As a diabetic, you need to find ways to control your blood sugar levels. Getting your diabetes under control will help to prevent infection and other serious health problems. This is more than just following a healthy and balanced diet that is low in simple carbs and refined sugar.
You need to focus on exercise. Doing 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week will help you keep your glucose levels to a minimum. You support your whole system, boosting the release of happy hormones and reducing your weight. In fact, exercise can help to reverse your diabetes, making it less likely that you will be on medication for the rest of your life.
The last thing you want to do is throw yourself into exercise, though. You want to focus on exercises that are light on your joints and will help build your muscles. It’s important to avoid injury, which is common for those new to exercise.
With that in mind, here are eight exercises that are perfect for diabetics to do daily.
Start Walking and Work Your Way Up
One of the best types of exercises to do when you’re starting out is walking. It does more than just get you from A to B. Walking is one of those lightweight exercises that gets your blood pumping and lungs working. It’s also prescribed by doctors around the country when it comes to their Type II diabetes patients.
We’re not talking about a gentle stroll here. When it comes to walking, you need to make sure you pick up the pace a little. Try a power walk or a level of intensity just slightly lower. It’s important to feel like it’s working your legs and your breathing to gain any benefit at all.
Try just three days a week of walking on your lunch break. You can work your way up to five days. Don’t forget to take a friend with you, so you have someone to talk to and keep you entertained. Or you can pick up your favorite music and listen to it on the way around.
As you get used to walking, you can pick up the pace to a jog and then to a run. What you don’t want to do is throw yourself right into running. It’s important to give your body chance to build up the core strength and leg strength before you start running to avoid injury to your ankles and knees.
There is various Couch to 5K training programs to help you build this type of fitness up. We don’t mean that you must run the full 5K if you don’t want, but it’s a good way to build your experience to walking and running up when you’re just beginning.
