When will it stop aching?!?!

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JaneOLantern
JaneOLantern Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Recently have started a walking program around my new neighborhood. Nothing crazy, just trying to hit 10k steps a day. I am not used to hills, my butt is not used to hills, my thighs are not used to hills. How long will it take for my legs and *kitten* to stop feeling like jelly so that I actually want to go out?

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  • bmeadows380
    bmeadows380 Posts: 2,981 Member
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    I second the notion of doing this gradually and making sure you have good footwear. A well made pair of walking shoes are expensive but worth every penny!

    I started walking back in February and have slowly increased over the last several months up to the 10,000 a day or roughly 5 miles. It definitely took time and if I over-did it, I paid for it for several days. If where you are walking is all hills, it'll be even more important to pace yourself!

    But if you keep moving, your body will acclimate with time.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
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    Mithridites wrote: »
    If it’s just muscle soreness - day 3 will be bearable and day 4 quite good. Try to increase activity very gradually instead of overdoing. Make sure you wear good supportive footware - believe it or not, you can cause worse injury than muscle soreness.

    +1

    Shoes and socks matter. "Okay" shoes and socks stopped being okay around the 10k mark for me. This meant not only for intentional walking for exercise but also for just doing things around the house. I had to buy a pair of hiking shoes to basically ruin doing yard work because my others were murdering my feet even in short interval usage. Before then it didn't matter as much.
  • emmabrookes1
    emmabrookes1 Posts: 67 Member
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    Are you stretching after your walks? google brings up a few easy moves that should hopefully help.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    How much were you walking before? If 10k is a significant increase then you’ll likely be quite sore and fatigued in various ways for quite some time (although the immediate soreness from this outing will lessen quickly).

    Increasing gradually and using proper footwear will help. Also tempering your outings such that you’re not fully spent after each. You should be a little tired but feeling like you could do quite a bit more (when you stop).

    Your body gets stronger when it repairs the muscle tears (it’s not a bad thing) caused by a workout. The harder/longer the workout, the more muscle tears. You don’t get more fit/stronger until those tears repair. There’s a limit to how much you can repair in a day. So to get better/stronger and feel less jelly-like and have your legs feel capable of doing your walks, you want to make sure you’re not doing so much that your muscles can’t repair before you try to do it again.
  • gripdxd
    gripdxd Posts: 6 Member
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    Yes, get good footwear. I’m paying the price now as my feet are all messed up with pain I never had before, it’s stalled my walking. Hitting 10k each day was my minimum goal and I was doing more each day.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    How long have you been walking 10k per day?
  • JaneOLantern
    JaneOLantern Posts: 6 Member
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    Thanks all.

    I have been gradually increasing... I upped my goal to 10k when I was regularly hitting around 6-7k a day. With more steps, is just more hills.
    With the downpour we had today I took the day off, hopefully I will get a few hills in before the jelly feeling returns tomorrow.
  • 5Katey
    5Katey Posts: 371 Member
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    @JaneOLantern I'm feeling u! Just completed my 3rd day doing 10,000! Tired, sore, definitely "jelly-like";. but I think I'm a little less so than yesterday, so hopefully it's all "uphill" from here! Don't stop, and I won't either!🙌
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 595 Member
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    JaneOLantern wrote: »
    Thanks all.

    I have been gradually increasing... I upped my goal to 10k when I was regularly hitting around 6-7k a day. With more steps, is just more hills.
    With the downpour we had today I took the day off, hopefully I will get a few hills in before the jelly feeling returns tomorrow.

    In that case I would set the goal to 8k steps then see how you feel for a couple of weeks and maybe go up to 9k if all feels good.

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