Week 5: One Foot in Front of the Other

Congratulations on reaching the fifth week of the "Spring into Summer" Walk with Ease program. 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 4
  4. ​Set your goals for week 5

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

Revising your Walking Contract​

Original Walking Contract
​This is a great point in the Walk with Ease Program to take a look at the walking contract you filled out in the beginning. 
  • Were you able to follow your walking plan?
  • Did you have to make adjustments to your original plan?
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New Walking Contract
You will complete the Walk with Ease Program in a few weeks. This is a great time to start thinking about your future plans to stay active after the 6 weeks of the program have wrapped up. 
For those of you who would like to continue to walk, you can create a new Walking Contract. Ask a friend, family member, or co-worker to help keep you accountable each week!

Add a new challenge

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If things are starting to feel easier for you, consider adjusting your FITT to continue improving. 

FITT Principle:

F - Frequency (how often you exercise)
I - Intensity (how hard)
T - Time (how long/duration)
T - Type (what kind) 

FITT Principle Specific to Walk with Ease:
  • Frequency
    • At least 30 minutes of walking on at least 5 days/week
    • Try spacing sessions out if your body needs rest days 
  • Intensity 
    • How much you are exerting yourself 
    • Low-to-moderate intensity (working hard enough to feel some changes in your body, such as increased breathing, heart rate, or muscle use, but not so much that you become out of breath or feel it is hard to keep up)
  • Time
    • At least 30 minutes of walking on at least 5 days/week
    • ​Goal of cardiovascular exercise is to gradually build your endurance and ability to go for a longer time  
  • Type 
    • ​Flexibility, stretching, strengthening, cardiovascular exercises 
    • Walk at a pace that is comfortable for you 
    • Build up slowly in each type of exercise you do

Keep making progress!

Continue to make progress in your walking, and you are in the home stretch with only 2 weeks to go!

Suggested Walking Progression Chart:

Week
Duration
Times per week
1
10 minutes
3-5
2
15 minutes
3-5
3
20 minutes
3-5
4
25 minutes
3-5
5
30 minutes
3-5
6
35 to 40 minutes
3-5
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