Fitness Strategies

Lesson 2: Warm Ups and Why Nots.

Extending the Exercise Time.

Stretches to Go.

A long series of stretches tends to take rather too large a chunk from your walking time, but two or three minutes before and after can help to loosen your muscles to prevent stiffness.

Here are a few to try. The pictured stretches are not identical to those described, but are also effective.

Calf stretch. Stand with your feet slightly apart. Now, bring your right leg forward as if taking a step. Lift your toes off the ground until you feel the "pull" in your calf. Hold that for a few seconds and then relax. Repeat with the other leg.

Calf and hamstring stretch. Stand with your feet together. Move the right leg forward as before. This time, keep your toe on the ground, and bend your knee until it's just over the toes (never bend further than that). Lean forward, keeping your back straight. Feel the pull in the calf and hamstring of your left leg. Now, swing back so your left leg is bent. You will feel the pull in your right one. Repeat with the other leg.

Inner thigh stretch. Stand with feet quite widely apart. Bend your right knee, letting your body move to the right. Feel the stretch in your left thigh. If you're flexible, you can bring your left hand over to your right foot. Hold the stretch for a few seconds and repeat with the other leg.

Lower back stretch. Bring your right foot forward, then bend slowly and clasp your hands around the back of your right leg, just above the knee. Pull up with your hands until you feel your lower back stretch.

Needless to say, if any of these stretches hurt, you shouldn't do them! And always, always do them slowly and gently.

These stretches can be repeated after walking.

Extending Your Exercise Time.

When should you extend your exercise time? When the existing regime begins to feel "too easy". This doesn't mean you will need to keep on increasing your exercise load forever! Later, you will be able to vary it rather than increase it.

It isn't a good idea to raise the exercise bar too quickly or too suddenly. You might begin by walking three km in 27 minutes.

Your first extension is to walk the same distance in 26 minutes.

After that, try walking for half an hour or 35 minutes. That should take you, by degrees, to a four km walk.

Expand that to five or six kms and you will be walking for between 45 minutes and an hour, perhaps three or four days a week.

This is plenty long enough for most people who want to be "normally" fit.

If that distance seems rather a long way, compare it with the recommended 10,000 steps per day. That's about 8 km! Now, if you walk five or six km, you're taking between 6,000 and 7,500 steps, which goes a long way towards your daily count.

Please note that strides-per-km vary quite a lot. These figures are a very general average.

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