The Importance of Exercise for Diabetics

Along with following a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercise is one of the most important things for people with type 2 diabetes. Staying fit and active helps diabetics keep glucose levels in the correct range, and that in turn lowers the risk of developing long-term complications such as nerve pain and kidney disease.

How Exactly Exercise Helps

People with type 2 diabetes have too much glucose (sugar) in their blood, either because their body is not producing enough insulin to process it or because it doesn’t use the insulin available properly (insulin resistance).

Regardless of why the glucose is there, exercise can reduce the levels in your blood. Your muscles use glucose for energy, and they use it without the need of insulin. In a sense, exercise is another form of insulin; another natural way for you to lower your blood sugar levels.

For those people who are insulin resistant, exercise has the ability to make your insulin more effective so your cells can use all of that glucose more efficiently.

Exercise is also great at helping type 2 diabetics avoid long-term complications such as heart disease.  Because diabetics are more susceptible to developing arteriosclerosis (blocked arteries), they are at greater risk for heart attacks. Exercise not only keeps your heart strong and healthy, it helps maintain good cholesterol levels so arteries do not become blocked.

5 Great Exercises for Diabetics

There are certain exercises that are particularly beneficial to diabetics and we will now list 5 of the top ones. As with any changes to your diet or lifestyle, speak with your doctor first before starting a new exercise plan.

Walking

Walking is one of the easiest and most beneficial exercises there is, which is why so many doctors recommend it to their diabetic patients. It’s important to walk briskly to get your heart rate up so you can benefit from aerobic exercise specifically. The American Diabetes Association recommends people not go more than two consecutive days without an aerobic exercise session.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is has been practiced for centuries by people all over the world. It is a series of movements that are performed in a slow, relaxed, and purposeful manner, and usually over a span of 30 minutes. Studies have revealed tai chi is an excellent exercise for people with type 2 diabetes. Not only does it promote fitness while reducing stress, it also improves balance and may help diabetics reduce nerve damage.

Weight Training

Weight training is beneficial for every person, particularly those with diabetes. Loss of muscle mass leads to issues with maintaining blood sugar, and lifting weights builds muscle mass. Just two to three days a week spent on resistance exercises, making sure to target all of the major muscle groups, can be very beneficial to those with diabetes.

Yoga

Numerous studies have shown that yoga can be very beneficial to those people with diabetes. Yoga has the ability to lower body fat and improve insulin resistance. And, like Tai Chi, it is also a wonderful stress reducer. This is important for anyone’s health and well-being but particularly diabetics, because when our stress levels go up, so does our blood sugar.

Swimming

Swimming is one of the absolute best exercises you can do because it is aerobic and also works all of your muscle groups. It is particularly good for older individuals who may experience joint pain and have trouble with walking or biking. The other reason why swimming is particularly good for diabetics is because it is gentle on their feet. Since diabetes can reduce blood flow to the extremities, it is important that patients avoid foot injuries, even minor cuts or blisters, that can be slow to heal and prone to infection. Swimming is one exercise that doesn’t cause feet any wear or tear.

Balancing Blood Sugars and Exercise

As if starting an exercise routine isn’t challenging enough for most people, it is even more challenging for diabetics who take insulin. The last thing you want is to find yourself with high or low blood sugars in the middle of a yoga class or while lifting weights. As we’ve said, exercise is really important when you’re a diabetic, but it will take a bit more planning and effort to balance your blood sugars properly.

Here are five tips to help you gain the most benefits from exercise while maintaining your sugars:

1. Learn How Each Exercise Will Affect Your Blood Sugar

Even though two different exercises like walking and weight training may both raise your heart rate, they will each potentially impact your blood sugars in a different way. Aerobic exercise will use your blood sugar for fuel, and the longer you do these types of exercises (45 minutes as opposed to 20), the lower your blood sugar will become.

Anaerobic activity, like strength-training, will burn more fat for fuel during the activity itself but then has a tendency to increase your insulin sensitivity later in the day. It’s very common to actually see your blood sugars go up with this type of exercise, but again, watch your levels later because they are apt to go down hours after your workout session.

2. Control Those Variables

When you are about to start a new exercise program and want to discover how that workout will impact your health on a typical day, you’ll want to make sure you eat a normal meal where you know the carbohydrate count and check your insulin before the workout to make sure your levels are not out of range (under 80 – over 180).

By monitoring and controlling your variables as much as possible, you’ll get to a point where you know that you typically wake up with blood sugars in the normal range and can lift weights on an empty stomach and only require 1 unit of insulin to keep your blood sugar from rising during your workout.

3. Choose the Right Foods to Treat Low Blood Sugar

The foods you choose to treat your low sugars obviously make a difference in how quickly your blood sugars rise as well as how many calories you consume. Foods like milk or peanut butter sandwiches have more calories than you will most likely need and also contain a fair amount of fat, which will slow down digestion and prolong the time before your blood sugar is in a safe enough range to exercise again. Better to treat with a fast-acting carbohydrate to help sustain your blood sugars during a workout.

4. Keep Really Good Track of Everything

You need to really stay on top of all your food choices, blood sugar levels and exercises and write everything down in a journal. Track the times of day you exercise, what your pre-exercise blood sugars were and what you ate before and after. Check your blood sugars halfway through your workout as well as at the end to see if your levels are low, high or normal. If low, you’ll know you need to cut back on your insulin in the future, and if high, you won’t need that extra glucose you ate on purpose to sustain your levels during your workout. If you keep tracking and adjusting you’ll eventually find the right balance and be able to exercise with confidence.

5. Know EXACTLY What’s Going On In Your Body

It’s vitally important to know the Ins and Outs of Diabetes and insulin issues – it’s a lot more complicated than simply “too much sugar in the bloodstream”. And you’re in luck, the renowned Optimal Wellness Labs is holding an event which helps you figure out exactly what’s going on inside your body and how to get to the root cause of your Blood Sugar problems. Click Here to Access the Webinar Presentation