How To Prepare For The Sydney 7 Bridges Walk

If you are someone that lives in Sydney, likes to walk and wants to help raise money for cancer, you should consider taking part in the 7 Bridges Walk. The event has been running for several years now and brings in a crowd of thousands every year, with people signing up to see some of the best views of Sydney as they go on a Sunday stroll. However, for amateurs, a 28km walk can be very intense, so you need to make sure that you prepare yourself for the walk well in advance.

Start small

If you are not someone that is very fit or used to going for long walks, you need to start walking gradually if you are going to be able to walk 28km by the big day. For example, if you live near a park, start going for a small walk each day in the park, your body will get used to the amount of exercise that you are doing as you go for a walk each day. Once you feel like you have mastered the length that you are currently walking, you can start to add on a little bit extra to build up your endurance, so that you find it easier to walk longer distances. As you start to walk a bit each day, you will notice that your leg muscles start to feel stronger, and that your muscles won’t hurt as much as they did when you started. Best of all, if you start walking everyday, you will notice that it can benefit your overall health in several ways, so starting to walk each day will be very good for you.

 

Strengthen your muscles

Adding strengthening and conditioning exercises to your routine is a great way to build up your endurance when you are training for a big walk or run. Although a lot of professional runners don’t do regular strength training, adding a session of strength training to your rotation once or twice a week is a good idea. However, in order to benefit from the strength training, you need to make sure that you are strengthening the right muscles that you need for walking and running. Try starting with exercises that work your core, lower back, glutes, hamstrings and quads, because they are the areas that need to be strong for endurance running and walking. Strengthening your muscles will also help you to avoid injury when you are running or walking, because your muscles will be used to a certain amount of movement and moving in a certain way. So even if you are a runner or walker that is used to conquering longer distances, you could benefit from a bit of strength training.  

 

Remember to stretch

If you are going to be doing a lot of running or walking, you need to stretch beforehand, so that you don’t hurt yourself. Experienced physiotherapists like those at Bend + Mend can offer a stretching routine to help your exercise. Stretching before you exercise is a very underrated part of exercise preparation, but it can stop your body from being sore later on after you have pushed yourself beyond your normal limits. It also helps to keep your muscles flexible and strong, which is important when you are engaging in exercise like distance running or walking, because you need your body to remain strong for as long as possible, in order to get to the end. If you want to start stretching before a long walk, you should start with the areas you are going to be using the most, like your hips, quads, calves and hamstrings. If you stretch these areas, you will limit any strains or injuries that may occur when you are walking, so that you can stay stronger for longer.

 

There are a number of things that you can do to prepare for the Sydney 7 Bridges walk. If you are doing the walk for fitness, the key is to start preparing your body early, so that you will be able to walk the whole 28km without feeling really sore the next day. However, if you are just doing the walk for fun, then you should try and rally some of your close family and friends to donate or to take part in the day. Every bit that you walk helps to raise money for people living with cancer, so you get to help people while having a fun day seeing the sights around Sydney.