to push your body to its limits and then the moment that you are done, find some floor space and lye down. I think a lot of it has to do with the extreme intensity level that you are working at and mentally shutting down once the goal has been achieved, but I wondered if it was dangerous to do so or not, so I did some investigating.
After several unqualified opinions were made, Lon Kilgor then responded to the issue by saying that “when you are exercising hard the vascular pressures driving blood flow are quite high. With very hard aerobic exercise blood pressure an be well into the 200’s (systolic) and when you are busting your butt with some big weights and big reps the pressure can rise into the 300’s. And that’s OK, those elevated pressures are perfectly normal and useful for our continued function. But if we immediately remove the load and stop moving, the cardiovascular system is immediately affected and venous return to the heart is reduced, in some individuals this can be manifested in a reduced cerebral blood flow and produces altered perceptions and consciousness (blackout). My advice to all is to keep moving in order to keep the cardiovascular system slightly loaded in order to prevent precipitous drops I venous return. This will aid in being ready for the next set or round of a workout. The next safest thing to do specifically in regards to post effort loss of consciousness is, yes lay down. I’d rather pass out when I’m lying down in order to avoid any injuries I might sustain from falling. And when you lay down the vascular column (how high the heart has to pump the blood to get to the brain) is reduced and this aids in maintaining consciousness.” He goes on to say that “In a healthy heart, the risk of injury that would result from lying down immediately after hard effort is fairly inconsequential. Rather the danger is with individuals with diseased cardiovascular systems.
Another frequent poster Bingo researched the issue and determined the healthy heart is able to take pretty much anything we can throw at it,. It is able to recover without adverse effect whether one “walks out” the recovery or “flops”. But unhealthy hears are unpredictable and can throw a lethal arrhythmia in the exercise setting. There is a well-described incidence of arrhythmias that occur within 5 minutes of exercise that are benign if you have a healthy heart and potentially lethal if you have one of several rear conditions (which Lon persists is greater if you flop).
