Exercise matters!One of the major causes of onset of Diabetes is stress which can be physical and psychological in nature. Exercise can definitely help reduce this stress by lowering stress hormones in the body like adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine. Exercise also helps control blood sugar levels. Excess sugar in the blood occurs because either the body doesn't use insulin appropriately or cannot produce enough insulin to process it.In both the cases, exercise can reduce the sugar in your blood. When you're exercising muscles can use sugar without insulin. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're insulin resistant or if you don't have enough insulin. When you exercise, your muscles get the sugar they need, and in turn, your blood glucose level goes down.In the case of insulin resistance, exercise actually makes your insulin more effective. This means your insulin resistance goes down when you exercise, and your cells can use the glucose more effectively.But even after knowing so much about the effects of exercise on Diabetes, we still struggle with shortage of time to exercise. Studies have proven that the results of exercise are same if you exercise for a long duration at a stretch or exercise multiple times in a day for a shorter duration. Exercising multiple times in a day could help full-time working individuals who cannot devote hours in the gymnasium.Tips for workplace workoutsFollowing are few tips which can be used at the workplace to achieve similar results as hitting the gymnasium.While working on the computers, you can stretch your arms and legs for few seconds, knees can be straightened alternately, the spine can be elongated to the most erect position. All these exercises when done every 2 hourly will take care of your flexibility.To do something similar to cardio exercise, try using the stairs instead of elevators. You can climb a 2-3 flights of stairs at your maximum speed for around 2-3 times a day. This increases your heart rate as well as the breathing rate. The more you climb better is your stamina..For improving the strength of muscles, you can make use of the bottle of water or stack of papers. Depending on the availability, you can hold this and do the shoulder and elbow movements for 10 counts each, like moving shoulders up and down, out and in. You can also do chair push-ups wherein you have to hold the handles of the chair and lift yourself up for 10 counts. All these can be done while you are reading on the computer or going through the files.Nowadays the new trend in office is to sit on a stability ball instead of a usual chair. This helps to activate your core abdominal muscles. These muscles are very important in preventing a bad posture or a low backache in long run.'Chair abs exercise' can also be done. These are simple exercises wherein you sit on a chair and get both the knees close to the chest. The same can be done with the alternate legs for 10 times each. While sitting on a chair you can bend down and touch your toes, while coming up straightened your spine completely. 'Active Breaks' every half an hour involve getting up and moving around in the office. To do this you can have a small water bottle instead of a big bottle so that you have to refill it many times or you can keep your water bottle away from the desk so that every time you want to drink water you are going to walk that distance If you are coming by your vehicle, try and park your vehicle as away from the main entrance so that you walk that distance and be active.It is good to have an exercise buddy at the office. You can have a healthy competition with your buddy as to who sticks to the exercise schedule the most.Instead of sitting and chatting you can walk and chat. This not only helps you but the other individual as well..These are some small tips that can be easily applied in our busy work schedule. Though his looks very simple it helps to keep you active even though you are a sedentary individual. When you don't do any form of exercise, these small walks and movements do a lot to the body which would otherwise not be done.Dr Khyati Kothary is the Associate Professor, Department of Cardio-Vascular and Respiratory Physiotherapy, K J Somaiya College of Physiotherapy
Exercise matters!One of the major causes of onset of Diabetes is stress which can be physical and psychological in nature. Exercise can definitely help reduce this stress by lowering stress hormones in the body like adrenaline, cortisol and norepinephrine. Exercise also helps control blood sugar levels. Excess sugar in the blood occurs because either the body doesn't use insulin appropriately or cannot produce enough insulin to process it.In both the cases, exercise can reduce the sugar in your blood. When you're exercising muscles can use sugar without insulin. In other words, it doesn't matter if you're insulin resistant or if you don't have enough insulin. When you exercise, your muscles get the sugar they need, and in turn, your blood glucose level goes down.In the case of insulin resistance, exercise actually makes your insulin more effective. This means your insulin resistance goes down when you exercise, and your cells can use the glucose more effectively.But even after knowing so much about the effects of exercise on Diabetes, we still struggle with shortage of time to exercise. Studies have proven that the results of exercise are same if you exercise for a long duration at a stretch or exercise multiple times in a day for a shorter duration. Exercising multiple times in a day could help full-time working individuals who cannot devote hours in the gymnasium.Tips for workplace workoutsFollowing are few tips which can be used at the workplace to achieve similar results as hitting the gymnasium.While working on the computers, you can stretch your arms and legs for few seconds, knees can be straightened alternately, the spine can be elongated to the most erect position. All these exercises when done every 2 hourly will take care of your flexibility.To do something similar to cardio exercise, try using the stairs instead of elevators. You can climb a 2-3 flights of stairs at your maximum speed for around 2-3 times a day. This increases your heart rate as well as the breathing rate. The more you climb better is your stamina..For improving the strength of muscles, you can make use of the bottle of water or stack of papers. Depending on the availability, you can hold this and do the shoulder and elbow movements for 10 counts each, like moving shoulders up and down, out and in. You can also do chair push-ups wherein you have to hold the handles of the chair and lift yourself up for 10 counts. All these can be done while you are reading on the computer or going through the files.Nowadays the new trend in office is to sit on a stability ball instead of a usual chair. This helps to activate your core abdominal muscles. These muscles are very important in preventing a bad posture or a low backache in long run.'Chair abs exercise' can also be done. These are simple exercises wherein you sit on a chair and get both the knees close to the chest. The same can be done with the alternate legs for 10 times each. While sitting on a chair you can bend down and touch your toes, while coming up straightened your spine completely. 'Active Breaks' every half an hour involve getting up and moving around in the office. To do this you can have a small water bottle instead of a big bottle so that you have to refill it many times or you can keep your water bottle away from the desk so that every time you want to drink water you are going to walk that distance If you are coming by your vehicle, try and park your vehicle as away from the main entrance so that you walk that distance and be active.It is good to have an exercise buddy at the office. You can have a healthy competition with your buddy as to who sticks to the exercise schedule the most.Instead of sitting and chatting you can walk and chat. This not only helps you but the other individual as well..These are some small tips that can be easily applied in our busy work schedule. Though his looks very simple it helps to keep you active even though you are a sedentary individual. When you don't do any form of exercise, these small walks and movements do a lot to the body which would otherwise not be done.Dr Khyati Kothary is the Associate Professor, Department of Cardio-Vascular and Respiratory Physiotherapy, K J Somaiya College of Physiotherapy
