Weight Lifting and Blood Sugar: How They’re Connected

The bodybuilding craze of the 1960s built a lasting image around weight lifting that still scares some people away from their local gym. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gold’s Gym, Pumping Iron. But weight lifting doesn’t have to be about entering bodybuilding competitions or winning awards. 

The truth is that weight lifting can benefit your body inside and out, help you lose weight, and help you maintain and manage various health conditions. From controlling your blood sugar to increased mobility, let’s explore what you stand to gain and how to get started with weight lifting. 

6 Benefits of Weight Lifting for People Controlling their Blood Sugar Control 

How would you define weight lifting? Most people will likely describe rows of heavy barbells, complicated equipment, and men as large as school buses wearing sleeveless shirts. 

While that image may accurately portray the most extreme weight lifters, practically anyone with access to some weights can pursue weight lifting.  

Regardless of your age, size, or body composition, your body will use your muscles to help you move. As such an important, integral part of your body and its systems, training your muscles yields many health benefits many people might find surprising. Here are just a few. 

1) Lifting Weights Improves Blood Sugar Control 

Most pertinent to those living with conditions like prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, or anyone who needs to regulate their blood sugar, is the benefit lifting weights has on these levels. 

As some research finds, strength training exercises like weight lifting can be beneficial for those with type 2 diabetes. You may notice increased control over your blood sugar levels in response to weight lifting. 

As you exercise, your body uses your blood sugar to fuel the physical activity you’re putting it through. The more fuel you burn up, the more room you’re making for your body to take the edge off sugar spikes and otherwise flatten the bumps in your sugar levels throughout the day.  

2) Encourages Weight Loss (Physically and Mentally) 

It shouldn’t surprise you that routine exercise promotes weight loss over time. Any physical activity, including weight lifting, demands energy expenditure to fuel that activity, and calories are the metric used to calculate that energy. 

Burning more calories than you consume through your diet can translate into weight loss. The logic may sound simple, but consistently adjusting your lifestyle to include exercise can be challenging. 

Overcoming that challenge is worth it, though. Losing excess weight, and keeping it off, pays dividends to your overall wellbeing. But the benefits don’t stop with your body! Weight lifting can help shed mental and physical weight, as more studies and research show that your mood may improve after working out. 

3) Can Improve Insulin Sensitivity 

Insulin resistance is one of the significant risks leading to a diagnosis of prediabetes or diabetes. If you’re resistant to the insulin your body releases, you have a more challenging time putting your blood sugar to work. This excess sugar can lead to diabetes and other related complications. 

Thankfully, it’s now well understood that exercise improves insulin sensitivity, even right after exercise. While all exercise is generally beneficial to your overall blood sugar and insulin maintenance, focus on your particular insulin needs when engaging in weight lifting. 

Weight lifting is an anaerobic exercise (your muscles are active in short bursts, compared to sustained usage like running), which means glucose is the main energy source here. This is unlike aerobic exercise, which uses more oxygen and fat as the main energy source. 

Because the more intense the anaerobic session, the more glucose breakdown you may see from the demands of the physical activity, this may lead to an increase in your blood sugar. 

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4) Can Increase Glucose Storage 

Your muscles store a lot of glucose. The bigger they are, the more blood glucose they can hold after exercise, improving your carbohydrate tolerability. To benefit from this, you don’t have to struggle for big bodybuilder muscles: even a simple routine will yield valuable results. We outline an example of such a routine later in this article. 

5) Helps Target Dangerous Belly Fat 

Evidence continues to grow that belly fat is particularly harmful compared to fat around other body areas. It’s known as visceral fat, and it typically collects deep within your core beyond the subcutaneous fat you see on the surface. 

Researchers claim the danger stems from how the belly fat surrounds your organs, correlating to various increased risk factors for your health. Following guides for six-pack abs and performing hundreds of crunches may not be as helpful as you’d think since this fat is beneath the muscles associated with those exercises. 

Weight lifting and basic strength training may be a more prudent use of your time and sweat. After all, visceral belly fat typically responds just as well to generalized exercise as the rest of your body.  

6) Weight Training Helps Prevent Diabetes

By improving your body’s management and tolerances of blood sugar, you’re building a foundation for altogether preventing diabetes, even if you’ve already been diagnosed with prediabetes.

As some research shows, regular weight training can help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. 

Other Benefits of Lifting Weights 

Benefits to your health are far and wide beyond what weight lifting can do for your blood. Your overall health has everything to gain from routine weight lifting, including: 

• Increased muscle mass, helping to make moving through your daily tasks easier.
• Increased longevity.
• Improved mobility and the ability to get up and stay up and active for longer.
• Improved flexibility, enabling you to keep doing the things you love and avoid injury.
• Stronger and more protected joints, reducing chances of pain and stiffness. 

Risks of Weight Lifting 

Even though it’s healthy, no physical activity comes risk-free. It’s always a good idea to consult with your doctor before exploring any new type of exercise, especially if you have diabetes. 

For one, working out has a direct impact on your blood sugar during exercise, immediately, and even for hours afterward. 

So, it’s essential to start slow and keep track of your sugar levels as you get into the habit of weight lifting. We mentioned weight lifting might raise your blood sugar, which can pose a risk to your health if your levels were already high when you began your exercise for the day. 

It’s a good idea to avoid exercise for the moment if your blood sugar is outside of normal ranges (for your specific body and age—remember that this differs). You may also want to stop and reevaluate your routine if you’ve recently taken medication for diabetes treatment such as insulin, or anything that may stimulate insulin release, increasing your risk of hypoglycemia. 

There are other, more typical risks to keep in mind that have simple counter-strategies, such as: 

• You should stretch and warm up to avoid injury.
• It’s a good idea for any exercise to avoid overexertion. 
• Staying hydrated is essential, exercise or no exercise. 

Sample Weight Training Workout Plan + Tips to Getting Started

With any exercise goal, consistency is the cornerstone for success, and it helps to have at least a simple plan to help build the habit. We think the following workout plan provides a confident way to dip your toes into the waters of weight lifting. It may be helpful to consult with a personal trainer who has experience with weight training to ensure proper form and reduce your risk of injury. 

Remember that any exercise is good, so if you find it challenging to keep up with this plan, you can break it down into even more manageable, bite-sized chunks! 

Day 1: Upper Body 

Stretch! Stretching is one of the simplest methods of avoiding exercise-related injury and increasing mobility. Consider adding it to your daily routine, even when you’re not working out. 

We recommend picking and choosing different stretches to kick off your particular weightlifting routine. After stretching, follow this workout. Feel free to add, remove, or change it up to meet your needs! 

• Front raises: Three sets of 16 repetitions 
• Shoulder press: Three sets of 15 repetitions 
• Pushups: Three sets of 10 repetitions 
• Chest flys: Three sets of 12 repetitions 
• Tricep dips: Three sets of 12 repetitions 

Day 2: Arm and Back Muscles 

It’s important to balance which muscles you target when weight lifting on consecutive days. So on this day, focus on your biceps, triceps, and back muscles. Repeat this routine three times.

• Stretch 
• Bicep curls: 12 repetitions 
• Kneeling single-arm rows: 10 repetitions 
• Hammer curls: 12 repetitions
• Lat pull-down (or pull-ups): 10 repetitions 

Day 3: Legs and Core 

Many people neglect to work their core, believing it’s only helpful to train those muscles to gain beach body abs. They end up missing out on the additional support those muscles provide, relieving your back muscles and spine of the weight of the upper body, increasing flexibility, and staving off dreaded back pain. 

• Stretch 
• Side plank, once per side of the body: 10 to 30 seconds 
• Toe taps: 10 to 20 repetitions 
• Plank: 10 to 30 seconds 
• Standing calf raises: Up to three sets 
• Wall sit: Up to 120 seconds 
• Squats: Three sets of 15 

Repeat this routine two to three times.

Rest Day 

It might sound counterintuitive to give yourself a break when you want to reap the benefits of all that exercise. Still, it’s important to give your body and muscles a chance to recover. 

Muscles are broken down during exercise and grow as the fibers are rebuilt. That rebuilding happens during your rest days and denying your muscles that resting period may hinder rather than help your progress.  

However, it’s a good idea not to go into total couch potato mode. Your rest days are the perfect opportunity to keep your blood flowing and body accustomed to moving. 

A low-key day enjoying the outdoors, keeping up with a simple yoga practice, or just walking around your local farmers market are great ways to stay on the move. 

Tips for Your Exercise Routine

Start slow and stay slow! Feel out how many repetitions and how much weight is appropriate for you to lift. Everyone starts somewhere. While weightlifting, use slow, deliberate movements and avoid sudden, jerky motions. Your muscles will benefit much more from the exercise, and you will significantly reduce the risk of injury. 

1) Rest Between Sets

Make sure to rest—but not for too long. It’s necessary to catch your breath and regroup. But it’s also important to maintain your increased heart rate and keep your muscles warm.

Recommendations on this vary, with some sources saying between 30 to 90 seconds here is ideal to induce muscle hypertrophy but also two to five minutes for max strength development. Remember, this will change according to your needs so consult an expert to find the perfect fit for you. 

2) Modify Exercises to Match Your Skill Level

Some exercises, like pushups, can be modified to shift your weight to make things more or less difficult. Only you know your body, so make sure you are working within your abilities, especially in the beginning.

If you have access to a gym full of machines, that’s fantastic. But you can do most of these exercises with a simple set of free weights, resistance bands, or even just your body weight.

3) Pace Yourself

• Focus on your warm-up: Warm muscles are less injury-prone. A light, quick cardio routine and some jumping jacks can do the trick. 
• Cool down: Allow your heart rate to return to normal by gradually easing it down through some more light cardio. 
• Don’t worry if you miss a day: Even pro athletes forget. And sometimes, you just don’t have time or need to take a break.  
• When in doubt, ask someone: If you aren’t sure how to perform an exercise, it’s much better to ask a professional how to do it rather than risk pulling a muscle.

Here’s chart to pin up to remind you what you should do on each of the three days you weight lift. It’s a good idea to stretch often (consider stretching before this routine begins on day one) and remember to rest on day four! 

Why You Should Be Lifting Weights if You Have Type 2 Diabetes

No one’s disputing the benefits of regular aerobic exercise for diabetes management. Running, walking, swimming, and biking can all help you keep your blood sugar level in check while boosting your overall health.

But now scientists are finding that people with diabetes can benefit from regular weight lifting, or strength training, as well. In fact, research in the Internal Journal of Cardiology shows that in people with type 2 diabetes, strength training can be more beneficial to blood sugar regulation than cardio,” says Audra Wilson, RD, CSCS, a bariatric dietitian and strength and conditioning specialist at the Northwestern Medicine Metabolic Health and Surgical Weight Loss Center at Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois. That said, she points out that research in JAMA shows the best results come when strength training combines with aerobic exercise.

That’s why in a November 2016 position statement the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommended that, in addition to performing at least 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity per week (or 75 minutes of high-intensity exercise), adults with type 2 diabetes strength train at least two or three times per week.

RELATED: 6 Great Exercises for People With Diabetes

Before starting any new exercise routine, it’s important to talk with your doctor about any special considerations you need to make. Complications of type 2 diabetes, such as heart disease, peripheral neuropathy, diabetic retinopathy, blood pressure issues, and osteoporosis, can influence which forms of exercise (and strength training) are healthiest for you, according to the ADA.

So what’s so great about weight lifting with type 2 diabetes?

Lifting Weights May Make Managing Type 2 Diabetes Easier

Diabetes is marked by the body’s inability to process glucose and use insulin efficiently, but strength training can help with those issues in various ways.

Burns Up Blood Sugar

Strength training relies primarily on the body’s glycolytic, or glucose using, metabolic system for energy. “As we go through a strength-training workout, we use stored muscle glycogen for fuel,” explains Nick Occhipinti, CSCS, an exercise physiologist based in Red Bank, New Jersey. “Once this stored muscle glycogen runs out, we start to mobilize extra glycogen from the liver and from the blood. This helps to directly decrease blood glucose as well as deplete stored muscle and liver glycogen stores, giving blood glucose a place to go next time we eat.”

Improves Glucose Storage

Your muscles serve as storage facilities for consumed sugar and carbohydrates. “Trained muscle has a higher capacity to store blood glucose in the form of glycogen, aiding in lowering blood glucose,” he says. That means lowered blood sugar levels and easier glucose management.

Spurs Weight Loss

In people carrying extra weight, losing 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can improve A1C scores, the two- to three-month average of blood sugar levels, according to John Hopkins Medicine. Apart from burning calories during your workouts, strength training promotes fat loss by increasing levels of lean muscle mass. “Muscle is one of the few metabolically active tissues in the body at total rest,” explains Occhipinti. “This means that even as we sit around and watch football or sit at a desk and work, the muscle we have on our body is serving to burn calories.”

Targets Harmful Belly Fat 

Abdominal fat, also called visceral fat because it resides in and around the body’s visceral organs, exacerbates insulin resistance and complicates blood sugar management, he says. He explains that, in addition to storing energy, visceral fat cells produce chemicals and hormones that inhibit the body’s effective use of insulin. Fortunately, high-intensity resistance training is effective (even more than cardiovascular exercise) at reducing visceral fat levels and managing blood sugar in people with insulin resistance, per the Internal Journal of Cardiology research.

RELATED: Lose Belly Fat Fast With This Diabetes-Friendly Exercise Routine

Strength Training Helps Protect Against Diabetes Complications

By improving insulin health and lowering high blood sugar levels, strength training helps guard against some of the complications of type 2 diabetes. But it also takes on diabetes complications in other ways, too.

Improves Heart Health 

Type 2 diabetes is a leading risk factor in the development of heart disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fortunately, strength training increases levels of good cholesterol in the body while reducing bad levels, Occhipinti says. Research in the Journal of Human Hypertension shows it also helps lower hypertension, or high blood pressure.

Boosts Bone Density

While people with type 2 diabetes often have normal bone mineral density scores, they are at a heightened risk of bone fracture, according to a study published in January 2016 in the journal Bone. Weight-bearing strength training, especially performed from a standing position, builds strength in the bones of the legs, spine, and hips to reduce the risk of bone breaks, Wilson says.

Prevents Age-Related Muscle Loss

Building muscle through strength training directly combats the muscle loss that can occur through the decades. According to the ADA position statement, type 2 diabetes is an independent risk factor for accelerated declines in muscle strength. Research published online in January 2017 by PLoS One has linked severe age-related muscle degradation, called sarcopenia, to loss of physical function, cancer, and depression, and an increased risk of early death.

Reduces the Risk of Peripheral Neuropathy and Vision Loss

“When we have chronically high blood sugar, glucose molecules start attaching themselves to everything, including our red blood cells. This can prevent healthy blood flow many places in the body where we have very small blood vessels,” Occhipinti says. It just so happens that the eyes and nerves of the hands and feet have these small vessels. When these areas don’t get the blood flow they need, peripheral neuropathy and diabetic retinopathy can result. Strength training improves blood flow to reduce the risk of these complications, Occhipinti explains.

RELATED: 7 Ways to Stay Motivated to Exercise When You Have Type 2 Diabetes

6 Tips for Starting to Strength Train with Diabetes

The ADA suggests that people with type 2 diabetes engage in two or three strength-training sessions per week, on nonconsecutive days. Here are some strategies to help you get the most benefits from your strength-training sessions.

1. Talk to Your Healthcare Team

As with any exercise program, check with your healthcare team before starting a weight-training regimen. Especially important is to discuss is your blood sugar management. “People don’t typically associate strength training with low blood sugars, but some patients will have significant impacts on blood sugar with strength training,” Wilson says. Your doctor may recommend testing your blood sugar level before, during, and after exercise, as well as eating carbohydrates around workout time to prevent or address hypoglycemia, she says.

2. Ask for Help 

“To gain more health benefits from physical activity programs, participation in supervised training is recommended over nonsupervised programs,” Wilson says. For some guidance, consider working out with a certified trainer or joining a weight-training class. These are offered both in person and online.

3. Focus on the Body’s Largest Muscle Groups

Work on your glutes, hamstrings, quads, lats, traps, and chest. Some of the best strength exercises to target such groups are compound, multijoint movements such as squats, lunges, dead lifts, hamstring curls, rows, lat pull-downs, chest presses, and push-ups, Occhipinti says.

4. Follow a Plan

Mapping out what you want your workouts to look like can help you make and keep a routine, Wilson says. If you plan to strength train two or three times per week, you’re better off making all of your workouts total-body ones. However, if your strength training is going to be more frequent, such as four or five days per week, alternating between upper- and lower-body workouts, or push and pull workouts, can help ensure that each muscle group still gets the recovery time it needs, she says. Every now and then, try new variations of your favorite exercise, or alter the number of sets or reps you are doing, to keep your workouts, and results, progressing.

5. Prioritize Recovery 

Giving yourself one, if not two, days in between working a given muscle group can help give it time to repair, Wilson says, while still training it with sufficient frequency to adapt and grow. Great options include foam rolling, stretching, and low-intensity cardio like walking or cycling.

6. Consider Multiple Tools

Yes, barbells, dumbbells, and weight machines can be useful strength-training tools, but they aren’t mandatory, Occhipinti says. Resistance bands, filled duffle bags, and other household items are effective in loading the muscles and are especially great for helping you get in more at-home workouts.

RELATED: 8 Ways to Sit Less and Move More Each Day

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How to start exercising with diabetes

Step by step plan

First step

Getting doctor’s approval. Complications of diabetes mellitus or problems with the cardiovascular system may be a contraindication to certain types of physical activity, so check with your doctor. Also, before starting a new regimen of physical activity, the doctor should decide whether it is necessary to conduct an examination of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

Remember that when using insulin, physical activity can cause hypoglycemia, and at a blood glucose level above 13-14 mmol / l, it is contraindicated.

Second step

Choosing the most appropriate type of physical activity. Choose what you are interested in, what you dreamed of doing (for example, dancing), what you really will do.

Third step

Set a realistic goal with your doctor. For example, start with walking or exercising for 10 minutes 3 times a week and once the goal is reached, increase their duration and then the number per week.

Fourth step

Sometimes it’s easier to exercise if you find a company to keep you motivated to exercise.

Step Five

To find time. If you can’t allocate 30 minutes for a session, break that time into three 10-minute sessions.

Step six

Stay active throughout the day.

If you have type 1 diabetes, regularly self-monitor and know how to prevent hypoglycemia, you can engage in any physical activity, including sports. In type 2 diabetes, there may be additional restrictions due to coronary heart disease, diseases of the joints or respiratory organs. Any serious physical activity requires a preliminary examination and consultation with a doctor!

The following are conditions in which physical activity may be contraindicated or require caution.

Temporary contraindications:

• Glucose level above 13-14 mmol/l in combination with the appearance of ketone bodies in the urine or above 16 mmol/l even without ketone bodies. In conditions of lack of insulin, physical activity will further increase the level of glucose in the blood. If there is no opportunity to examine the level of ketone bodies in the urine, then it is worth avoiding physical activity already at a blood glucose level above 13-14 mmol / l.
• Hemophthalmos, retinal detachment, the first six months after laser photocoagulation.

Caution requires:

• Sports in which hypoglycemia is difficult to control (hang gliding, diving, surfing, mountaineering and rock climbing).
• Impaired recognition of hypoglycemia.
• Distal polyneuropathy with loss of peripheral sensation.
• Autonomic neuropathy (orthostatic hypotension, arterial hypertension).
• Nephropathy (with physical activity, a sharp increase in blood pressure is possible).
• Non-proliferative retinopathy (adverse effect of a sharp increase in blood pressure during physical activity).
• Preproliferative retinopathy (physical activity with a sharp increase in blood pressure, boxing, prolonged and intense physical activity is contraindicated).
• Proliferative retinopathy (physical activity with a sharp increase in blood pressure, boxing, prolonged and intense physical activity, running, weight lifting, aerobics, sports that are likely to cause head injury with a ball, puck, etc. are contraindicated).

Literary sources

SARU.DIA.19.11.2384

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Diabetic retinopathy treatment at the Vizus-1 clinic diabetes mellitus and vision

Diabetes mellitus and vision

One of the “target organs” in diabetes is the retina. Chronically elevated blood sugar levels lead to diabetic retinopathy.

Diabetic retinopathy has 4 stages:

1. Non-proliferative – characterized by the presence of small hemorrhages, the appearance of microaneurysms (this is a protrusion of the vessel wall in the form of a rounded sac).
2. Preproliferative – characterized by an increase in the number of hemorrhages and microaneurysms, in addition, venous vascular anomalies are formed.
3. Proliferative – characterized by the presence of newly formed vessels, which are thin and fragile and often lead to hemorrhages in the eye cavity.
4. Terminal – the progression of fibrotic changes in the retina leads to traction retinal detachments, retinal tears and, ultimately, loss of vision.

Diabetic retinopathy

The main risk factors for the development of diabetic retinopathy are elevated levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), the presence of arterial hypertension and elevated blood cholesterol levels. To prevent vision loss, a patient with diabetes should be regularly examined by an endocrinologist and an ophthalmologist, even if he is not worried about anything. The frequency of inspection is from 1 time per year in the initial stages to 3-4 times or more per year in the terminal stage (individually).

Make an appointment

Diabetes mellitus and vision shrouds” before your eyes. However, not only elevated sugar levels can lead to the progression of diabetic retinopathy. So, a sharp decrease in blood sugar and episodes of low sugar (hypoglycemia) can make the process worse. In addition to controlling the level of glycemia, patients must definitely monitor the level of blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels. Patients are advised to stop smoking if they are smokers, because the nicotine contained in cigarettes has an additional adverse effect on the vessels in general and on the vessels of the retina in particular. Limiting the amount of physical activity depends on the stage of diabetic retinopathy. With non-proliferative retinopathy, the volume of restrictions is minimal and is associated, first of all, with the risk of rising blood pressure. With preproliferative retinopathy, physical activity with a sharp increase in blood pressure, boxing, as well as long-term and high-intensity exercise are contraindicated. With proliferative retinopathy, running, aerobics, weight lifting, as well as sports accompanied by a high risk of head and eye injury with a ball, puck, etc. , join the above restrictions.

There are various diagnostic methods: determination of visual acuity, measurement of intraocular pressure, microscopy of the lens and vitreous body, ophthalmoscopy with a dilated pupil, measurement of visual fields, optical coherence tomography of the retina and others.

Treatment of diabetic retinopathy

Approaches to the treatment of vision in diabetes mellitus can be divided into two groups: non-pharmacological and pharmacological (including surgical). Non-drug treatment is associated with maintaining normal blood sugar levels, blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels. In addition, excessively intense physical activity is not recommended and smoking should be stopped. All of the above approaches to control the progression of diabetic retinopathy are primarily assigned to the patient with diabetes mellitus. In addition, the treatment of vision in diabetes mellitus is carried out by ophthalmologists. One of the most common treatments is laser treatment of diabetic retinopathy (panretinal laser photocoagulation of the retina). This technique consists in laser destruction of areas of the retina with impaired nutrition, resulting in a redistribution of blood flow. This technique, over many years of monitoring patients, has proved that its timely implementation allows you to avoid blindness from diabetic retinopathy. This technique is performed in 3-4 sessions with an interval of 2-4 weeks between sessions.

Indications for laser photocoagulation of the retina are preproliferative and proliferative diabetic retinopathy and macular edema. Another method of treating vision in diabetes mellitus is vitrectomy, a surgical intervention in which the vitreous body of the eye is partially or completely removed. Indications for vitrectomy are long-term vitreous hemorrhage, retinal detachment and old vitreous fibrous changes. With macular edema with decreased vision, more and more intravitreal administration (inside the vitreous body of the eye) of special preparations is being introduced into the practice of ophthalmologists to prevent the progression of visual impairment in diabetes mellitus.