The benefits of Squats for D control.

[ADSOFT]

Diabetic control is all about burning Glucose Control.

Now the body burns glucose in two ways:

Muscle Physiology - Glucose Metabolism (http://muscle.ucsd.edu/musintro/glucose.shtml)


How Glucose is Converted to Energy (http://www.carbs-information.com/glucose-energy.htm)


1) Anarobic Metabolism:

Muscles just burning energy when you are sitting there.


2) Aerobic Metabolism:

Muscles burning energy when you are moving.



Now Aerobic Metabolism burns 5 times more energy than Anaerobic metoabolism. Unfortionatley, people hear this and start going to the gym and over do Aerobics, consequently they have used up all quick energy in there stomachs and liver (glycogen) and endup going to the fast food store and instead of losing weight, they gain weight.

So the question how can I burn off the fat and extra glucose in my blood w/o empting my tank with aerobics and feeling so run down that I have to go to McDonalds on the way home. Hence, I just put more energy(glucose) back into my system.

Well the answer is Anerobic excerise. Anaerobic excercise is building muscle tone so that you take advantage of the fact that toned muscles need to burn energy(glucose) just to sit there and stay toned. The nice thing about toning your muscles is that you don't have to empty your tank building them up. So getting your muscles toned doesn't require you having to McDonalds as much as Aerobics after every workout. And most importantly, toned muscles are burning glucose 24/7 unlike aerobic metabolism which is burning energy when you are moving.

So what is an easy way to build muscle mass??

Well first of all if you want to build muscle mass or muscle tone, you probobly want to do it as effiecient as possible since most people are very busy nowadays. So obviously you want to concentrate on the largest muscle group in your body.

What is that group?

Your Legs, Thighs, Buttocks and Lower Back.

What is a great excercise to build this group with out haveing to go to the gym, put on my workout chlothes, have to go out to McDonald's or the frig because I emptied my Tank.

Squats! Squat WITH NO WEIGHTS.

Yep simple squats will build your legs, thighs, buttocks and lower back. And, people with D. usually do a lot of sitting so the benifits of having a strong back and burning energy just sitting there are just what the Doctor ordered.

So here is my recommendation.

Do 15 squats 3 times a day or 3 x 15 as weight lifters put it.

But start with 10 squats 3 times the first day because you will see that if you over do it the first day you will be very sore and might not even be able to walk for 3 days; That's that power behind this excercise.

3 x 15 each day and try to build up to 3 x15 three(3) times a day.

If you do this your legs, thighs, butt, and lower back will be stronger. Stronger muscles, mean more muscle tone, which means Glucose burning on 24/7 hourly basis. And it will slowly burn the enery from your fat reserves (love handles) or the food you eat.

Aerobics is great and you should do it at least 3 times a week, but if you think that just doing a aerobics is going to get you to loss weight and drop your glucose numbers 24/7 YOU WILL BE SADLY MISTAKEN. Aerobics will make you hungery right after excercise because it burns the energy too fast, so your body has no choice but force to eat something because it takes too long to breakdown fat to glucose.

But, Anearobic will burn build your muscles and hence increase your bodies glucose burning slowly without making you hungry. See Aerobics doesn't build muscle mass, or at least not as much as resistance triaining(Weights, squats, muscle tone), so the energy burning of Aerobics is only temporary. But if you concentrate on building muscle tone you get the benefits 24/7.

Of course if you want to do other excercises to build your legs, thighs, buttocks, and lower back, that is highly recomended.

But the point is that Anaerobic Metabolism through muslce tone and resistance training should be part of your D management strategy. Burning more Glucose without eating more is what its all about. And resistance training does that.

I like squats because it keep my lower back strong, and I'm on the computer all time.

But girls should really like it since thighs and buttocks are problem areas and what girl doesn't want a nice firm butt.

Oh and I forgot to mention. Water helps metabolism. Drink at least 1/2 cup of water with every meal. As a matter of fact I drink 1/2 cup of water after doing my squats believe it or not, sometimes I get a little hungry after doing squats instead of going to the frig, I drink water. I'm not a doctor but what I think happens is the water help my body start burning those love handles :D

Here's more on drinking water and raising your metabolism:

Twelve Ways to Revive and Boost Your Metabolism (http://thyroid.about.com/cs/dietweightloss/a/12ways.htm)

[Scratch]

I don't think the definitions of aerobic and anaerobic are very good, and that which is extrapolated from the defintions doesn't match up very well with what's known. Squats are still an excellent exercise though.

Aerobic metabolism refers to energy that needs oxygen. Anaerobic is energy that is burned without oxygen.

Burning fat requires oxygen. You can burn glucose without oxygen with an anaerobic chemical reaction.

Squatting is highly anearobic because of how it uses glucose to feed the muscle fibers that get recruited.

Don't get me wrong. Squats are a wonderfully effective exercise, but your hypothetical model of how they are doing what they do is a bit flawed.

[ADSOFT]

I don't think the definitions of aerobic and anaerobic are very good, and that which is extrapolated from the defintions doesn't match up very well with what's known. Squats are still an excellent exercise though.

Aerobic metabolism refers to energy that needs oxygen. Anaerobic is energy that is burned without oxygen.

Burning fat requires oxygen. You can burn glucose without oxygen with an anaerobic chemical reaction.

Squatting is highly anearobic because of how it uses glucose to feed the muscle fibers that get recruited.

Don't get me wrong. Squats are a wonderfully effective exercise, but your hypothetical model of how they are doing what they do is a bit flawed.


Well first of I have to edit that post, and they only give 10 seconds after posting it, I'm still waiting to hear from the adminsitrator.

I kind of threw that together with the intention of rifing it and not losing my train of thought. It was a brainstorm that has to be edited is what I'm getting at.

Anyhow, to answer your question.

When your doing the squats, yes it's an aerobic but most mostly resistive excercise. Resistive excercises build muscle mass. So after you are done, you have more muscle tone and muscle mass, hence it increases your anaerobic metabolism.

..not trying to be wise-guy that is a simple as I can put it.

[A_Darling]

Aerobic exercise to lose weight requires a good diet and self-control. No McDonald's, just have a protein recovery shake after exercise.

I do agree with you about use the legs/butt/back to burn off calories, that's exactly why I ride my bike. IMO bicycling is the best exercise, great aerobics and you can push into the anaerobic zone very easily by doing sprints and intervals.

[ADSOFT]

Aerobic exercise to lose weight requires a good diet and self-control. No McDonald's, just have a protein recovery shake after exercise.

I do agree with you about use the legs/butt/back to burn off calories, that's exactly why I ride my bike. IMO bicycling is the best exercise, great aerobics and you can push into the anaerobic zone very easily by doing sprints and intervals.

I could never do aerobic, because I would always pig out. After looking up gucose metabolism I know why weights always kept my muscles tip top shape. I would get tired easy though, because I've always hated walking and running.

[ADSOFT]

I might have mentioned it the original post but I'm going to mention it again.

Many people with D sit for long periods of time. I keep reading about people getting tinglingness in their feet, thighs, legs etc.

Usaually it's not neuropathy, but squats will help strengthen your back and reduce that pain or at least allow you to sit longer wiithout pain.

Yet, nobody, even a healthy person should be in sitting in the same position for longer than 2 1/2 hrs. You can develop a blood clot. Many people who are on long flights, know of the dangers of sitting in a plane for more 2 1/2 hrs( it might be more like 4 1/2 hrs) but I'm being conservative.

You should be getting up and doing some walking every 1 1/2hrs max if you are sitting. It improves circulation and helps keep you from getting stiff and/or aggrivating nerves.

[ADSOFT]

Burning fat requires oxygen.

Don't get me wrong. Squats are a wonderfully effective exercise, but your hypothetical model of how they are doing what they do is a bit flawed.

Hmmm, I've been reading on fat burning. You might need oxegen, but it doesn't mean that you have to be moving( i.e, excercising or walking).

It turns out that the liver stores energy(glycogen ... or something like that) so that it can be released when sugar in the blood drops too low. And Muscles also store sugar in them but not as much.

However, when the reserves in the liver runout, some other chemicals in body, I think it's glucogen, start getting released to burn fat and turn it to glucose.

So, having more muscle mass, BURNS FAT, by just sitting around. The more toned muscle in your system the more fat you will burn, and if you exercise after a meal to burn the glucose stored in your muscles it will use the sugar in your blood first!!!.

Well there you go, more muscle will allow you to eat a little more carbs and sugar if you decided to do some walking or moderate excercise after a meal.

And I'm willing to bet, if you do some squats before a meal your BG will return to normal faster, since the muscles burn the glucose stored in them prior to getting glucose from the liver.

[fairyblood]

And, people with D. usually do a lot of sitting [/url]

Thats a pretty big assumption to make. As a non-diabetic I would be careful what you say.

[ADSOFT]

Thats a pretty big assumption to make. As a non-diabetic I would be careful what you say.

I work closely in the auto sales industry, lots of diabetics there. They do tons of sitting down, and many people develope D because of sedentary life style changes, heavy diet no time to excercise. .... that's why I said that, didn't mean to offend anyone.


I'm probobly Pre-D myself. I do tons of sitting and stopped excercising. If I don't get on it soon, I will get full blown D. ... it's knocking on the door.

30 lbs Overweight
165/102 BP
45+ yrs old
Trigs borderline High.
Mom diabetic,
Can't excercise much due to back. Can't even take out the trash.
On computer 8-10hrs a day.


You do the math.

[xMenace]

I'm struggling with re-starting some weight training. Squats are my favorite exercise too. I've always had better BGs when I was weight training; however, during the past three years my eyes have tended to bleed. Still, I wanna get at it again. I think I'll start real light.

[jps]

I agree that squats are great exercises.

I'm not in tip top shape, but after 15 years of being very sedentary (after being a very fit athlete for a dozen years prior to that), I find myself in a good spot thanks to exercise in general. Some cardio, some weights, some sports, some jogging, some bicycling - just basically staying active. I'm at my optimal weight, but I'd like to build a little more muscle mass and shed a bit more fat. I'd like to get down to about 12-14% body fat.

I have the P90X program which many people swear by. I haven't attempted all of it yet and I don't know that I'll follow it as directed. I might take bits and pieces out of it and just incorporate it into my weekly routine. I tried one part of the program the other night, called Plyometrics - which is basically non-stop aerobic activity for about an hour and it incorporates a lot of jumping. I was able to get through it without too much of a problem. It was a great workout. But the next day, boy was my lower body sore. Felt great.

This one exercise looked simple but really left me burning. Basically a squat with jumping in there. Get down almost in a "catcher" position, on your toes, but with your butt a little bit elevated so it's not resting on your legs, reach up, thrust yourself into a jump, land back on your toes and go back into that catcher position. I don't know how many times he repeated it, but it did leave the legs a bit wobbly when I finished.

I realize that because of the physical limitations on some people, stuff like this could be too difficult. But I'm liking what I'm seeing from the program.

[ADSOFT]

Yep I used to be very active, workout every 3 days religiously. Never had a pain in the world, bodywise :lol:


At 42 I thought I was turning into a fanatic, most people around me didn't excercise, so I stopped cold Turkey. Love computers and the internet and programing. Decided I was never going to excercise again because I didn't really need it. Wanted to be on the computer 10 -12 hrs a day and just sleep. Not even streach.

1 -1/2 to 2 yrs later developed neck strain, my shoulders started twisting. Just went down hill from there.

The only thing that saved me was that I ate healthy, not much water till about a 1 1/2 yrs ago when I had to go to the hospital 911, due to dehydration.

Prior to the 911 I would go to work and fall asleep on the desk.

If it wern't for diet and water, I probobly wouldn't be here. It still hard for me to get to the gym.

I didn't even know what ANAEROBIC was till I started this thread, but I always liked weight lifting better than aerobics.

Now, I know why it works. :D