The best exercise for diabetes is gentle exercise. Because diabetes is caused primarily by prolonged stress or a stress event, so you don’t want to do strenuous exercise for not to put more stress on your body.
The best exercise forms are aerobic exercise, strength training and low intensity walking daily for an hour
Low intensity walking daily for an hour
Because type 2 diabetes is caused primarily by adrenal stress you want to do exercise that is gentle and not so stressful.
Walking is one of the best exercise forms for diabetics because it gets the cardiovascular system going, heart and pulse rate goes up a bit, and the blood sugar goes into the cells.
Low intensity walking daily for an hour is probably the best exercise for type 2 diabetics in that it helps you to de-stress and replenish your adrenals.
When walking you should walk slowly and take time to notice your surroundings. This will help you to get out of your thinking and be present in the now. Adrenal stress cause the adrenals to be worn out, and because of this, we are in trouble shooting mode trying to solve everything through our thinking. Constant thinking which cause us even more stress. This can become a vicious cycle when we can’t seem to break our thinking and just relax.
The benefits of low intensity walking
1. Replenish the adrenal glands
2. Takes stress away
3. Improves blood sugar
4. Reduces insulin
Strength training
Strength training is muscle training and this will help you to empty your muscles of old glycogen (stored sugar) so that the new blood sugar can get into the cells.
This way of exercising, beside building muscle mass, you get your blood sugar into the cells.
It is a very good way of exercising to lower your blood sugar when done correctly. Also, here you should not put any stress on yourself but go gently forward and not lift too much weight.
Benefits of strength training
1. Build muscle mass
2: empty stored glycogen (sugar)
2. Lower your blood glucose levels
3. Gets the cardiovascular system going
Aerobic exercise
Any exercise that gets your heart pumping, your muscles working, your blood flowing and your breath and sweat going is aerobic exercise. It stimulates the heart rate and the breathing rate to increase in a way that can be sustained throughout the exercise session.
This form of exercise is also called “cardio” exercise in that it gets your cardiovascular system going.
Examples of aerobic exercise are cardio machines, spinning, running, swimming, hiking, aerobics classes, dancing, cross-country skiing, and kickboxing.
Aerobic exercise has a great effect, not only on fitness but on physical and emotional health too. It can help prevent or reduce the chance of developing some cancers, diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.
This kind of exercise should be simple, practical and realistic. One can use cardio machines but its not necessary for successful aerobic exercise. If practiced too intense it can become anaerobic exercise where you get out of breath.
Benefits of aerobic exercise
1. Improves cardiovascular health
It is recommended by most doctors to people with, or at risk for heart disease. It strengthens your heart and helps it more efficiently to pump blood throughout the body.
2. Lowers blood pressure
It may also help symptoms of high blood pressure by lowering blood pressure, and keep your arteries healthy by raising “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and lowering “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in the blood.
3. Helps regulate blood sugar
Studies have found that physical activity is very good for people with type 2 diabetes because it helps regulate insulin levels and lower blood sugar. And therefore helps to keep one’s weight in check. .
4. Reduces asthma symptoms
5. Reduces chronic pain
6. Aids sleep
7. Regulates weight
8. Strengthens immune system
9. Improves brain power
10. Boosts mood
11. Reduces risk of falls
12. Safe for most people, including kids
13. Affordable and accessible
My own experience
In my own experience I used all the above.
Low intensity walking gets me out of my head and into the now and always makes me feel good and refreshed ready to get on with the day. And that is also true with strength training and aerobic exercise. Both these form of exercise helps the body to metabolize blood sugar and to feel good.
There is noting better than a good workout. The key for type 2 diabetics is that all exercise forms be gentle and not too strenuous. At least in the beginning.
It is important to move and be active as this helps the blood flow and the oxygen in the body will be pumped to the muscles so they get going and will promote health.
Movement is life. And therefore life giving.
Conclusion
Because type 2 diabetes is caused primarily by stress I would highly suggest low intensity walking as the number one solution. This is because it is so good for de-stressing. Then when one recovers from stress I would suggest the aerobic exercise and also strength training simply because the body can better deal with it as it might put a little stress on the body to do these more strenuous exercises compared to low intensity walking.
The aerobic exercise and strength training will both help to burn the old stored glycogen in the muscles so there is room for the new glucose (blood sugar) to get in. This kind of exercise is more beneficial to lowering blood glucose levels in comparison to walking simply because it burns the stored glycogen more than low intensity walking does.
Keep in mind. There are many other exercise forms for diabetics like spinning, swimming and running etc. I’ve just mentioned a few that I myself have used and can recommend.
If you don’t feel that stress is the main cause of your diabetes diagnosis I would highly recommend the aerobic exercises for good cardiovascular health and to lowering your blood glucose level.