Week 3: Walking Towards Health


Congrats on making it to week 3 of Walk with Ease in the Worksite! We encourage you to keep a daily or weekly walking log throughout the 6-week program to be able to reflect and improve your personal goals. You can log your minutes on the provided portal. We also encourage participants to use our other provided resources in order to get the most out of the Walk with Ease program. 

Portal Platform Basics:                    

Complete this process each week to track your progress
  1. Log in to the platform to review the schedule 
  2. Complete tasks provided in the schedule 
  3. Enter your walking minutes from week 2
  4. ​Set your goals for week 3

Goals:

Goals for the week: 
  • Walk a minimum of 3 days
  • Start forming healthy walking habits 
  • Keep track of your walking minutes!

Incorporate stretching & strengthening into your walking

What improvements are you seeing?

You are 3 weeks into this program, it is time to check in with yourself and see how you are feeling!
  • Do you have more energy throughout your day?
  • Are you able to walk several extra minutes?
  • Are you enjoying the activity that you are doing?
  • Are you increasing your walking intensity?
  • Are you feeling more confident about your schedule?
  • Are you finding that your walking is getting easier?
We hope that you are beginning to see some improvements to your every day life from the increase of physical activity we are encouraging you to do. 
As you continue to improve make sure you are following the FITT principles to continue to your progress throughout the rest of the program. 

How can you limit barriers to success?

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Everyone has barriers they face when beginning a new exercise program. 
Things like time, weather, and planning can cause barriers, we recommend some basic tips to combat these barriers in. ​
Some simple barrier breakers can include:
  • Adding physical activity time to your calendar
  • Packing your gym bag the night before for morning exercise, or taking it with to work for after work exercise
  • Have a weather backup plan, walk around the mall or the grocery store
  • Make physical activity FUN ​to help adherence!
  • Create SMART Goals to help build self-efficacy
    • Specific-Measureable-Achieveable-Relevant-Timely

How to deal with pain and discomfort after exercising

Cold
can control inflammation and swelling, relieve pain, and reduce muscle spasms.
  • Homemade slush is a great reusable option to easily mold to any body part
    • mixing 4 cups of water with 1 cup of rubbing alcohol in a sealable plastic freezer bag
  • ​Frozen vegetables in a bag
  • Gel packs
Heat
can be used to increase blood flow, reduce stiffness, and has a sedative effect on painful nerve endings to relax aching muscles and joints.
  • Take a hot shower when you first wake up to ease morning stiffness or before you exercise
  • Utilize a heating pad in areas that are especially tight on medium or low settings for no more than 20 minutes

Pain that is lasting more than 2 hours?
​If you have pain for more than 2 hours after you finish walking than before you started, you've overdone it. Cut back on your physical activity until you find a level that does not cause more pain.

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