Revving the Engine

03/20/08 Nutrition & Exercise

By Eric Devine

Exercise helps you manage your blood sugar levels and keep your heart healthy. You have no intentions of ever entering a bodybuilding competition, nor do you imagine that your bikini-clad physique will turn heads at the beach. While you are not an exercise fanatic, you take care of yourself and know that exercise is a vital component for overall health, but not necessarily a means to a prettily packaged end.

For you, exercise is a catalyst for tighter glucose control.  Sweating a few times a week helps you achieve this, but you wonder if you could or need to do more. Is there a reasonable middle ground between obsessive exercise and simply picking up the pace, and are there health-conscious goals you should be moving toward?

Burning the Fat
In order to burn fat you’ve got to increase your target heart rate 60-65 percent.  To determine this target, use the Karvonen Formula online at exercise.about.com. It’s best to maintain this heart rate for a minimum of 20 minutes while exercising. 

Unfortunately, a short daily walk may not achieve this. However, you don’t have to go to great lengths to succeed. Instead of that short walk, climb stairs or jump rope. You’ll feel the difference within the first few flights or revolutions. Stick with either of these exercises for 20 minutes and you’ve entered that fat-burning threshold. Maintain a regimen of this workout for five days a week, and you’ll see lower glucose levels along with an overall lower resting heart rate, a sure sign of better health and performance.
   
Cardio Conditioning
Once you’ve mastered the 20 minute burn it’s time to enter the cardio zone and increase the intensity. Our bodies adapt to almost anything. Therefore, routine in exercise becomes the enemy. Increasing the intensity of your workout or switching up your the exercises helps alleviate this problem. While you’re at it, why not burn more fat and condition that heart? 

The goal now is to increase your target heart rate 80-85 percent. Maintaining this level for those same 20 minutes will move you into the cardio conditioning threshold. Riding a stationary bike or swimming laps will bring you there. So will interval training, which can include strength training—an excellent way to introduce new variables to avoid the adaptation dilemma. Maintain this type of program for a month and you will see a reduction in weight, increased breathing capacity, a lower resting heart rate a general reduction in insulin need, along with tighter glucose control.

Overall
Find your place on the fitness spectrum and set a goal for achieving the next level. If you’re not yet on the continuum, step on; but take it easy at first. Work into exercise with a goal of fat-burning performance for a solid 30-60 days before moving into cardio conditioning. The quest for better health can be long, but it need not be daunting.

As the saying goes: The fountain of youth is filled with sweat. For us with diabetes, the fountain is not out of reach. To get there just takes more mindful maneuvering.