Hey all, lately my sugars have been high and I decided to do more excercise then I already do. I sometimes do a cardio work out that I downloaded to my smart phone. I do about 10 min of it and I recently started my walk/ runs again. I noticed the walks lower my blood sugar a lot more :) , I just wanted to see what type of excercise does everybody do? I'm up to trying new activities. Thanks and I hope everybody is having a wonderful week.
I rarely do anything anymore and it's obvious by the size of my rear end! =(
When I have time I love to swim laps. That and walking are great because they lower my blood sugar slightly for hours without causing severe lows.
Your message has encouraged me to get back on track. I feel so much better when I get exercise.
yea I had stopped for a while and it’s been hard getting back on track. I think motivation is the key to start exercising again.
I exercise every day except when my career takes too many hours to fit in exercise. I enjoy weight lifting and cardio indoors on the short M-F winter days and whatever I can do outside on the weekends in the winter. My blood sugars never have been perfect or easy for me so I am constantly checking where I am. The exercise keeps me feeling healthy and is a positive for many reasons. I am a member at a pretty good gym and that helps. I enjoy walking outside as much as I can. Hope you are doing well with lowering your blood sugars?
As far as exercise goes, I usually try to do some type if circuit training. I have found this is best for completely controlling blood sugars. I work out 5 to 7 days a week, and try to vary everything as much as I can. Moving and getting your heart rate up is key, its best for the balance of blood sugars. It keeps me healthy, but it also keeps me focused on trying to stay healthy and teach others to be healthy as well!
What have you tried to do to get back on track?
I just had a baby a 3 months ago so I am looking to getting back into p90x which really helps me to control my blood sugar levels. I was just cleared for exercise because I was having blood pressure issues after the baby. Everything is good to go now!
Running, lifting, ddr
The only exercise that will help control your blood sugar is cardiovascular workouts. Lifting waits or p90x will unfortunately accomplish nothing in terms of more "control" and can cause hypoglycemic episodes. Lifting waits and p90x will be something you CAN DO to help, but only down the road when your cardio is under extreme control.
To start i would pick up some 3 - 5 lb. ankle weights and wrist weights. Wear them during your workout (no ankle weights while on the treadmill or bike or elliptical machine) Your work out should be 60% stretching/breathing techniques, and only 40% exercise. The weights on your wrist and ankles will help improve your circulation in your legs and arms and work against neuropathy. The cardio will also help with circulation and when mixed with breathing techniques and meditation, you will see extreme changes in how stable your numbers will be.
Mix those basic principles for a good diabetic work out with a daily regiment (I suggest starting with 1 mile a day of fast paced walking and 40 sit ups/push ups every morning and night) and you will be very stable.
Another trick is to help yourself regulate your metabolism (which is really all we do as type 1s) You can do this by ALWAYS meeting your %Daily Value amounts in Riboflavin, Thiamine and Niacin. (These also have great side effects that coincidentally work against many of diabetes' negative side effects.)
^Take these into battle and you will always emerge victorious!
Oh and another trick, make sure you get plenty of vitamin D. This vitamin is found in almost all canned tuna. Vitamin D improves brain function and most importantly, IMPROVES MEMORY! This helps DRAMATICALLY during hypoglycemia, I amazed my local E.M.S. when i would not let them intervene and stabilized myself on my own when i was at 23 mg/dL. <I know that had no correlation but still is good info!
Hope this helps, very happy to see you are concerned about involving exercise with your diabetic control, that mentality needs to become more popular in my personal opinion.
I do not agree with that statement at all. Resistance Training and circuit training (like p90x) are GREAT for controlling blood sugar in the long run. Building lean muscle mass increases insulin sensitivity and speeds up your metabolism, meaning your body will utilize your nutrients and food (sugar) much more effectively. Lean muscle increases the blood flow all over your body, this will cause your body to burn calories ( and use insulin in that process ).
Circuit training is a GREAT form of cardio, you accomplish more in less time than you would running on a treadmill or using and elliptical. Cardiovascular exercises like that are great for controlling your sugars, and can also cause hyperglycemia, and possibly cause a hypoglycemia issue as well. The key is to increase your heart rate and to improve blood flow (which will get to hands and feet), these things will increase insulin sensitivity. Circuit Training/Weight Lifting are the only two things I do ( with small amounts of running... IE sprints/hills/and anything under a 1 mile run) and my A1C is 6.4.
Cardiovascular exercise is great for your blood sugars, but it is not the only answer. It is a good tool, but there is much more out there to help control blood sugars.
Bottom line, LEARN your body. LEARN how it reacts to things you do to it, and how you feed it. If you listen and pay attention to what your body tells you, exercise and healthy eating are great for your body.
I have always done cardio, I try and do 45 minutes 6 days a week. This is a huge time commitment. But what I do is either the stair master, walking/running combo or I am actually going to try a spin class this week as well. Also I do 2 days of yoga a week. I read online that it helps with better blood sugar control and its really relaxing and an hour a week where I'm not thinking about being diabetic or what I'm eating,counting carbs or managing my daily injections!
Andrew, please read my post fully next time. I stated that she would be able to do things like p90x but she needs to focus on cardio first before she attempts to control sugars with short stints of weight training or short workouts like a 90 minute one.
Also, my hbA1c is 5.1% and all i take is 8 units of lantus daily and only about 1-3 units of short acting in a given week. Nothing personal, but i would take the advice which results in a lower hbA1c. I don't really need to say anything, numbers speak for themselves.
Scott, First of all, congrats on having such great control over your blood sugars. It is a tough thing to accomplish, and it is great that you can do it. Especially with the route you take to get there by treating your body in such a good way. How long have you been living with Diabetes.
My problem with your post is this,
"The only exercise that will help control your blood sugar is cardiovascular workouts. Lifting waits or p90x will unfortunately accomplish nothing in terms of more "control" and can cause hypoglycemic episodes. Lifting waits and p90x will be something you CAN DO to help, but only down the road when your cardio is under extreme control."
That is a false statement saying the only type of exercise that helps control blood sugar is cardio, and telling someone they will accomplish nothing in terms of control of blood sugars through resistance training is also wrong. You can begin resistance training at any time, mixed in with cardio. Resistance training actually helps you improve your cardio. The stronger your body is, the better it performs. Everything else I read in your post is great advice and its good you are willing to help people by sharing what you have learned.
I am not here to have a competition with you as to whose A1C is better, and again, I am very impressed with your level of control, and I commend you for being able to do it. And also trying to help others achieve the same thing. I was simply stating that a good A1C is possible the way I teach people. I am a fitness professional, with years of schooling and science to back up my "theories". What I said in my post is how the body works and reacts do different types of exercise. I teach people these things on a daily basis and work with people to motivate them to accomplish better A1Cs and sugar control.
Our goal is the same "Hope this helps, very happy to see you are concerned about involving exercise with your diabetic control, that mentality needs to become more popular in my personal opinion."
I could not agree with you more, this needs to become a bigger part of peoples care. I was just simply informing you that you can in-fact have better blood sugar controls with resistance training and circuit training. Again, our goal is the same, I Just want ALL the information out there when people are asking questions.
Hope this clears some things up. And I would love to hear more about what you have done to continue to stay healthy with your diabetes, information is always good!
I'm impressed with you both. You're obviously active, healthy people. Like you've each said, as people with diabetes we have to figure out what works for us.
Andrew, that's so cool that you help people have better A1cs with exercise. I know a lot of people with diabetes are afraid to work out because they don't know how to adjust their insulin around it. I'm grateful for people like you, Gary Scheiner, and Sheri Colberg who know how to balance exercise with blood sugar control, which is the toughest part of managing diabetes.
Andrew i suggest in the future when you want to avoid a competition, you should avoid starting your responses with "I do not agree with that statement at all" and then stating your HbA1c to explain why your opinion holds water.
But our goals are the same so i agree, lets work together
Stating my A1C was an example, that's about it. Not an attack on you and not trying to boast about how well I take care of myself. So I apologize if it came off that way, my only goal is to educate and motivate in this kind of conversation.
And, thank you Jenna, I am glad to see there are other people that share my passion of health, fitness and helping others!
No need for an apology or anything, i over reacted. Apologies for that.
Also, if we work together, perhaps we can create a well balanced "intro to diabetic exercise" page or something else which promotes a work out plan oriented towards cardio and circuit training to help control blood flow, oxygen levels in the blood and blood sugar numbers.
I think a good first step would be an extensive break down of our workouts. If you are interested at all, contact me at my organizations e-mail: t1climb2live@yahoo.com
P.S.- I am still in the process of obtaining my 501(c)3 permit for my fundraising organization and therefor is not recognized by the United States Government as a non profit organization. -Raised by lawyers lol
Sounds like a good idea to me. Ill shoot you an email sometime in the next few days!
Weights and power training nearly 20 years ago still benefit me today. Cardio doesn't maintain with long lay-offs. I can't remember the last time my A1C wasn't in the 5's. But that has very little to do with the physiologic benefits to exercise. People fail to mention the psychological benefit of exercise is to learn and maintain a routine. Exercise, nutrition and keeping track of it all is a win-win for anyone.