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Home » Exercise » Workout Videos » Workouts for Improved Insulin Sensitivity (Workout Videos)

Christel OerumBy Christel Oerum on January 4, 2020, Updated March 18, 2020
Workout Videos

Workouts for Improved Insulin Sensitivity (Workout Videos)

Whether you live with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, prediabetes or any other type of diabetes, you can benefit from improving your insulin sensitivity.

The four workout videos in this post can help you do just that.

Your insulin sensitivity is how effective your body is at using the insulin it produces (if you have insulin production) or you inject. The better your insulin sensitivity is, the less insulin, Metformin, or other diabetes drugs do you need to manage your blood sugars.

Improving your insulin sensitivity can make your overall diabetes management easier in both the short and the long run, and exercising is one of the most effective ways of improving your insulin sensitivity.

Workouts for Improved Insulin Sensitivity

The workouts in this post are resistance training workouts. Resistance training simply means that you put your muscles under tension. This can be done using your own body weight or external resistance such as dumbbells or resistance bands.

If you’re new to resistance training, I suggest you start with the home bodyweight workout (video 1). When that’s no longer challenging, move on to using resistance bands or weights.

 

Instructions

I will demonstrate each exercise and tell you how many sets and reps to do, typically 3 sets of 10-15 or 12-15 repetitions (reps) for each exercise.

That means that you’ll do one exercise for 10-15 or 12-15 reps, rest for 30-60 seconds, do 10-15 or 12-15 more reps, rest again, and then do the last set of reps.

The reason why I’m giving you a range is that you should pick a weight that really challenges you but still allows you to do the target reps. For example, If you can only do 9 reps, the weight is too heavy, and if you can easily bang out 15, it is too light.

Of course, you probably don’t have dumbbells of every different weight at home, so use whatever you have. If you only have light dumbbells and 15 reps feel too easy, just keep going for as many reps as you can.

When you do resistance workouts, please remember that you may see an impact on your insulin sensitivity 24-36 hours after your workout, so be diligent about watching your blood sugars. If you aren’t used to resistance workouts, I really recommend you read my post about how resistance training affects your blood sugar before you do this workout.

And always listen to your body and stop if you feel pain. If you’re not used to exercising and doing a whole workout in one go is too much, just break it up into smaller sessions.

4 sessions of 5 minutes are just as effective as one session of 20 minutes. 

 

The Workouts

Home (Low Impact) Bodyweight Workout

Home Resistance band Workout

Home Dumbbell Workout

Gym Workout

If you liked these workout videos, please sign up for our newsletter (and get a free chapter from the Fit With Diabetes eBook) using the form below. We send out a weekly newsletter with the latest posts and recipes from Diabetes Strong.

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Categories: Workout Videos

Christel Oerum

About Christel Oerum

Christel is the founder of Diabetes Strong. She is a Certified Personal Trainer specializing in diabetes. As someone living with type 1 diabetes, Christel is particularly passionate about helping others with diabetes live active healthy lives. She’s a diabetes advocate, public speaker, and author of the popular diabetes book Fit With Diabetes.

View all posts by Christel Oerum

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Avatarmadhu chennu says

    July 15, 2020 at 4:33 am

    Thank you for sharing this wonderful article. These workouts are really super and different.

    Reply
  2. AvatarTrisha says

    March 3, 2020 at 3:02 am

    How can I save these workout?

    Reply
    • Tobias OerumTobias Oerum says

      March 3, 2020 at 12:56 pm

      You can’t save them to your computer but you can bookmark this page in your internet browser so you can watch them whenever you like.

      Reply
  3. AvatarOscar Rodriguez says

    January 6, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    Thank you for writing about exercises that increase your sugar levels. I have been boxing for two years now, four to six times aweek. After each hour long session I would come home to find my sugars at 150. If I ate anything my sugars would go up. Usually my sugars are at 80-110. I didn’t understand how my HITT like work outs were making my sugars higher, and how my low intensity jogging work outs were doing the opposite. Male 36 type 2 since I was diagnosed at 10 yrs old. I am not on any medication. I had the gastric by pass surgery in 2010 and my a1c went down to 5.2 after that medical surgery.

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      January 6, 2020 at 6:31 pm

      Congratulations on all you have achieved!
      What you describe is very typical blood sugar responses to anaerobic versus aerobic exercise. You could try and eat a small snack prior to your boxing sessions to see if that helps with the increase. It could be predominantly protein.
      But I personally wouldn’t worry too much a about the 150 mg/dl reading and your blood sugar most likely comes down quickly after you’re done

      Reply
  4. AvatarMonica says

    January 5, 2020 at 6:38 am

    Cristel, I just wanted to say “thanks for your generosity and love” I have had T1 for 17 years and have been battling alone. Your challenge has been great and reading your posts and emails. I will buy your book soon, it’s totally worth it. Blessings and happiness always!!!

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      January 5, 2020 at 3:57 pm

      Oh my gosh, you’re very welcome! I’m so glad the challenge has such a positive impact. I didn’t find the diabetes community until relatively late in my “diabetes life” and I agree that it’s a gamechanger. No one should have to do this alone

      Reply
  5. AvatarGeetha says

    January 5, 2020 at 5:24 am

    How can I save these workout?

    Reply
    • Christel OerumChristel Oerum says

      January 5, 2020 at 3:55 pm

      You can bookmark the page. We won’t delete them any day soon so you can always come back and watch them again

      Reply

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