Meaning & use
cool-down
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Meanings
nouncountable
A period of gentle activity after exercise that helps your heart rate and breathing return to normal.
Grammar: Countable; use it with a/an or the: do a cool-down, the cool-down lasted ten minutes.
Patterns
- do a cool-down
- a cool-down after something
- a five-minute cool-down
After the race, I did a ten-minute cool-down with some easy jogging.
The coach says a proper cool-down stops your muscles from feeling stiff the next day.
We finished the workout with a cool-down and then stretched.
nounusually singularfigurative
A time when activity, excitement, or tension becomes calmer or less intense.
Grammar: Often used in the phrase a cool-down after something; not usually plural.
Patterns
- a cool-down after something
- a cool-down in something
The meeting was tense, so we took a short walk as a cool-down before starting again.
There was a cool-down in the housing market after the summer rush.
Word forms
| plural | cool-downs |
|---|
Common combinations
- a proper cool-down
- A proper cool-down includes slow movements and stretching.
- do a cool-down
- You should do a cool-down after every long run.
- a cool-down period
- The class ends with a cool-down period of about five minutes.
- skip the cool-down
- Don't skip the cool-down if you want to avoid sore muscles.
- a cool-down exercise
- Walking is a simple cool-down exercise.
Synonyms and how they differ
- warm-down
- British English uses warm-down for the same idea; cool-down is more common in American English.
- recovery
- Recovery is a broader word for the whole process of resting and getting back to normal, not just the light activity right after exercise.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: cool-down or cool down? cool-down or cooldown?
cool-down vs cool down
Cool down is the verb phrase (Let your body cool down); cool-down is the noun (Do a cool-down).
cool-down vs cooldown
Some people write it as one word, but the hyphenated form cool-down is the most common in fitness writing.
Practice
After the match, the players did a light ___ to help their bodies recover.
Choose one answer.
The noun cool-down fits after a light and means the period of gentle activity. Cool down is the verb phrase and would need a subject, as in they cooled down. Cooling down is a verb form, and cooler is a comparative adjective or a noun for a container.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cool-down”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.