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The Free Fitness
Tips Newsletter - July 2008
brought to you by
http://www.freefitnesstips.co.uk/
*****
The Free Fitness Tips Newsletter -
July 2008 is sponsored by:
*****
Hello there and welcome to the July
2008 Free Fitness Tips Newsletter. This month I have
been finishing off my in depth coverage of
diabetes. My original intention was to finish my diabetes
articles at the start of this month and then publish some articles
on cancer towards the end of the month. However, once again
time got the better of me and only the diabetes articles got
completed. Even so there's still lots of great content in this
month's newsletter which I have outlined in the list below:
1)
Featured Article
As I've
already said this month I finished off my series of diabetes
articles. My pick f the bunch this month is 'Managing Diabetes
with Exercise' which discusses in depth how exercise can help keep
your diabetes under control...
Manage Diabetes with Exercise
In my
previous article I discussed how important
diet can be when controlling your
diabetes. However, exercise can also be a very important factor
when treating diabetes. In this article I will discuss how exercise
can help control your diabetes, the precautions you should take when
exercising and finally which exercises are the most effective at
fighting diabetes.
So how does
exercise help control your diabetes? Well it actually helps in
multiple ways. I have outlined three of the most important below:
1) BETTER BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL:- When you exercise you
need more energy. Your muscles burn
glucose to get this energy and as a result your blood sugar
levels are reduced. Therefore, exercise can act as an effective
substitute for
insulin. In fact in certain cases involving
type 2 diabetics, exercise has removed the need for insulin
injections and medication completely.
2) IMPROVED INSULIN SENSITIVITY:- According to
this article, exercise can improve insulin sensitivity in type 2
diabetics. Since one of the primary problems amongst diabetics is
the body not getting enough insulin, this is another fantastic way
in which exercise can help control your diabetes.
3) IMPROVED WEIGHT CONTROL:- Exercise helps you to
lose weight in two ways. Firstly,
cardiovascular exercise burns extra calories both during and
after your workout. According to
this article you can burn up to 15% more calories in the 48
hours following a cardiovascular workout. That means by doing a
cardiovascular training session every other day you can be
constantly burning up to 15% more calories, plus you will burn even
more calories when you are actually doing the exercise.
Secondly,
resistance training can help you lose weight because muscle
requires more calories to maintain than fat. By increasing your
muscle mass through resistance training you can increase the total
amount of calories your body burns each day. The actual amount of
calories muscle burns has been heavily exaggerated in the past but
according to
this article a pound of muscle can burn around 6 calories per
day compared with a pound of fat which burns 2 calories per day.
Combining
cardiovascular training with resistance training can therefore be a
very effective way to burn excess calories and control your body
weight. But why is this important for your diabetes?
Well
according to
this article from Dlife excess body fat makes your body more
resistant to insulin so keeping your body fat levels under control
is essential if you want to stay on top of your diabetes.
As you can
see exercise can be a really effective form of diabetes treatment.
Not only does it help lower your blood sugar levels but it also
improves your body’s resistance to insulin and helps keep your body
weight under control. However, there are a number of precautions
that you need to take before starting your exercise program:
1) MONITOR YOUR BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS:- As I have already
stated, exercise can help reduce your blood sugar levels which is
generally a good thing for diabetics. However, this is not always
the case. If you have not eaten enough or you have taken insulin or
medication prior to exercising, your blood sugar levels may be low
already. In this instance, exercise could lower your blood sugar to
hypoglycaemic levels. Furthermore, intense exercise can actually
have the opposite effect by causing your body to release stress
hormones which increase blood sugar levels. Therefore, it is highly
important that you monitor your blood sugar levels before, during
and after exercise.
2) CARRY GLUCOSE AND INSULIN:- You should carry
glucose and insulin at all times when exercising because (as
outlined above) your blood sugar levels can fluctuate massively.
Intense exercise can cause your blood sugar levels to rise rapidly
meaning you may require insulin or medication. Contrastingly,
prolonged exercise can cause your blood sugar levels to fall meaning
that you may need a quick fix of glucose during or after exercise.
3) STAY HYDRATED:- Dehydration can cause your blood
sugar levels to rise and affect your performance whilst exercising.
Therefore, it is highly important that you drink lots of water to
keep yourself hydrated throughout your workout.
4) CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR:- It is recommended that you
talk to your doctor before embarking on any exercise program BUT it
is even more important when you are suffering from diabetes because
the consequences of not exercising properly can be much more severe.
Make sure that you inform your doctor of the type of exercise
program you wish to participate in and ask them if there are any
additional precautions that you should take. They will then be able
to tell you if you need to combine any foods and/or medication with
your exercise plan and provide further recommendations to allow you
to exercise safely.
So now that
you know the benefits of exercise and the precautions to take you
should be ready to get started. But how much exercise should you be
doing and what types of exercise are best? Ideally you should try
and do at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. If this is not
possible try and make sure you are doing at least 30 minutes of
exercise every other day. The actual exercise (as I have mentioned
above) should be a combination of cardiovascular exercise and
resistance training:
1) CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE:- This type of exercise
focuses on improving your aerobic fitness which increases the amount
of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles and allows them to work
for longer. Cardiovascular exercise is also a great way to stimulate
the burning of glucose (which lowers your blood sugar levels) and
control your weight (which makes your body more receptive to
insulin). When it comes to cardiovascular exercise you have many
choices including; jogging, walking, swimming, cycling and team
sports.
2) RESISTANCE TRAINING:- This type of exercise focuses
on strengthening the muscles, either through
bodyweight training or through the use of weights (in the form
of free weights or machine weights). Apart from increasing your
muscle mass and helping you control body fat levels, resistance
training has also been linked with the treatment of diabetes.
According to the study in
this article 16 weeks of resistance training produced
improvements in glucose control amongst Hispanic men and women, that
were so significant they could be compared with taking diabetes
medication.
Along with
diet, regular exercise is a great way to treat diabetes naturally.
By doing a combination of cardiovascular training and resistance
training you can really keep your condition under control and maybe
even remove the need for insulin injections or medication
completely. As long as you stick to your program, exercise
regularly, stay sensible and take the necessary precautions,
exercise can be a great weapon in your fight against diabetes.
Whilst every
intention has been made to make this article accurate and
informative, it is intended for general information only. Diabetes
is a medical condition and this article is not intended as a
substitute for the advice of your doctor or a qualified medical
practitioner. Before making any lifestyle changes you should always
seek your doctors advice. If you have any concerns regarding any
form of diabetes then you should speak to your doctor right away.
Sources:
Blood Sugar/Glucose Information
Diabetes and Exercise Information
Does Exercise without Weight Loss Improve Insulin Sensitivity?
Exercise for Diabetics Information
How Many Calories Does Muscle Really Burn?
Hypoglycaemia Information
Insulin Information
Type 2 Diabetes and Exercise Information
2)
Free Fitness Tips Blog Updates
This month only the diabetes section
of the blog was updated with the following new articles being added:
-
Manage Diabetes with Exercise (This month's featured article)
-
6 Steps for Treating Diabetes Effectively
-
7 Types of Damage Caused by Diabetes
-
The link between Diabetes and Fitness
3)
Featured Fitness Blog Post
This month's featured fitness blog
post is entitled 'Planks
And Vacuum Stomach: All You Need For Your Abs' and comes from
Helder Luis's
Fitness Fat
Burning blog. I chose this article quite simply because it
contains an abdominal exercise I have never heard of before -
'vacuum stomach' and I wanted to share this unique exercise with my
readers. I've Helder's abdominal workout a couple of times
since reading so it's too early for me to comment on the results but
boy is it tough. Anyway, without further ado I present to
you...
Planks and Vacuum Stomach: All You Need For Your Abs
I have
been away for a few days, i’ve been spending some days at the
beach, the weather is hot, summer is on its way, and i just love
the beach, the football euro championship also started and so
far so good, Portugal won the first two matches and the quality
of the tournament is being good.
Anyway
being at the beach made me want to write about six pack
abs, i wish lots of people could have a nice six pack
to show, but that’s not the case. Most people still keep doing
all things wrong when it comes to abdominal training. At the
gym or at the park i still see most people doing hundreds of
crunches and leg raises, hoping to burn belly fat with that. At
the gym i see another thing that i think it’s even worse, i see
trainees doing those exercises with weights and that’s a very
very bad idea.
I’ll
start telling you why it’s a bad idea, because using weights
will make your abs grow, and that will make you look bloated,
your belly will be big and thick, and you don’t want that, what
you want is a thin waist and defined abs.
Doing
hundreds of reps will also do you no good, high reps don’t give
muscles any definition, and it won’t burn fat, so stop waisting
your time for nothing. First of all to have defined abs you need
to be under 10% of body fat, and to do that you need to eat
right and to do your cardio. To know more about cardio to burn
fat see
http://fitnessfatburning.com/hiit-for-fat-burning/
This
post won’t be about nutrition, but eating right means, no
saturated fats and a low carb diet. If you need to lose a lot of
fat, make it a low caloric diet too. Drink a lot of water, at
least 2 L per day, eat lots of veggies, make veggies the center
of your diet, also eat good protein and healthy fats, the best
source that combines both is fish.
Now the
abdominal training, i only do two exercises and i believe it’s
all anyone needs. The first one is the plank, you get in the
push ups position, but instead of supporting your body with your
hands, you do it with your forearms, keep your body tight and
try to hold the position at least for 30 seconds if your a
beginner. Try to add more time everyday, and to do more sets.
Vacuum
stomach is an exercise that works the inner muscles of the
abdominal wall, and those muscles when strong help you to reach
your goal of a thin waist. In this exercise you pull your
stomach in like if you wanted to gather your stomach with your
back,try to keep your abs tight. Try to hold it for 30 seconds,
like with the planks try to add seconds and sets everyday.
You’ll feel tempted to hold your breath, but you can breath
and should.
Both
exercises are isometrics and they’ll make your abs toned and
defined, but to get them visible don’t forget, you need to burn
that belly fat, and for that, the most important is what you
eat, how you eat, and cardio.
Good
luck, be patient and persistent, you’ll get there.
Source:
Planks And Vacuum Stomach: All You Need For Your Abs
-----
Top marks to Helder for his unique
twist on the abdominal workout. You can read more articles on
fitness and fat burning at his
Fitness Fat
Burning Blog. It's quite a new blog but Helder's passion
and knowledge in the fitness field really comes through in his
writing. I recommend you check it out.
4) Free Fitness Tips Ebook
This month's free ebook is one that I
wrote quite but just never got round to releasing until now...
75
Exciting Exercise Tips
As you can probably guess this ebook
contains 75 exercise tips which will hopefully help you spice up
your workouts. Below are five sample tips:
-----
1) GO TO THE ZOO:-
Going to the zoo provides you with a fun day out and lots of walking
to get some exercise.
2) CONSTRUCTION:-
Putting together buildings and bridges is a great form of exercise.
If you choose the right project it can also be great fun too.
3) VOLUNTEERING:-
Volunteering very rarely involves sitting down doing desk work. It
is usually quite a physical task such as walking a dog, moving boxes
etc. It’s therefore another opportunity to exercise and can also
allow you to meet new friends.
4) BABY SIT:-
Young children are usually hard work. If you baby sit and play games
with them you will burn some additional calories.
5) DECORATE:-
If your house needs decorating, doing it yourself is a great
opportunity to do it yourself and burn some calories. Alternatively,
you can use special occasions as an opportunity to decorate your
house. If you are throwing a party, or if it’s Christmas, Easter
etc, get the decorations out and spruce the place up. The moving
about will help you burn some calories.
-----
The ebook
also come with full giveaway rights so feel free to pass it on to
family, friends, website visitors or whoever else you think may find
it useful.
Click Here to Download
75 Exciting Exercise Tips!
5) Final Words
Well another month has come to a close
and once again I haven't added nearly as much content as I expected
to the
Free Fitness Tips blog. Next month I'm going to make a
start on my series of cancer articles which will explain the various
types of cancer and the measures you can take to reduce your risk of
contracting them. How many articles I actually manage to
complete is anyone's guess :-) Thanks for reading.
Until next time,
Tom Parker (Owner and Creator of Free
Fitness Tips)
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July 2008 is sponsored by:
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