Week 0 - What to expect

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Welcome to Day 1 of the 10 Week ‘New Recruits’ Programme. Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read through your Welcome Pack, but if you haven’t yet, take some time to do this over the next few days as it provides some helpful information about the app and your programme.

This blog will provide a brief outline of what you can expect over the coming weeks. This is Week 0. It is a ‘Preparation Week’ where you can familiarise yourself with our app and get set up for the weeks ahead. We’ll provide blogs and information on the kit you’ll require (very little), how your sessions will be scheduled and help you to prepare, both mentally and physically to ensure you get the most from the programme.

How are the sessions structured?

You’ll receive one workout per week. These will start at 30 minutes in duration including a warm up and a cool down and build to 45 minutes by the end of the programme. The sessions have been designed to introduce you to some fundamental body weight exercises to help you strengthen key muscle groups and improve your cardiovascular system. You’ll receive clear video demonstrations for each exercise so you can ensure you are performing them with good technique. You’ll see some of the exercises repeated because practice makes perfect! As the weeks go on, the number of sets and repetitions you perform of each exercise will gradually increase in order to overload your system, so your body adapts. You will also notice that the rest time between exercises reduces.  If it feels tough, that’s good! That’s how it’s been designed - to push you past what your body is used, but we’ll do this in a gradual way so it doesn’t feel overwhelming or too much.

On days where you don’t feel like you have enough time, or if you want to do something extra, choose a couple of the exercises to complete – you don’t have to do the full workout every time (although this would be great if you can!) If you feel good after 2 exercises, choose 2 more and continue. This programme is not designed to be ‘all or nothing’. It’s about doing as much as you can and getting into good habits.

We’ll also be encouraging you to walk. This is such an accessible form of exercise and we’ll tell you more about the benefits of this as the programme goes on.

How often do I have to workout?

You will receive your weekly workout every Monday and we would like to encourage you to complete it as many times in your week as you can. 2 or 3 times would be great! It’s a good idea to try to get the session in on the Monday as it will set you up for the week ahead. We know that this may not always be possible, so the app allows you to move the session to a different day if need be. If you are new to exercise, it can feel overwhelming, and initially difficult to find the time to fit it in. Therefore we will only be scheduling the workout once per week. We would like to encourage you to record additional workouts into your own calendar. This could be your own activity or repeating your weekly session. Good things come from good intentions, and if we can block out time in our schedule to exercise we’re more likely to do it!

By the end of the programme, we would like you to be achieving the UK physical activity guideline of 2.5 hours per week, confident with each of the exercises and feeling fitter! Only 67% of adults currently achieve this level of exercise (NHS, 2019). It’s likely that you signed up to this programme to make a positive change to your lifestyle, become fitter and most importantly to enjoy movement and feel the many benefits of exercise. We hope this programme will help you realise just how accessible exercise can be and show you how much it can enhance your quality of life. We want exercise to feel like a reward, not a chore, so that you can set yourself a new objective once this one has been achieved. We’re with you all the way and we hope you enjoy the journey!