Tips for exercising at home

Exercise can help with the management of stress as well as the symptoms of diabetes. Regular exercise increase can increase the ability of your muscles to store and use sugar for energy, even without insulin! There are countless health benefits associated with regular exercise, such as improving cognitive function and your mood. These benefits are hard to ignore.

During periods of restricted movement, such as being in quarantine or isolation, you are still able to do weight or strength training at home. You don’t need weights to participate in strength training. If you don’t own a set of dumbbells or weights, you could use water bottles instead. If you’d prefer something heavier you could use milk cartons. Need something even heavier? You could fill water bottles or milk cartons with pebbles sand. Resistance bands are also useful but not crucial.

 A few tips to help build your muscles indoors:

• Start off simple – do a few simple stretching exercises for around 15 minutes per day
• Why not look at online exercise videos? There are plenty available for all different fitness levels
• Try to exercise 3 days a week with rest days in between
• During and after physical exercise it is important to pay attention to your blood sugar levels
• Stay hydrated
• Get your pulse up! Try doing steps on your staircase at home

Make the most of the free exercise resources that are available. There are countless indoor exercise options such as; yoga, tai chi, Pilates and Zumba. Try this short workout with Caroline Jordan right at home. This fitness video routine will help you with your flexibility and mobility, no fancy yoga studio needed!

Remember to always seek advice from your medical practitioner before changing anything about your diabetes management. The above information is not medical advice.