Read the transcript for this video:

Good morning and welcome to your Weekly Cup of Joe. My name is Joe King. I'm the owner of Physical Therapy Advantage in North Aurora. I'm here today to talk to you a little bit about how to start a walking program. So if you've been always wanting to start one, you've never really walked before for exercise, but you want to get going, this is the basics for it. I am not a walking coach or running coach by any means and there are going to be some specific links, blow this to help you out as well too. But just generally, you want to think about what you'll be doing, a starting a walking program, you're going about five to six days or five to six times a week. And you're going to start roughly at seven to ten minutes, total time walking for the first seven to ten days or first seven to ten times you're going.

 So you really want to start out nice and slow, don't push yourself, don't try to have too much speed or anything like that. Just go out for seven to ten minutes for seven to ten days and then each week after that, you could add up to five minutes. You don't have to add quite that much, but don't go anymore, but maybe three to five minutes every week after that, you're still going five to six times per week and adding three to five minutes each week, and then you're going to build yourself up and build yourself up. Don't worry about speed, like I said, don't worry about distance at all. Just go for that time. And then after maybe six weeks at the early side, up to eight weeks, maybe 9- 10 weeks, who knows how long it takes till you get to that 30-to-40-minute mark that you want to hit. As far as that's the time I want, I'll be walking or the amount of time. At that point, after that six weeks, maybe up to ten weeks, then you can think to start increasing your intensity or increasing your speed a little bit.

Big thing is to think about being in good posture, and staying relaxed. You don't want to over stride and reach too far out in front of you, you want to be a nice, comfortable walking pace. And when you do increase your speed a little bit, you will increase your heart rate, which is great, we want to push that a little bit. But you still want to be able to have a conversation comfortably. It’s not going to be like, you're not walking as if you're sitting, but you still want to be able to hold a conversation that will still let you know that you're well within your range. And you'll be in a good, aerobic burning stage, of cardiovascular. So hope that helps you guys get started on a walking program. As I said, there are going to be a couple of links below that you can click on to get further information. If you have any general health questions and or PT health-related questions, please don't hesitate to give us a call at the clinic at (630) 892-8003. Hope you have a great week, and we look forward to seeing you next week on your Weekly Cup of Joe. Bye.