Hoisting dumbbells or pulling off push-ups can muscle out diabetes
August 15, 2011
You Docs
If you’re among the one-in-three heavy adults at risk for diabetes, don’t wait for weight loss to slash your odds of developing the Big D. Hoist dumbbells, stretch a resistance band or just bust a couple of muscle-building moves on your bedroom floor (push-ups are perfect). Building some muscle can cut your odds of prediabetes (last step before the real thing) by 12 per cent or more, before you’ve even lost a pound.
Muscle cells sip blood sugar all day long. Strength training increases how many muscle cells you have and how many mini-energy factories are in each cell. Since these factories use blood sugar for fuel, the more factories you have, the lower your blood sugar.
Building more muscle isn’t that big of a deal. In fact, if you haven’t done resistance exercises in a while, you can increase muscle by more than 25 per cent in three weeks by strength training just three times a week (every other day, with Sundays off). And that can reduce your diabetes risk even more: up to 30 per cent. Wow! Just from doing a few push-ups and invisible chairs. (You know what chairs are: Slide your back down a wall till you’re in a sitting position, knees at a 90-degree angle and heels under your knees. Gradually work up to holding that for two minutes.)
YouDocs Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen are authors of YOU: Losing Weight. Order it at StarStore.ca. Submit questions and find more info at RealAge.com
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