Pumping Iron Can Cut Your Diabetes Risk
August 24, 2012 |
By
Dr. Mercola
Exercise is a well-known tool
for helping to prevent type 2 diabetes, but typically the focus is on aerobic exercise.
While this certainly has its
place, especially in the form of high-intensity interval training, another form
of beneficial exercise is often overlooked: strength training.
Strength Training Significantly
Reduces Your Diabetes Risk
Men who engage in regular
strength training slash their type 2 diabetes risk, and the benefit increases
with the amount of strength training per week, according to new research.1 For
instance:
·
Men who did strength training
for 1-59 minutes per week reduced their risk by 12 percent
·
Strength training for 60-149
minutes a week lowered risk by 25 percent
·
Strength training for at least
150 minutes a week lowered risk by 34 percent
Weight training reduced
diabetes risk independent of aerobic exercise. But when the strength training
was combined with aerobic exercise, the benefit grew even more, with men engaging
in more than 150 minutes of aerobic exercise and at least 150 minutes of
strength training per week experiencing a 59 percent reduced risk of type 2
diabetes.
And the news gets even better.
Among men already diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a second study revealed that
regular physical activity could extend their lifespan. Even moderately active
men with diabetes had a 38 percent lower risk of dying from any cause, and a 49
percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, than sedentary men.2
Why is Strength Training so
Effective?
There is no doubt that building
your muscle mass with strength training should be one of the goals of your
fitness routine. It's even been found to lower your cancer risk by 40 percent,3 in
addition to the diabetes benefits mentioned above. As far as exercise for
diabetes goes, it works so well because it is one of the fastest and most
powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. If you have type 2
diabetes, or want to prevent it, you need to address the root of
the problem, which is NOT your blood sugar levels, as most conventional
physicians would have you believe.
As Dr. Ron Rosedale
wrote in this classic article, if you follow the misguided belief
that diabetes is a disease of blood sugar, you are likely destined for
premature death. Taking insulin is one of the WORST things you can do, as it
will actually make your insulin and leptin resistance worse over time. Dr.
Rosedale, an expert on leptin physiology and one of my early mentors in this
area, developed the appropriate acronym -- D.I.E. -- to illustrate what's
happening in conventional diabetic treatment.
Yes, most doctors make diabetes
worse and accelerate the death process. I've explained the mechanics of insulin
resistance and the role of leptin and insulin before, but let's review it
again.
·
Leptin is a hormone produced in your fat cells. One of leptin's primary
roles is regulating your appetite and body weight. It tells
your brain when to eat, how much to eat, and most importantly, when to stop
eating. And leptin tells your brain what to do with the energy it has. Leptin
is largely responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and whether or not
you become insulin resistant.
·
Insulin—Sugars and grains raise your blood sugar. When this happens,
insulin is released to direct the extra energy into storage. A small amount is
stored as a polysaccharide called glycogen, but the majority is stored as your
main energy storage supply—fat. Insulin's major role is not to
lower your blood sugar, but rather to store the extra energy for future times
of need. Insulin's effect of lowering your blood sugar is merely a "side
effect" of this energy storage process.
·
Insulin
resistance: Insulin resistance occurs
when your body becomes resistant to the hormone insulin. Any time a cell is
exposed to insulin it is going to become more insulin resistant. If you eat too
many sugars and grains, it provokes insulin surges and every time you provoke
an insulin surge it exposes your body to more insulin. Just like walking in a
dark room where it is difficult to see, after awhile your vision accommodates,
your pupils dilate and you can see much better. Similarly, when your body is
exposed to excess insulin soon it no longer responds to it properly and becomes
insulin resistant.
Exercise is one of the most
effective ways to regain insulin sensitivity and reverse insulin resistance --
and this is true for both high-intensity aerobic andstrength
training workouts.
Weight Training Can be an Aerobic … and Anaerobic
… Workout
Research over the past several
years has really revolutionized the way we look at exercise. Not only have
researchers found that traditional aerobic exercise is one of the least effective
forms of exercise, it's also one of the most time consuming, and could even be
counterproductive. You're really getting the least amount of bang for your buck
when you spend extended amounts of time running on a treadmill.
High-intensity interval
training such as Peak Fitness, on the other hand, has consistently risen to the
top as the most effective and efficient form of exercise.
While the fitness industry
divides exercise into categories such as anaerobic, aerobic and cardiovascular
training, fitness experts like Dr. Doug McGuff andPhil Campbell point
out that in order to actually access your cardiovascular system, you have to
perform mechanical work with your muscle—and can do that on an elliptical
machine, on weight training equipment, or using free-weights. So truly, weight
training isn't just strength training, it's a cardiovascular
workout.
To better understand this, you
need to know that your heart has two different metabolic processes:
1.
The aerobic, which require
oxygen for fuel
2.
The anaerobic, which do not
require any oxygen
Traditional strength training
and cardio exercises work primarily the aerobic process. High-intensity
interval training, such as Peak Fitness, on the other hand, work your aerobic
AND your anaerobic processes, which is what you need for optimal cardiovascular
benefits. You're actually getting MORE benefits from high-intensity training
than you do from aerobic/cardio, in a fraction of the time—all because you're
utilizing your body as it was designed to be used.
Even more astounding, according
to Dr. McGuff you only need 12 minutes of Super-Slow type
strength training once a weekto achieve many of the same benefits
as you would with Peak Fitness!
If You Have 12-15 Minutes, You
Can Fit in a Phenomenal Strength-Training Workout
There are many different ways
you can go about lifting weights, but one version that seems to work well for
many people is called Super-Slow Weight Training. By slowing everything down,
you're actually turning it into a high-intensity exercise. The super-slow
movement allows your muscle, at the microscopic level, to access the maximum
number of cross-bridges between the protein filaments that produce movement in
the muscle.
I recommend using four or five
basic compound movements for your exercise set. One sample set could be:
1.
Pull-down (or alternatively
chin-up)
2.
Chest press
3.
Compound row (A pulling motion
in the horizontal plane)
4.
Overhead press
5.
Leg press or squat
These exercises can be done
using either free weights or machines. The benefit of using a quality machine
is that it will allow you to focus your mind on the effort, as opposed to on
the movement. Select a weight that is light enough so you can do at least eight
repetitions, but heavy enough so you can't do more than 12. If you can squeeze
out more than a dozen reps, then switch to a heavier weight.
Here's a general summary of how
to perform each exercise:
1.
Begin by lifting the weight as
slowly and gradually as you can. In the video below, I demonstrate doing
this with a four-second positive and a four-second negative, meaning it takes
four seconds, or a slow count to four, to bring the weight up, and another four
seconds to lower it. (When pushing, stop about 10 to 15 degrees before your
limb is fully straightened; smoothly reverse direction)
2.
Slowly lower the weight back down to the slow count of four
·
Repeat until exhaustion, which
should be around four to eight reps (once you reach exhaustion, don't try to
heave or jerk the weight to get one last repetition in. Instead, just keep
trying to produce the movement, even if it's not 'going' anywhere, for another
five seconds or so. If you're using the appropriate amount of weight or
resistance, you'll be able to perform four to eight repetitions)
·
Immediately switch to the next
exercise for the next target muscle group, and repeat the first three steps
This workout will take no more
than 12 or 15 minutes. For a demonstration, please see the video below. Please
note that I am NOT demonstrating classic Super-Slow training, but rather hybrid
version that uses a count of four rather than the standard ten-count, which is still far
slower than most people lift weights.
You Can Avoid Becoming a
Diabetes Statistic
This may surprise you, but one in four
Americans has some form of diabetes or pre-diabetes. But you
don't have to become one of them. Even if you've already been diagnosed with
type 2 diabetes, there's still hope. As mentioned earlier, to reverse the
disease, you need to recover your body's insulin and leptin
sensitivities, and the best way to accomplish this is through proper diet and
exercise. There is no drug on the market that can correct leptin signaling and
insulin resistance.
Adhering to the following
guidelines can help you do at least three things that are essential for
successfully preventing, treating, or reversing diabetes: recover your
insulin/leptin sensitivity, help normalize your weight, and normalize
your blood pressure:
·
Severely limit or eliminate sugar and grains in
your diet, especially fructose, which is far more detrimental than
any other type of sugar. Following my Nutrition Plan will
help you do this without too much fuss.
·
Avoid all synthetic trans fats.
·
Optimize your vitamin D levels.
Recent studies have revealed that getting enough vitamin D can have a powerful
effect on normalizing your blood pressure.
·
Optimize your gut flora. Your
gut is a living ecosystem, and the more beneficial bacteria it contains, the
stronger your immune system will be and the better your body will function
overall. Fortunately, optimizing your gut flora is relatively easy. You can
reseed your body with good bacteria by eating fermented foods (like natto,
kefir, raw organic cheese, miso, and fermented
vegetables) or by taking a high-quality probiotic supplement.
·
Monitor your fasting insulin
level. This is every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar. You'll want
your fasting insulin level to be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the
worse your insulin sensitivity is.
