Exercise and Diabetes - How much? / What kind?

Here is a Web MD link concerning exercise for diabetes, going into detail on what kind, how much and why. It is an excellent link:

Link To Exercise for Diabetes

Some of the highlights of the article include:

Type 2 Diabetes and Exercise

Exercise is very important in managing type 2 diabetes. Combining diet, exercise, and medicine (when prescribed) will help control your weight and blood sugar level.

Exercise helps control type 2 diabetes by:

• Improving your body's use of insulin.
• Burning excess body fat, helping to decrease and control weight (decreased body fat results in improved insulin sensitivity).
• Improving muscle strength.
• Increasing bone density and strength.
• Lowering blood pressure.
• Helping to protect against heart and blood vessel disease by lowering 'bad' LDL cholesterol and increasing 'good' HDL cholesterol.
• Improving blood circulation and reducing your risk of heart disease.
• Increasing energy level and enhancing work capacity.
• Reducing stress, promoting relaxation, and releasing tension and anxiety.

I try to exercise every day, however I am no different than you, and sometimes appointments, work schedule, etc. get in the way. Remember the old saying about, "The best laid plans of mice and men?"

I try to do both aerobics (Mostly brisk walking for 30-45 mins) and also some weight resistance training. I do 50 push ups every other day on a regular schedule and also some curls with the weights, and some abdominal exercises on a machine I purchased at Dick's Sporting Goods called "The Tower Of Power" which has multiple uses such as push ups, leg raises, parallel bar dips and pull ups. Unfortunately mine is in the basement of my home with a 7'6" ceiling and there is not enough head room to do the pull ups. The parallel bar and the push ups bars are also fixed and simply too far apart for me. It works great for the knee to chest abdominal lifts though. Because I had a bad bout about two years ago with a herniated disc, I do my push ups off the 3rd rung of the basement stairs at an incline. If I do too many military push ups, it sometimes aggravates the old injury. Somewhere I read that doing push ups at in incline off the 3rd or 4th step depending on how tall you are, gave me 85% of the benefit of regular push ups and does not bother my lower back. No problem and I will take the 85% benefit. That doesn't mean they are EASY, and if you think that, I suggest dropping down and doing 25 at a time. It definitely works the upper body strength and helps to control your blood glucose levels.

I am always talking about making baby step changes, so you will hopefully stay with the program. If your biggest form of exercise is munching on a big bowl of nachos while watching TV, and washing it all down with a 2 litre bottle of Coke or Pepsi, you need to make some changes. I am 63 years old and I didn't wake up one morning and just start doing 50 push ups every other day. First you have to want to change and secondly you take it one day at a time until you begin to replace old habits with NEW ones.

Dan

Isaiah 53:4-5 "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yes we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed"