Fitness starters, one move per page
The twenty-five moves that get you from the sofa to a real routine: walking, the strength basics, recovery, and the habits that make it stick.
A diagram, the classic mistake, and one thing to go try. That's a page.
Fitness starters, one move per page
The twenty-five moves that get you from the sofa to a real routine: walking, the strength basics, recovery, and the habits that make it stick.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Targets and facts checked against WHO physical activity guidance (who.int), CDC Physical Activity Basics (cdc.gov), the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (health.gov), ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, the 2015 AASM/SRS sleep consensus, and Lally et al. 2010, How are habits formed, European Journal of Social Psychology.
General information only, not medical advice. See a doctor before starting exercise, especially with a chronic condition, or after long inactivity.
Your purchase is for personal use only. You do not have redistribution rights: please do not share, resell, or republish this book or its pages.
© 2026 Steve Hodgkiss. All rights reserved. Personal use only; no redistribution rights.
Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
Start
No purchases, no programmes, no gear. Five pages on walking at the right pace, spread through the week.
- 01The walk
- 02The talk test
WHO guidance for adults aged 18 to 64: at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity across the week. Brisk walking is moderate-intensity activity. who.int, Physical activity.
The walk
Let's say you've decided to get fit, and step one is a shopping list. A programme, a mat, a plan.
The real step one is out of your front door, today, for thirty minutes. WHO asks adults for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, and a brisk walk counts. Five walks of thirty minutes is exactly 150, and there's nothing to buy and nothing to learn.
The first workout is a walk out of your front door.
Walk thirty minutes at a pace where you could talk but not sing. That's it. That's day one.
From CDC, How to Measure Physical Activity Intensity: moderate means you can talk but not sing; vigorous means only a few words without pausing for a breath. cdc.gov.
The talk test
Let's say every plan you've seen wants your heart rate, and you don't own a monitor.
The talk test needs no gear: if you can talk but not sing, that's moderate, the intensity the 150 minutes is counted at. If you can only manage a few words, that's vigorous, and 75 minutes of it counts the same as 150 moderate. Singing along comfortably means you're strolling, and strolling isn't what the target is made of.
Talk, but don't sing. That's the whole dial.
On your next walk, say a full sentence out loud. If you run out of breath halfway, ease up. If you could sing it, speed up.
From WHO and CDC: muscle-strengthening activities involving all major muscle groups, legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms, on 2 or more days a week. who.int, cdc.gov.
Two days of strength
Let's say the walking is going so well that you forget the guidelines have a second half. The half about strength.
Two or more days a week, work all the major groups: legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms. Bodyweight counts: push-ups and squats are muscle-strengthening activity. Walking alone leaves seven muscle groups unasked, and unasked means unmaintained.
Cardio asks the heart. Two days a week, ask the muscles too.
Book two twenty-minute strength slots into next week. You need no gear for them, as the next three pages show.
From ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal on delayed-onset muscle soreness: symptoms most often appear 12 to 24 hours after new exercise and may continue for up to 72 hours; minor soreness is a normal part of adaptation. acsm.org.
Soreness is information
Let's say Tuesday's squats arrive as Wednesday's stiff legs, and Wednesday is where past attempts went to die.
That ache is delayed-onset muscle soreness: it shows up 12 to 24 hours after new exercise and fades within about 72. It's a normal response to unaccustomed work, and it comes back smaller next time. Reading it as injury and quitting, or reading it as success and chasing it, both end the programme.
A two-day ache is the receipt. Read it, then keep the appointment anyway.
Next time you're sore, walk gently instead of skipping. Note how the ache behaves by evening.
Assembled from CDC sample schedules: five 30-minute brisk walks plus two muscle-strengthening days meets the adult guideline of 150 minutes and 2 strength days. cdc.gov.
The keeper week
Let's say you've read twenty-four pages of moves and want one week you can actually run. Here it is: the whole guideline in seven boxes.
Five brisk 30-minute walks and two strength sessions is the complete adult target: 150 minutes, two strength days. It's CDC's own sample week, and it has room inside it for the anchor, the two-day rule and the diary. Stacking a second programme on top of this one is how the whole thing tips over.
This week, run it as printed. Next month, turn one dial.
Copy this week into your diary and run it exactly as printed, one week. Then we talk about adding.