Learning the right way to exercise with type 2 diabetes can help you fight fat, increase muscle mass, improve balance, reduce stress — and may even lower your need for medication.
How many times have you heard this:
“Just exercise!”
Without any other advice?
It’s frustrating, especially if you’re living with type 2 diabetes or are prediabetic because you have unique challenges with energy management and caloric intake.
That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to exercise with type 2 diabetes!
In this guide, you’ll discover:
- Why it’s so important to exercise if you are living with diabetes.
- Why it can be uniquely challenging for people with diabetes to exercise.
- And the best types of exercise for every stage of your diabetes journey!
Let’s get into it.
Importance of Exercise for people with Type 2 Diabetes and Prediabetes
Regular physical activity is valuable for everyone and has health benefits ranging from weight loss, increased energy, and better mood to lower risk of chronic disease.
However, when it comes to Type 2 Diabetes, it’s even more important for lowering blood glucose levels and improving insulin sensitivity throughout the body.
Specifically, exercise triggers the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream into the working muscles and organs.
Additionally, exercise is one of the best ways to build muscle; this is especially helpful because after you eat, 70 to 80 percent of the glucose in your body goes to your muscles.
Therefore, “the more muscle you can maintain throughout the aging process as a type 2 diabetic, the more insulin receptors you will have and the greater your glucose “sink” will be.”
Physical Activity and Type 2 Diabetes
Experts also put exercise as a top recommendation for people with type 2 diabetes.
This is not only because it can help keep your blood glucose to a manageable range in the short term, but its anti-obesity effects and cardiovascular benefits can be transformative.
Consequently, the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes is insulin resistance, which is caused by a buildup of fat in cells that are not meant to store it, and exercise can be key to reversing this condition.
And if you reverse insulin resistance, you are, in most cases on the way to reversing type 2 diabetes.
Again, when coming up with an exercise plan for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes, there are a few potential risks to consider…
Potential Risks of Exercising with Type 2 Diabetes
Exercise can be uniquely challenging for people with diabetes especially when just starting a new regimen or workout plan.
Some of the potential risk factors include fluctuations of your blood glucose, joint complications, and secondary challenges like neuropathy and retinopathy.
Blood Glucose Fluctuations
Most people with type 2 diabetes struggle with blood glucose fluctuations when they first increase their exercise.
This can come in the form of hypoglycemia, which often happens because you burn more glucose than usual due to exercise.
Or hyperglycemia, in which your body produces more glucose than usual after a workout.
Additionally, most people suffering from diabetes also suffer from other metabolic conditions like metabolic syndrome which can also make it difficult to exercise at first.
For this reason, many diabetes experts focus on how to increase your exercise gradually without losing blood glucose control (we cover more on it below).
Joint Complications
Another possible challenge facing people exercising with type 2 diabetes is joint pain and complications.
Diabetes can generally worsen joint pain either through increased inflammation, by damaging the nerve endings around your body, or by increasing arthritis risk.
In addition to that, people with diabetes are more likely to be overweight, and there are some initial challenges to be cautious of when starting to exercise.
Symptom Flare-Ups
Finally, some complications of diabetes — like retinopathy (visual disturbances), neuropathy (nerve damage or confusion), and fatigue — can also flare-ups.
So, Is Exercise Worth the Risk?
Yes, absolutely!
Experts put exercise as one of the key steps to reversing type 2 diabetes and prediabetes.
Besides, almost all of the risks can be handled safely by scaling up your exercise slowly and working with your doctor or diabetes coach to come up with a strategy that works for you.
Tips And Tricks for Exercising With Diabetes
There are a couple of major things that people with type 2 diabetes can do to make sure that they’re prepared for exercise.
The first is to have a plan and make sure that you’re not over-pushing yourself too quickly or going beyond the limits of what your body can handle.
Working with your diabetes coach can help you design an exercise routine that works for you and your body and can help you scale up from beginner to intermediate to even advanced exercises.
We’ll give you examples of these exercises in the next section.
The second is to make sure you have healthy snacks or glucose tablets available in case you start to have low blood glucose.
The Best Way to Exercise
How to Make Exercise Awesome
There are a couple of reasons people give for not exercising. The three biggest ones include:
- Not having enough time or motivation.
- Not being able to afford the cost of gyms.
- Finding certain exercises boring or repetitive.
In addition, most people feel like they have to begin at high-level intensity, which can make starting to exercise intimidating.
Fortunately, it helps to start slow and build up as your body adjusts to your new routine.
Plus, there are many more options for exercising than you might think no matter what intensity you’re targeting.
As you work with your diabetes coach to come up with an exercise program, consider some of the following ideas:
Low-Intensity Exercise
Low-intensity, low-impact physical activity is a great place to start for anyone who’s just beginning an exercise program.
Moreover, research shows that this form of exercise can have positive effects on nearly every aspect of type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
Yoga, brisk walking, tai chi, a casual swim, biking, or hiking.
Basically, as long as the activity increases your heart rate, your body will reap the benefits.
Moderate-Intensity Exercise
Moderate-intensity exercise is where the benefits of physical activity on your type 2 diabetes journey really begin to kick in.
As you grow more comfortable, and physically fit, this type of exercise takes your health to the next level.
In fact, some studies show that moderate-intensity level exercise is a must for people at any level of physical fitness.
And of course, this includes diabetes health.
One study showed that moderate-intensity, combined with high-intensity exercise, was a fantastic balance for people with type 2 diabetes.
And again, there are many ways to perform medium-intensity exercise that can be fun, engaging, and interesting.
Yes, traditional gym forms of aerobic exercise using bodyweight, free weights, resistance bands, etc., as well as strength training to build muscle mass are all very effective.
But at the same time, finding something you’re passionate about can help you stay motivated.
Some examples include CrossFit, kayaking, soccer, mountain biking, tennis, pickleball, free diving, or many others that can provide the same level of intensity along with the joy of exploring the world or socializing with team members.
High-Intensity Exercise
High-intensity level exercise is the highest classification of exercise and holds incredible potential for people with type 2 diabetes.
However, it also contains a few risks to be aware of due to the cardiovascular load it places on your body.
Since intense cardiovascular exercise, which is classified as exercising at 70+% of your aerobic capacity, involves pushing your body to process energy quickly, many diabetics have some natural concerns about these activities.
So this is where having a good exercise plan or not scaling up too quickly comes in.
Additionally, having healthy snacks available is especially important when you’re exercising, as well as making sure to monitor your blood glucose for an hour or so after the workout.
Overall, the benefits of exercise are powerful and vastly outweigh the risks.
Some fantastic examples of high-intensity exercises include competitive soccer, basketball, swimming, tennis, cycling, river rafting, and many others.
Final Thoughts
Even though exercise can be a bit intimidating, it’s incredibly beneficial in the long run.
It’s also an excellent way to have fun and one of the critical steps to getting control of your diabetes health.
That’s why we recommend getting medical advice from your doctor or coach before starting any regimen and remembering to steadily increase your workload rather than trying to ramp up too quickly.
If you’d like to learn how to permanently lower your blood sugar, improve your mood and energy, and even reverse your type 2 diabetes or prediabetes, you can check out our FREE Type 2 Diabetes Lies Ebook
It includes everything you need to debunk the lies you’ve been told about type 2 diabetes as well as how to reverse it, the right way.
And if you have any questions, please comment below.
Bob.
Leave a Reply