5-Day Walking Rule: When it comes to staying fit, there is no activity as easy to begin, easily accommodated into your daily schedule, and economical as walking. As with a fitness routine, consistency is critical. With multiple benefits from weight-loss, controlling health concerns, and stress-relief, this beneficial aerobic exercise does live up to the hype. However, over the years, it has been overlooked given the innumerable options we’ve been exposed to in recent times. So, let’s take a look at how you can start your journey to fitness through walking with the 5-day walking rule.
Day 1
Start day one with about 5000 steps, which is the perfect number to jumpstart your journey. The easiest way to achieve those first few steps is by ensuring that in intervals of about 15 minutes, you should get up and move around a bit. So whether it’s a phone call, or responding to a couple of text messages, you can do it all while walking in your house. To get those final few steps in, a brisk 30- minute walk around your neighbourhood or at a local park will do the trick.
Day 2
Now on day 2, you should bump your step count up by adding at least 2000 more steps per day. This can quickly be done by walking after every meal. You could use an alarm on your phone or even an app to remind you to get moving. So even a 15-minute walk, in your living room or just around your home, only after lunch and dinner could add a minimum of 1000-2000 steps to your daily count.
Also read: Follow These Essential Tips While Exercising With A Resistance Band To Avoid Injuries
Day 3 and 4
Day three leading onto day four are when you need to hit the target that you should be able to sustain for at least a week. And this is our goal for the final day of the three-day rule. Combining a brisk 30-minute walk daily, with enough in-door daily activity as well should be able to help you reach about 10,000 steps a day. Getting this target will help you burn anywhere between 400 to 500 calories per day and if sustained over a week can push you to further up the ante. This will progress the user to level 3 from level 1, where you started.
Also read: Trying To Lose Weight? Stop Wasting Time On These 5 Exercises
Day 5
Once you hit the 10,000 step mark for the first time, the process from there is to continue to sustain that. The idea is to build a steady momentum towards achieving the set goal of steps and build the stamina when you are ready. Create a combination of walking and brisk walking, which can help you reach your target in a shorter time frame as well help you identify the progress from day one today. Repeatedly hitting 10,000 will allow the user progress to level 4 and maintain that level.
Conclusion
Try to be consistent with your walking regime and make sure you find ways to include walking as part of your activities. If you use the 3-day rule diligently, walking will unconsciously slip into every aspect of your life. You can use an activity tracker on your phone or a fitness gadget to make sure you hit every target and reward every accomplishment. And as you go along, those 10,000 steps will lead you to achieve your fitness goals.
(With inputs from Shivjeet Ghatge, CEO & Co, Founder of StepSetGo)
Read more on Exercise fitness
