A lot of people finish their after-work workout at the gym, get dressed, head home and sit on the couch for the rest of the night. It’s understandable that you might want to relax after the gym, but being totally sedentary after an intense workout can cause the same kind of stiffness and muscle fatigue you are trying to counteract. Especially if your day job involves sitting, you don’t want to further bookend your routine in stasis.

Sustained Exercise Is the Best Kind of Exercise

Your workout shouldn’t end at the gym. The best thing you can do for your strength and overall health is to have a long, robust cool-down period, in which you gently work your key muscles and core. You might be thinking, though: who has time for that? Who has time to stand around the gym and gently work out? But that’s the thing – you don’t have to be at the gym.

The cool-down period should be fun, though. It shouldn’t feel like work. After all, after a long day of both work and working out, you owe it to yourself to have a good time. In order to get a proper cool down and have fun, you need to think outside of the box. Think, “axe throwing”.

Axe Throwing Mixes Fitness and Fun

Honestly, of all the cool-down exercises available, axe throwing is perhaps the best at being both exciting and light toning. If you’re unfamiliar with axe throwing (and can’t imagine it from the name) you won’t believe how fun this is – it’s a straightforward game where you throw hatchets at a wooden target, aiming for the centre. It’s obscenely fun, and just a little addictive, giving you the perfect post-work/post-workout opportunity to blow off some steam.

And the activity itself reinforces your workout throughout a number of muscle groups. Your core and upper body get a good workout as you draw the axe back over your head and hurl it forward. And by planting your legs for the motion, it also works out your quads, glutes and calf muscles. After just a half-hour of axe throwing, you’ll feel a real sense of workout reinforcement. And, best of all, the time will fly by.

That’s the bottom line: if you are going to do a serious cool down (and you should) you want the time to go quickly. You want to be as fascinated by the activity as you would be if you had skipped the cooldown and watched your favorite Netflix show instead.

Joining a League

Dropping in on an axe-throwing facility every day after the gym doesn’t make quite as much sense as joining a league. Try it out by dropping in, but after you get hooked (you will get hooked) the most economical thing to do is join a league and compete with other like-minded axe throwers.

It may sound strange, but axe throwing is the perfect accompaniment to your existing exercise regimen. It reinforces the gains you’ve made and provides you with a fun, fast-paced way of blowing off steam.