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MyFitnessPal Community

Exercise for Type 2 diabetes. Whats works for you?

pennell12

Hi all,

I have been doing low carb and trying to get in more exercise for the past month. My BS numbers seem to be coming down albeit slowly. Just got a reading of 155 after one hour of water aerobics. I know this isn't a great number but its the lowest reading I have had since I started this plan.

I was wondering if anyone here would like to share what is working for them exercise-wise.

Replies

Time2LoseWeightNOW

I've managed to get in some bike riding everyday at the gym at work. I would love to have somewhere to get in some water aerobics.

phxteach

I have a home treadmill, so that makes it easier. I had a doc write a medical necessity note and that made it more affordable! I know if I have to leave the house, it will not get done - too many distractions and commitments. I have a set of uplifting tunes paced to gear me up to a good workout - for me. I'm jealous -- water sounds so nice. It's 116 today. Yours is a good question, but a better one: what do you like to do? do you have or need a partner or is it solo?

kevin75626

My go to is the elliptical. I try to do 20-30 mins 3 times a week. It has made a big difference in my BS numbers.

phxteach

oh, pennell12, I see you are a teacher. Do you teach where there is a track field? I know some ladies at my school do a deliberate walk up and down the stairs and it doubles an unofficial security watch at the same time. Also, exercise can make your glucose go up temporarily but down in a couple of hours and that effect lasts for a day or so. You might want to test pre-exercise and post to see how much your variance is.

stephenrhinton

I swim almost every day, and it is a huge help ...and I don't feel sweaty/dirty at the end.

In muscle cells, contraction activates the same glucose receptors that insulin normally does. So it is a great way to get excess glucose out of the bloodstream circumventing low insulin or insulin resistance. So the best exercises for a diabetic are long interval repetitive motion exercises. Pretty much any cardio endurance workout. Strength training, High Intensity Interval training and Balance/Flexibility Isometric training are less effective. (For glucose management ... they have other benefits for general health, fitness, metabolism, etc).

Lizzym911

I ride my exercise bike 20 minutes after lunch and 20 mins after dinner. It helps but wasn't riding it for awhile because of a bad knee but I'm determined ,pain or not.

KenSmith108

I usually walk for a 1/2 hour on the way home from work. The park is my favorite, the gym is my backup.

mrron2u

KenSmith108 wrote: »

I usually walk for a 1/2 hour on the way home from work. The park is my favorite, the gym is my backup.

I like the way Ken thinks - I'd trade an hour doing something like walking or riding my bike outdoors for anything indoors at a gym. That being said I just joined my gym again, and will be trying to add in weights (something I guess I have to do indoors).

pennell12

stephenrhinton wrote: »

I swim almost every day, and it is a huge help ...and I don't feel sweaty/dirty at the end.

In muscle cells, contraction activates the same glucose receptors that insulin normally does. So it is a great way to get excess glucose out of the bloodstream circumventing low insulin or insulin resistance. So the best exercises for a diabetic are long interval repetitive motion exercises. Pretty much any cardio endurance workout. Strength training, High Intensity Interval training and Balance/Flexibility Isometric training are less effective. (For glucose management ... they have other benefits for general health, fitness, metabolism, etc).

Wow! This is really interesting. The water aerobic session last night was all about contractions-- the Ibstructor had us "hold in and squeeze" different muscle groups. Maybe that's why I am seeing the impact.

What are some other examples of "long interval repetitive motion exercises"??

stephenrhinton

pennell12 wrote: »

stephenrhinton wrote: »

What are some other examples of "long interval repetitive motion exercises"??

Swimming, Biking, Hiking, Running (walking), Rowing, Cross-Country Skiing, Elliptical, Stairmaster, Dancing, and many Aerobic Fitness classes. Anything where you 'just keep going' for a long time with very few or very short breaks.

Things that DON'T fall into this category would be Weight-Lifting, Circuit Training, Pilates, Yoga, and High Intensity Interval Aerobics. And again, these exercises all do have plenty of benefits. They are just less optimal from a glucose-management standpoint.

In fact in about 2 hours I'm going to try my first ever pilates class. This is part of my 'shake it up and try different stuff' routine. About one day in 8 I try to do a new class or exercise or one that I do infrequently. And about 1 day in 8 I take a day off. Otherwise I swim, swim, swim (slowly).

pennell12

Thanks for the list! I have been doing a little yoga, too! Good luck with the Pilates

KeithF6250

@stephenrhinton Have you seen this link?
https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html

stephenrhinton

KeithF6250 wrote: »

@stephenrhinton Have you seen this link?
https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html

Interesting article, but it is focused on the metabolism of fat by exercise. But for diabetes management I'd be more interested in a similar article focusing on the metabloization of glucose in the same process.

CrisEBTrue

I joined a gym in May of this year.
My Medicare health insurance includes a Silver Sneakers plan that is free to me.
I'm in diabetes med limbo right now, so my numbers are not optimum.

I am more likely to get out and go to the gym 3-4 times a week than I am to do regular outdoor walking.
If we were still in California, that would not be a problem. But here in NC it varies wildly from humid and hot to bitterly cold, rainy.. you name it.

Going to the gym eliminates the option of using weather as an excuse to not exercise.

I go, I do my thing, I come home. It gets me out of the house....

Mostly I use the stationary bike, and I can see improvement from that.

KenSmith108

CrisEBTrue wrote: »

I joined a gym in May of this year.
My Medicare health insurance includes a Silver Sneakers plan that is free to me.
I'm in diabetes med limbo right now, so my numbers are not optimum.

I am more likely to get out and go to the gym 3-4 times a week than I am to do regular outdoor walking.
If we were still in California, that would not be a problem. But here in NC it varies wildly from humid and hot to bitterly cold, rainy.. you name it.

Going to the gym eliminates the option of using weather as an excuse to not exercise.
I go, I do my thing, I come home. It gets me out of the house....

Mostly I use the stationary bike, and I can see improvement from that.

I like the ex-bike too, I have to lose a little more weight so I can get on gracefully.

cloudy68

I, too, have used weather as an excuse for not exercising - too hot, too cold, too windy so when the doctor told me I had to exercise 5x per week, I joined the Y Silver Sneaker program but my insurance covers nothing so I have to pay the full
cost!!! Expensive but so is going to Starbucks every day. I love their circuit aerobic classes and that is how I begin each day

pennell12

stephenrhinton wrote: »

KeithF6250 wrote: »

@stephenrhinton Have you seen this link?
https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/physiologgfatloss.html

Interesting article, but it is focused on the metabolism of fat by exercise. But for diabetes management I'd be more interested in a similar article focusing on the metabloization of glucose in the same process.

Yes, I would, too!

pennell12

cloudy68 wrote: »

I, too, have used weather as an excuse for not exercising - too hot, too cold, too windy so when the doctor told me I had to exercise 5x per week, I joined the Y Silver Sneaker program but my insurance covers nothing so I have to pay the full
cost!!! Expensive but so is going to Starbucks every day. I love their circuit aerobic classes and that is how I begin each day

I guess we all have to just get up and get going. It isn't easy but its good 4 us!

stephenrhinton

CrisEBTrue wrote: »

I joined a gym in May of this year.
But here in NC it varies wildly from humid and hot to bitterly cold, rainy.. you name it.

Yup we get all 4 seasons ....every month.

Im in NC too and love Gold's Gym for the pool

CrisEBTrue

Yup we get all 4 seasons ....every month.

Very true!

BigGuy47

stephenrhinton wrote: »

... for diabetes management I'd be more interested in a similar article focusing on the metabloization of glucose in the same process.

I prefer resistance training. In addition to controlling bgl, I'm also interested in trying to preserve muscle mass as I age.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881442/

From the article:
There is good evidence that RT improves insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance and therefore seems to be an effective measure to improve overall metabolic health and reduce metabolic risk factors in diabetic patients...

...The beneficial effects of RT are promising. This is of significant interest as RT can be viewed as a suitable training modality in our time-poor society. In contrast to traditional high-volume endurance training, high-intensity/low-volume RT can be a time-efficient strategy to offer metabolic benefits.

I think the most important thing is consistency. It doesn't matter if it's RT, HIIT, running, cycling, swimming or kayaking. Movement is a far better option than sitting in one place. Find something that you can do on a regular basis and keep going.

pennell12

good article. Thanks!

lokihen

I'm up to 30 minutes every morning on my recumbent bike. It's in my bedroom so I don't have to wake up first and it's easy on my knees and feet.

gaelicstorm26

Coming in late, but I do the elliptical for 25-30 minutes three times a week and after the elliptical I usually walk for about 10 minutes to cool down (I get ridiculously sweaty and gross and need to cool off before hitting the weight machines). 30 minutes on the elliptical will bring my numbers down to around 80-90.

Find something that you enjoy. I LOVE the elliptical and I'm a dork so I give myself little challenges and have been trying to increase my distance. I hate the darn timer though. I refuse to look at the time until I've done one mile and then won't look again until I hit two miles. My challenge tonight will be doing 2.15 miles. I should be able to do it in 30 minutes (hopefully).

To my fellow educators...today is the first day of school with students! I'll definitely be needing that workout tonight!!!

unknown

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Arleen316

I've been alternating water aerobics on MW with walking T TH and maybe one day over the weekend. I think I'm going to use Friday for Yoga/Stretching just to mix it up. Need to walk on Saturday or Sunday and take the other as a rest. It was so hard to get started, but now I find myself looking forward to my workouts. I love water aerobics!

BigG59

When first diagnosed I did around 30 minutes a day of low impact cardio (cross trainer, cycling machine) plus weights. As the fat weight came off and the fitness improved I increased the amount of cardio. As you get fitter you needed longer sessions to burn off the same calories.

The end result is I lost 70lbs and my H1abc for the past two years has been low 5% without taking any medication. I was diagnosed T2 with a level of 9.7%!

I'm now at the level where I do a lot of road cycling (over 1k km this month and 20k km since I started almost 3 years ago). In winter I will reduce the road work and increase the gym sessions (mainly weights with a little cardio).

winnie141

I do elliptical every other day and I walk my dogs 5-7 days of the week! I also do yoga in the winter (LOVE YOGA!). Also in the winter I cross country ski to change things up a bit.