Week 3

Week 3 of your Personal Walking Plan

This week, we start adding strength sessions to your walking plan. You'll notice that we’ve dropped the intensity slightly, but if you prefer to stay with a moderate intensity, that's fine too.  

Like last week, you can split your walks into shorter sessions if you’re finding it tricky to manage your time. 

Strength exercises are crucial for building and maintaining muscle mass, which not only enhances physical performance but also helps in daily activities and reduces the risk of injury. Additionally, they can boost metabolism, improve bone density, and support overall health and longevity.   

Here’s your Week 3 plan:

Stretching exercises

Continue with the stretching exercises from last week.

Like the past two weeks, you’ll be stretching at the end of each walk. While you’re stretching, think about how your muscles feel. Do they feel tight? Can you feel them relaxing and lengthening as you stretch? Try to perform each stretch 2–3 times, or more if you need to – every time you breathe out, try to move a little further into the stretch. Listen to your body as you go. 

If you haven't stretched in the past, this may feel like a lot of stretching! But don't fear, it does get easier and will become second nature. You may find that your body naturally wants to stretch after each walk as it remembers how good it felt. 

Watch our stretching how-to video:

Intensity reminder

Remember that the rating of your effort/intensity is exactly that - YOUR rating of effort! What it takes from you to get to the advised level on any given day will change, and be affected by things such as fatigue, motivation, mood as well as many external factors. Just listen to your body and aim for that 3 out 10 - knowing that might mean a faster or slower pace.   

Strength exercises 

If the word ‘strength’ makes you think about lifting weights at the gym, think again! All our exercises use your bodyweight, which means you can do them just about anywhere. 

Getting the terminology right

Repetitions, or ‘reps’, are the number of times you complete an exercise or movement. A ‘set’ is the total number of reps you complete in a single block. For example, if you do 3 sets of 8 squats, that means you’ve completed 24 squats split over 3 separate blocks, with a rest of 30-60 seconds after every 8 squats.

How many sets and reps?

There are 6 exercises to complete. You should aim to complete all 6 on 2 separate days. The number of sets and reps you do of each depends on your fitness level. 
Beginner = 1 set of 6–10 reps
Intermediate = 2 sets of 10 -15 reps
Advanced = 3 sets of 10–15 reps
 
If you find any level too easy or too hard over the course of your program, you can simply increase or decrease the reps and sets as needed. For example, if you complete 2 sets of 10 sit-to-stands and feel like you could do more, then the next day try 2 sets of 15. If still too easy you could try 3 sets of 15 at your next session! The important thing is to listen to your body.

Tips for getting started

• Below are some tips to help you get the most out of your strength exercises.
• Schedule your strength exercises on your ‘off’ days – that is, on days you’re not already walking.
• If you can, don’t plan strength sessions on back-to-back days. Your body needs time to recover.
• If you find yourself struggling with one of the exercises, skip it and move to the next one. You can always try again another day. This is important for when you have an injury too.
• Start gradually. The aim is to get your muscles used to the movement, not to push yourself past your limits.
• Breathe normally during your exercises – it's important not to hold your breath.
• If you have time, stretch after you complete your strength exercises. This can help with muscle stiffness the next day. 
               

Here’s a how-to video to help you get started:

Not your cup of tea? 

If you give the strength exercises a go and they’re really not for you, don’t worry. Refocus and replace each strength session with some Pilates or yoga, or gardening or other household tasks that require a bit of effort. The aim is to move your muscles more and keep building on your progress – which means there’s more than one way to achieve your goals.