The 10km and 25km Just Walk – Warms-ups and Training

Hi, I’m Craig Peters and I’m delighted to be working with Just Walk as their resident Personal Trainer to provide lots of helpful fitness advice and suggested training routines to help prepare you for your Just Walk challenge.

Firstly, congratulations on making a great choice to take part in the 12th annual Just Walk event and participate in either the 10km or 25km route! You are in for an experience you’re likely never to forget; the spectacular and mesmerising views of the South Downs is something you’ll have a chance to admire throughout the duration of your trek, you will create an unbreakable bond with your fellow walkers and achieve a truly astounding goal.

But how do you prepare physically and mentally for this type of challenge?
Let’s start with training; the following suggested routines will hit all the right areas to help prepare you for the 10km or 25km Just Walk with upper body strength, cardio fitness, core stability and enhanced flexibility. What’s more, building confidence in your training will also help ensure you are mentally prepared too. You may ask how I know this and it’s because I have personally created it and have completed it many times myself. The following three days have been taken directly from my own six-week personal training programme which is available from my website and if you’d like to know a little more about my experience and qualifications, please see the end of this blog.

Warm-ups and Training 

I highly recommend training at least three times a week starting a minimum of four weeks prior to the event (even better if you are well underway with your training already!) With a few of these exercises you will be required to have access to a set of dumbbells and I also suggest using a mat for your core and abs works. 

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Warm up for beginners:

40:20 (40 seconds of work on each exercise and 20 seconds rest in between each exercise)

• Star jumps

• Push-ups (knees can be placed on floor for ease)

• Front plank 

• Reverse lunge (alternating legs)

• High knees

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Routine 1

Warm up:

45:15 (45 seconds of solid work on each exercise and 15 seconds rest in between each exercise)

• Sprinting on the spot

• Squats 

• High knees

• Crunches 

• Push-ups

Training: x 2 sets 

Perform each exercise solidly for 40 seconds and rest for 20 seconds in-between.

Rest for 90 seconds between each complete set.

• Side jumps 

• Push-ups

• Walk-out Burpees (no jump)

• Alternating reverse lunge

• Flutter kicks

Rest for two minutes after you have completed x 3 sets then:

• One minute of squat hold 

• One minute of squat jumps 

• One minute of squat hold

N.B. A quick search on Google of the terms listed in the warm-ups and / or training sections will demonstrate how to execute the moves. 

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Stretching and Cooling Down 

It’s very important when taking on an extreme physical walking challenge that you stretch regularly after your exercising / training in order to keep your muscles strong, healthy, flexible and most importantly injury free.

To see several various examples of useful stretching routines, please click here.

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About the writer:

Craig Peters is a qualified Level 3 personal training instructor, behavioural coach, and motivational speaker. Not only is Craig a professional, experienced personal trainer, he also enjoys pushing the boundaries and testing his own fitness levels and limits.

Find out more about our resident personal trainer Craig here, plus his advice on what to eat pre-walk and during your Just Walk challenge.