Importance of Exercise for Diabetes

Having diabetes, it is vital we recognize the importance of exercise for diabetics. Daily physical activity is essential, to help manage your blood glucose levels. It will also help to burn off those extra carbs and fat in the blood, from that sneaky dessert you shouldn’t have had last night, or that extra glass of wine with dinner!

Let’s face it, being a diabetic is really tough at times, but it doesn’t have to be all bad. With regular exercise, as well as making you feel great, you’ll build muscle, and overall it will improve how your insulin performs.

Exercise for diabetics using a pedometer.

So to get started, one of the simplist methods to monitor just how active you are in an average day, is to get yourself a step counter – known as a pedometer.

This is just a simple little low cost device that can clip easily onto your belt, or around your waistline. It’s recommended that 10’000 steps per day is a good start. If you find this a little challenging in the beginning, just do what is manageable and increase just a little every day.

Easy ways to increase this, is to make sure you start clocking the steps right from the moment you get out of bed in the mornings, all the steps count. I find that if you’re actually wearing a pedometer, you tend to make sure you increase your activity. Try these few suggestions, I find work for me:

When parking at the shopping centre, don’t just park at the closest car park to the stores you wish to visit. Why not park the furthest away from the entrance door (there are normally more spaces too!)
When doing the school drop offs, I often park a kilometre or two away (depending on how many steps I’ve already done for that day!) It’s great exercise for the kids as well.
Instead of jumping into the car to run up to the corner store, put on your joggers and walk there.
Even small things like getting the mail from the mailbox – don’t stop when you’re driving in the drive in your car, park the car and then walk back out to the mail box. You might have a nice steep driveway like mine, which also gets the heart pumping even more!

You could check out the exercise desk bike: Great exercise while sitting!

Or for those of you who want a little more of a challenge, it’s really not that difficult to increase that recommended 10’000 steps, to 15’000 a day.

If you are someone who takes public transport to work, get off the train or bus a little early and walk the rest of the way.
Take the stairs in your building instead of the escalator or lift.
Go for a walk through the park at lunchtime instead of sitting and flicking through that magazine. Believe me, you’ll feel better for it!

Exercise for diabetics – a few safety thoughts!

You know that feeling you get when starting out on a new fitness program, you feel alive – you’ve got a fresh injection of endorphins running through your veins! Well it’s important to make sure you don’t overdo it to start and get a thorough check up with your doctor first.

– I repeat, don’t overdo it, start out slowly and gradually build up doing a little more every day.

Make sure you wear comfortable clothing, especially correctly fitting shoes is essential.
Make sure you keep well hydrated, drinking ample amounts of water
Try and exercise in the cooler parts of the days, either early in the mornings or after work to prevent dehydration
Make sure you check your blood glucose levels both before and after you exercise.
If at any time you get short of breath or experience and chest pain or dizziness at all, make certain that you visit your doctor as soon as possible.

Exercise for diabetics is a great start, to living a better life and keeping those blood glucose levels under control.

Diabetes Care: Diet And Exercising Habits Are A Must For Diabetics

How Does Exercise Help Type 2 Diabetes?

Exercise is good for us all – especially those with diabetes. With the correct amount of exercise to suit the individual and a sensible diet, there would be many type 2 diabetics out there that could avoid taking medication altogether!

There is no denying the importance of exercise for keeping healthy if you have diabetes. Exercise is vital for both Type 1 and type 2 diabetics helping the body to:

Respond better to insulin and reduce the amount of medication they take.
To keep circulation healthy in their arms and legs
To reduce their risk of depression
To keep their metabolism healthy and their muscles strong- this in turn helps with maintaining a healthy weight. Strong muscles also help to maintain independence with age.

What Exercise is Good for Diabetes?

If you have diabetes and you haven’t exercised for a while, you need to take it slow. OK so you can go out and hire a personal trainer, or even join the local gym but to be honest it’s really not necessary. Don’t over think this – there’s easier and cheaper ways out there that you can get all the exercise you need.

Good old fashioned walking. All you really need is some comfortable clothing and a good pair of walking shoes! And if you are lucky enough to live close by a beach, you don’t even need the shoes!
Always good to take it easy to start – even just 20 or 30 minutes per day – 5 days a week if you can manage it. This is going to help you see improvements in your haemoglobin A1C, your triglycerides and cholesterol. As you gradually build this up to 90 minutes per day, you really start to see the difference that exercise makes to your life. How you feel, how you look and even blood pressure!
Swimming is also another ideal exercise for people with Type 2 diabetes. Some diabetics also experience other conditions, like arthritis which can often make other forms of exercise painful and uncomfortable. Being in the water is less stressful for your body as it doesn’t put pressure on your joints. It’s also much easier on your feet. Swimming is great for weight loss and diabetes is quite often a factor with regards to obesity.

Exercise and Diabetes Prevention – Make Exercise a Habit!

If you have diabetes, you will certainly need to look at how you incorporate exercise into your daily life now. You need to make exercise a habit, that will in time become part of your life. If you find it difficult to get out to a park or beach to go walking, or you’re just not really into going to gyms, then perhaps have a look at all the FREE Apps that are available for your smart phone or Tablet! I love the 7 minute workout apps, and even the gentle stretching sessions that you can actually do just about anywhere! How about getting some diabetic exercise videos – or even getting into some gentle yoga exercise for diabetes.

Getting your daily dose of regular exercise doesn’t have to be expensive or that time consuming – you just have to commit to making it part of your daily life routine!

Ever thought about trying the Atkins diet for Diabetes?

Exercise for diabetics

Exercise for Diabetics is Vital!

There are many different types of exercise for diabetics, such as running, walking, aerobics, swimming and almost anything else that a healthy person can do. Exercise is extremely beneficial, more so if you have diabetes, as it can help you maintain your blood glucose levels as well helping you maintain a healthy weight and in return, a healthy lifestyle.

Muscles all need fuel, but where do they get it from? Resting muscles happily use fatty acids to provide most of their needs. However, when you start exercising those muscles, they need more fuel and so start to use glucose.

The more you exercise them the more glucose they need. The first place they get this from is the glycogen stored in the muscles themselves but this soon runs out and they then start to use glucose from the bloodstream.

If that runs out there is always the liver to rely on. It has stores of glycogen that it can break down into glucose and send to the bloodstream or it can break down proteins and fats to make more glucose to do the same with. If the liver was not available to supply the extra glucose like this, hypoglycemia would occur in even normal people after about half an hour of exercise.

Exercise for diabetics goes hand in hand, about the same as bacon and eggs! A diabetic cannot expect to keep their diabetes maintained and properly taken care of without exercising and eating the right types and amount of foods. A diabetic needs exercise like a kid wants candy, they both are a necessity in order to get through life.

Exercise for diabetics is a necessity in order to keep your blood glucose levels where they should be.