How Diabetic Patients Can Add Strength to Their Daily Routine

in addition to regular exercise, weight training can lead to epic blood sugar control in diabetic patients. Once patients have their blood sugar under control, they reduce their risk of other health complications.

Research has found that regular aerobic exercises like running, biking, and swimming reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. To take it a step further, those with diabetes benefit from strength training routines.

According to the American Diabetes Association and the National Institute for Health, people with diabetes need to incorporate strength training into their weekly activities. Lifting weights will improve your type 2 diabetes symptoms, and it will increase your strength and ability to fight off other chronic illnesses.

Advantages of weight training for diabetics

Diabetes does not allow the body to process glucose or use insulin efficiently. Strength training can help you with those issues. 

Here's why. 

• Your muscles are better able to store glucose and help your body regulate blood sugar levels.
• Body’s fat to muscle ratios decrease. Fat ratios reduction decreases the amount of insulin you need.
• Lean muscle mass boosts your metabolic rate and helps you burn calories at a much quicker rate. Burning calories keeps your blood sugar levels in check.
• Strength training reduces fasting blood glucose levels for 24 hours, claims Cary Raffle, a certified personal trainer and certified orthopedic exercise specialist in New York.
• Weight training assists with weight loss. By building more lean muscle through strength or weight training, your body burns more calories at rest.
• Strength training helps prevent muscle mass loss, osteoporosis, and heart disease, says Meghan Kennihan of La Grange, Illinois. Meghan is a certified personal trainer and running coach.

Results of studies run by the National Institutes of Health state that better results happen when those with type 2 diabetes combine regular aerobic exercise with weight training routines. Combining the two forms of exercise together gives you better health benefits than either form of exercise does on its own.

Strength training will help guard your body against blood pressure and poor bone density. Lifting weights or strength training helps prevent age-related muscle mass loss.

Want to weight train? Know where to start!

Weight training means doing movements that work for specific muscle groups. Each workout comprises exercise, reps, and sets.

• A bicep curl or chest press works for one muscle group.
• A rep or repetition is one motion. One rep of a bicep curl means lowering the dumbbell and then raising it again to the starting position.
• Sets include how many reps you perform at one time.Separate each set by a rest period.

Read on to learn more tips for weight training and how diabetic patients can benefit from it.