Chapter 11
IN THIS CHAPTER
Seeing how resistance training affects your strength, insulin action, and so on
Considering sets, reps, and equipment for your resistance training
Approaching resistance training correctly and safely
Building up your body core with training
Trying some simple resistance exercises
Nowadays when people say they’re too busy to fit more than one type of exercise into their lives, the best advice is to go with some resistance training. The reasons are many, but most revolve around your muscle mass — keeping it and gaining more as you fight against the effects of the inevitable march of time. Having more muscle mass also allows your insulin to work better.
This chapter gives you multiple options on how to get started with or continue doing resistance training. You can even do it at home without any special equipment. You can do it standing, seated, or, in some cases, lying down. What more can you ask for? Use good training techniques and form, and make sure you get your core strong while you’re at it for best results.
The benefits of resistance training to your health — especially if you want to live a long, healthy, and independent life — are practically endless. Your health improves because resistance training
Due to the stress of the muscles pulling on the bone, resistance training has also been shown to build stronger bones; it’s also beneficial in protecting your joints and preventing injuries by strengthening the muscles around them.
Strength gains are also the key to preventing injuries, particularly from falling. You’re more likely to fall the older you get, but as I explain later in the chapter, doing resistance training may be able to keep you on your feet.
Muscle fibers run the spectrum from being very aerobic (slow-twitch fibers) to being mainly recruited for heavy lifting or near-maximal exercise (fast-twitch fibers), and all types of fibers can exist within a single muscle. For easy work, you use only the very aerobic fibers in the muscles you’re using. But if you increase your workload, you recruit not just the slow fibers but also some of the intermediate-speed ones.
To keep your insulin working well and your diabetes better managed, you need to retain as much of your muscle mass as possible — and potentially gain more muscle. You can lose body fat at the same time even though you’re eating more and improve how well your insulin works. You can have major gains in your strength even if you train just one day a week, although training two to three nonconsecutive days a week generally works better.
Note: Although training keeps you from losing muscle, expect any noticeable gains in the amount of muscle you have to take more than six weeks. You can tell when it happens — you get more definition in your muscles when you’re working out regularly. It may take doing heavier lifting to get the full effects on muscle mass gains and insulin action (see the later section “Enhancing your insulin action and health”).
If you’re on a diet, you really, really need to resistance train. Going on a diet without exercising can cause you to lose muscle, not just fat weight. Being inactive makes the problem worse. Think of muscle atrophy as leading to a smaller gas tank to store carbohydrates that fuel active muscles; not only are you losing more muscle faster by not using it, but your smaller gas tank also remains full without doing training.
Having muscles that are packed full of glycogen makes you more resistant to insulin, whether it’s naturally released, pumped, or injected. Carbohydrates that can’t be stored in muscle or the liver raise your blood glucose and get stored as fat.
Normally when you exercise, your liver releases enough glucose to keep your blood levels optimal. The glucose travels through the bloodstream and enters the muscle cells without insulin. Having more muscle also means you burn more calories doing anything (which only adds to any calorie cutting that you may be doing with your diet).
Keeping the muscles you have as you age or gaining more muscle can help you manage your blood glucose, as well as your overall health, more effectively. For example, among older Hispanic adults with diabetes, resistance exercise improved their muscle quality, whole-body insulin action, and blood glucose management while lowering the low-level inflammation around the body often associated with heart disease.
If you’re a woman 65 years of age or older with type 2 diabetes, combining aerobic and resistance training may give you even greater improvements in your insulin action. Doing both types of training results in more gains in your muscle mass and bigger loss of abdominal fat than aerobic training alone.
Resistance training can bestow extra health benefits, such as a higher metabolism, greater self-esteem, feelings of accomplishment, and greater strength in as little as one to two weeks (from neural changes that occur before increases in muscle size). This type of training involves repetitive muscle contractions that increase the transport of glucose into your cells, leading to better sensitivity to insulin and blood glucose. These changes are good news because they have the potential to lower the total amount of medication you need.
The goal of resistance training is increased muscular fitness, both in terms of muscular strength and endurance. Muscle strength is the muscle’s ability to exert force, while muscle endurance is the muscle’s ability to continue to perform without fatigue.
Resistance training is recommended for diabetes, with age and experience as prime considerations in program development. Regardless of what you choose to do, remember that engaging in any type of resistance training is always better than doing none.
You don’t necessarily have to do resistance exercises with aerobic activity, but warming up your muscles before starting any resistance exercises is still important. The best way to warm up if you’re not also doing an aerobic workout is to go through the same motions that you’ll be using for your workout, but without any resistance. Stretching some after you warm up or after you finish working out also works as your muscles and joints are more pliable then.
You have many different options for your type of resistance and exercises. Choose among using resistance bands, free weights (dumbbells, barbells, or household items), resistance machines, or your own body weight as resistance (for example, doing planks or lunges). The main difference among the options you choose is the intensity of your training. You don’t even have to join a gym to make this type of training happen.
The following sections delve into the options you have to choose from when it comes to doing your training. You may choose one over another due to convenience, or you may simply pick one because you find it easier to start with. Whatever your reason, you can’t go wrong with doing some type of resistance training.
The benefit of using resistance bands is that they’re inexpensive, easy to use, and very easy to travel with. Some bands are like wide strips of a flexible, rubbery substance that you can grip with your hands or tie. Other bands look more like thin rubber tubing and may come with attached handles, and some are like big rubber bands or figure eights.
You can purchase resistance training bands, such as Dyna-Bands or other rubber tubing, from almost any sporting goods store, certain superstores, chain drugstores, and from multiple online sites. You can also use resistance bands sold for Pilates and other workouts to do your resistance exercises.
For many varieties of bands, you can progress your training by using ones of varying resistance (usually colored coded so that you can tell which ones offer easy, medium, or hard resistance). If you tie the band during certain exercises, use a simple bow or a square knot.
If you prefer to use more traditional dumbbells to hold in your hands during exercises, pick up an inexpensive set of small ones. If you’re just starting out, get a set that ranges from 1 to 10 pounds, or possibly a smaller range, like 1-pound, 3-pound, and 5-pound weights.
If you’re strong enough that small weights are extremely easy, you may want to either invest in a costlier set of heavier weights or consider joining the nearest gym or workout facility to have access to heavier loads and resistance machines (see the following section).
The main difference between using free weights and machines is that machines isolate and target one main muscle or muscle group at a time, while free weights also make you use your core muscles (to stand or sit upright).
The choice of whether to use free weights or resistance machines to work the same muscle groups is a personal one, but using a combination of both is one way to add variety to your workouts. Whether you do a machine that isolates your biceps muscle, for example, or use dumbbells or bars to curl up instead, your biceps muscle itself gets a similar workout.
Some people find it easier to use one or the other. Most advanced resistance workouts end up having you use some type of free weight training and not just machine exercises.
Try using full water bottles and soup cans held in your hands if you don’t have hand weights. Lifting a 5- or 10-pound bag of flour can be added resistance. Look around your house for other potential items you can use while doing your resistance work. Just watch your back and lift correctly if you start lifting your kids or grandkids.
If nothing else, start doing strength training exercises using your own body weight as resistance. It’s become a fad in recent years, so you want to consider joining in on exercises like planks, side planks, lunges, wall push-ups, chair push-ups, bridging, and many more.
Adults should ideally do resistance exercises that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance at least two (preferably three) nonconsecutive days each week. Working the same muscle groups on a daily basis doesn’t allow adequate time for recovery and muscle repair between workouts, but if you want to resistance train more than three days per week, you can alternate muscle groups when you train on consecutive days.
You can gain or maintain strength by doing anywhere from 3 to 15 repetitions (reps) per set on each exercise. Also aim for one to three sets, with at least two minutes of rest between multiple sets.
Generally, doing 8 to 12 reps and two to three sets is recommended, although you can gain strength from just doing a single set particularly if the set is a challenge for you and difficult to finish. You should feel the specific muscle or muscles working hard during the last 3 to 4 reps in each set. Try to do each exercise to the point where you’d have trouble doing even one more rep without help, at least on the final set.
The actual resistance you should be using is usually determined by your 1-repetition maximum (1-RM), or the most weight you can lift just one time. This number is particularly important to know if you’re using free weights or resistance machines, but it’s less critical if you’re using various resistance bands or your own body weight as resistance.
To be truly effective, your training should be either moderate (50 percent 1-RM) or vigorous (75 to 80 percent 1-RM) for optimal gains in strength and insulin action. But doing lighter work still brings you some gains and may be the place to start if you’re really out of shape or haven’t resistance trained for a long time.
Here are a few tips as you start resistance training:
If you’re just starting out or returning to resistance work after an extended period without doing any, start out on the lower end of the intensity scale to help prevent injuries as you begin to work out more regularly. Your frequency, number of exercises, and repetitions should slowly increase until you’re up to doing 10 to 12 exercises on three nonconsecutive days per week.
If you vary your routine it will make your exercise more fun over time and work a variety of muscles, making it a better choice. Making progress in terms of your resistance, either by using heavier weights or by increasing the number of repetitions and sets, is also important.
Mix it up with some easy days, where you do more reps with lighter weights, and some hard days, when you lift heavier weights fewer times. When you do each depends on how motivated you feel on a given day and how much time you have to train.
If you stop overloading your muscles, your strength gains will plateau or start reversing. When you can do more than the number of reps you’re aiming for (that is, if you can do 13 or more reps on your hardest set when your goal is 8 to 12), you’re ready to increase the weight or resistance.
To avoid injury, progress slowly in intensity, frequency, and duration of training sessions. Most progressive resistance training has you increase weight or resistance first — and only after you can consistently exceed the target number of repetitions per set — followed by a greater number of sets and lastly by increased training frequency.
For most people, progressing over six months to training three times per week is appropriate. On those days, you do three sets of 8 to 10 repetitions at 75 to 80 percent of 1-RM on eight to ten exercises.
If you have joint limitations or other health complications, simply aim to complete one set of exercises for all your major muscle groups. Start with 10 to 15 reps and progress to 15 to 20 reps before adding extra sets.
Getting stronger and fitter with resistance training requires you to know what to do and how to do it. Using bad form or the wrong technique can get you injured. Picking the right plan to follow is also important.
Perform each exercise using slow, controlled motions and a full range of motion. That means you should move your joints gently and slowly through the entire range of whatever motion you’re doing, but don’t push past the point of comfort. As you increase your flexibility, your range of motion increases.
If you move too quickly, momentum takes over, and you lose some of the benefits of working against gravity. Good posture helps ensure that your joints and muscles are in correct alignment and that you’re getting maximum benefit from the exercises.
When you’re resistance training, be sure to breathe out during the exertion part of each exercise. If you can’t perform the exercise without holding your breath, it’s too hard, and you need to use less resistance. Holding your breath increases your blood pressure.
If you want to get the most out of your training, follow a plan like the one in Table 11-1. It needs to progress appropriately so you get as much benefit from it as you can.
TABLE 11-1 Progressive Resistance Training for Diabetes
Week |
Training Day 1 (%1-RM) |
Training Day 2 (%1-RM) |
1 |
Baseline 1-RM testing |
50%, 1 set, 10–15 reps |
2 |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
3 |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
4 |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
50%, 1–2 sets, 10–15 reps |
5 |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
6 |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
7 |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
8 |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
60%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
9 |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
10 |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
11 |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
12 |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
13 |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
14 |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
15 |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
70–80%, 1–2 sets, 8–10 reps |
16 |
70–80%, 2–3 sets, 8–10 reps |
70–80%, 2–3 sets, 8–10 reps |
Select strengthening exercises that involve the major muscle groups in your upper body, lower body, and core. These groups include your back, legs, hips, chest, shoulders, arms, and abdomen. If you work the muscles on one side of a joint, make sure to work the ones on the other side as well (like biceps and triceps muscles in the upper arm or the quadriceps and hamstring muscles in your thighs).
Some sample resistance training exercises include
For ideas on other exercises to include in your training regimen, see the following section and Chapter 21.
Core stability training is a series of exercises aimed at developing strength in abdominal and low back areas, or the body core. Your core strength allows you to stabilize yourself during all types of movement and prevent falls and other injury during motion.
Core strength and stability training are components of physical health that often get overlooked with aging and weight gain. Having a strong body core is the key to being able to get around when you’re older and take care of yourself. Maintaining a strong core also improves your ability to do walking and other everyday activities.
Core training can greatly benefit your health while making you more fit by
Strengthening your core lowers your risk of falling, even if you have nerve damage in your feet that makes you less stable. When you’ve experienced even one fall that injures you, you may become less active to avoid falling again, even though being inactive increases your risk of falling. Start training now to stay active later.
Many core exercises use only your own body weight as resistance, with no special equipment needed. By figuring out which exercises you can easily do on your own, you equip yourself to stay strong and agile enough to live independently throughout your lifetime.
Although many core exercises are possible to do depending on how fit you are, some examples targeting the hips, lower back, and abdominal muscles are
You may need to follow some precautions when doing resistance training with diabetes or prediabetes. You want to gain benefits from being more active, not get injured or demotivated. You can stay safe, but you may need to be more careful than someone who doesn’t have diabetes to contend with during training.
You can do quite a few exercises using your own body weight as your resistance, which is the trendy way to train anyway. Try some or all of these exercises at home or at work to get stronger.
Do the exercise shown in Figure 11-1 to build strength in your legs and torso. (This is also great practice to ensure you can get off the toilet on your own as you age.)
You can build more strength in your arms and upper body practicing the move shown in Figure 11-2. This is an easy move to do while you’re at work without anyone noticing.
Sit in a chair and grasp the arms of the chair.
If you don’t have a chair with arms, hold onto the sides of the chair.
While easier to do than sit-ups while on your back, the chair version of sit-ups shown in Figure 11-3 can still increase the strength in your torso. Try this at work or at home.
Push-ups against a wall (as shown in Figure 11-4) are easier to do than normal push-ups, but this is a great place to start if you haven’t been doing any at all. If you are unable to stand, skip this exercise.
This exercise (shown in Figure 11-5) helps build up strength in the back of your thighs. Stand up and do this at different times during the day to take an exercise break from sitting.
Increasing the strength in your calves doing the exercise shown in Figure 11-6 will help you walk up any stairs with more power. It also doubles as a way to improve your balance ability (see Chapter 12). For a more challenging exercise, stand with your toes on the edge of a step when you do these. Holding a weighted object, like a dumbbell or full water bottle, in one or both hands can also increase your workout.
3.147.73.35