(Content by Phoenix – originally published in The Telegraph Magazine)
14 Day Walking Workout: week two. Jim Stubbs increases the pace…
By the end of week two of your walking workout, you should be starting to feel the benefits, and be increasing your overall walking and stretching time to one hour with a bit of gentle jogging.
The RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) scale is used internationally to help you assess how hard you are working. I refer to it in this workout, so to help you understand your body better, here it is:
RPE scale
0 – Nothing at all
1 – Very weak
2 – Weak (light)
3 – Moderate
4 –
5 – Strong (heavy)
6 –
7 – Very strong
8 –
9 –
10 – Extremely strong (almost max)
Days 8-10
There is no need to increase the time you are out, but you should be walking a little bit faster and feeling like you are working at an RPE of 4-5. You might even be sweating a little bit at this stage. You should be using your arms more to help you walk faster and your legs and buttocks should be feeling warm from the effort. A good way to make things harder for yourself is to walk on the sand. If you choose an area of sand that is quite soft, your heel sinks a bit lower, which has the benefit of stretching your calk muscles naturally. You will also work the whole body more as you try to maintain balance on the unstable ground and improve your proprioception (the sensory feedback system in your body).
Days 11-13
The last three days of your holiday will probably see an increase in social activity, so it’s important to reflect this in your walking programme. Your legs will feel as if they have worked a bit harder than they have until now because of the sand-walking, so you should stay on firmer sand near the water’s edge on day 11 to give them a rest.
On day 12 you can get back on the soft sand, walk a bit faster and try carrying a couple of small bottles of water. This will make your arms and shoulders work harder and you have the bonus of carrying your own liquid refreshment, which gets lighter as you walk.
On day 13, keep working hard on the sand and try a gentle jog for 30 seconds. Rest for one minute and then jog for 30 seconds again. Repeat this for the whole workout except for the last five minutes, during which you should gradually ease off the intensity until you stretch at the end. If you don’t have a watch, jog until you feel out of breath (RPE 6), and then rest until you have recovered to a comfortable breathing rate (RPE 2-3). Repeat that 10 times and you should be hitting the right time-frame.
Days 14
Since this will probably be your travel day, it will be sensible to ease off the pace. Take a shorter, half hour walk and then double the time you take to hold each stretch or do the stretch routine twice. Drink plenty of water again, since the air conditioning in airports and aircraft can dry you out, and relax on the journey home. When you get back, do your stretches one more time and ensure that you get a good night’s sleep.
A few tips you should also consider when you are increasing your exercise levels;
1 Drink water Lots of it. When you exercise, your metabolic activity increases and you sweat. You will probably also be in a hot environment and consuming more alcohol than normal, so you need to keep properly hydrated to maintain a healthy system. A good guide is to multiply your bodyweight in kilograms by 0.033 to give you a figure in litres of water that you should be drinking every day.
2 Be sensible If at any point you feel dizzy or nauseous (hangovers don’t count here, by the way) then bring your exercise intensity down to a level that is more comfortable – but still do it. Walking is a low-intensity, low impact exercise that almost everyone should be capable of, but if you feel any pain in any of your joints that you did not feel before, then you should get in the swimming pool instead.
3 Enjoy it No one is going to do exercise that they dislike. Vary your route each day if that helps. Try a different time of day so that you see different things. Go fast for a bit and then slow. Swim in between if you want. Do whatever it takes to make sure you get out, and do it every day.
4 Don’t miss out the stretching
Stretching is an integral part of any exercise programme. It helps flush metabolic waste from the system after exercise and prevents stiffness and soreness in the joints and muscles – and apart from anything else, it’s the most relaxing part.
Now that you have integrated a little bit of exercise into your life, the trick is to keep it up when you get back home. Even if you manage only a half-hour walk each day and a good stretch at the end of it, you will feel the benefits over time and your body will thank you for it in the long run. A little bit of exercise on a regular basis can dramatically reduce the risk of some of the most common medical problems we face today, such as diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis. Surely it’s worth just a little bit of effort now.