Aerobic Conditioning for Diabetes

 Diabetes Exercises

Regular exercise is an essential part of managing diabetes by helping to prevent the onset of Type 2 diabetes complications, such as high blood pressure, poor circulation, vision problems, and associated conditions. Studies show that exercise not only helps to keep body’s fat weight down, but exercise also raises endorphins (en-dor-fin s) which can help to relieve some of the mental side effects of Diabetes, help your blood circulate, and lower your overall blood sugar level.

According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetics should put in at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise five days a week. Aerobic exercise is exercise that increases your heart rate, pumps blood to your muscles, and makes you breathe harder than normal. The good news is that if 30 minutes a day is too much for you in the beginning, you can divide your workouts into 5 or 10 minute segments that you can complete throughout the day.

Here are some simple 30-minute aerobic activities that can get you started:

• Walking (briskly)
• Dancing
• Basketball or another team sport
• Aerobics class, such as kick boxing
• Frisbee
• Swimming or water aerobics (especially good for overweight people with injuries)
• Roller-skating
• Tennis
• Bicycling
• Treadmill

Why Aerobic Exercise Helps

The goal of aerobic exercise is to increase your heart rate. As your heart rate increases, your heart muscle is forced to work harder to pump blood throughout your body. As your heart pumps blood harder, the exercise will succeed in  improving your circulation, and in stimulating the flow of oxygen to important muscles and organs.The net result is a much healthier body that reduces the severity of diabetes complications.

As your body works hard to pump blood, it will be using up energy units from the sugar that you consume. Those energy units might otherwise stay as sugar in your blood, muscles or liver and eventually turn to fat. Therefore, exercise plays an essential role in decreasing the blood sugar level in diabetics.

Get Moving With Good Shoes!