Excercise Ideas for Beginners

I think the walking is brilliant, provided you enjoy it enough to keep doing it!
I love swimming, but I'm not sure if that would be too expensive.
Do you like riding a bicycle?

You can also see if you can find any local groups of people doing something together, for me it's much easier to commit to doing something every week if I know I'm expected by others.

Walking with a friend! Mine are brilliant, we chat so much that I don't notice time or distance or tiredness!
Luckily I have several that fulfill that specification and rotate myself between them.
The couch to 5k app is good at getting someone started by increasing amounts a little day.

Dancing, free to the radio, or learn from you tube vids. Done in privacy at home. Ditto online yoga or pirates to increase flexibility and strength.

Another idea is to volunteer to walk a dog. In the UK the brilliant Cinnamon Trust arranges walkers for pets of those in hospital for example.

Walking is excellent exercise and doesn't cost anything.

In terms of upping your steps, parking further from the door of the supermarket (or whatever), or getting off the bus a stop earlier than strictly necessary can help enormously. I have a deal with myself that unless the rain is horizontal, I won't drive to any errands in our village.

When I go to town, I part on the periphery, the walk the full length of the main street, even if I only need go 100 yards.

You would be surprised the number of people who acknowledge you or engage you in conversation when you have strolled "that way" a few times.

In terms of exercise for blood glucose regulation, there has been some work done, by Dr Joe Henson, at Leicester, to show that simply standing up is a good form of exercise (https://www.schmetz.com/mm/media/en...PHGXfa7Azo-NRL7u18WSmavfkfATqweAUnqwB6KZn3Oug)

Just standing up regularly can help, so perhaps some of the foregoing and being mindful and setting a reminder to stand up for a short while every hour could all help get you started.

As well as walking, I make an effort to be inefficient in the home. So for instance instead of saving several things to take upstairs together, I take them one at a time. Same with taking items from one room to another, or down the garden, or hanging up washing item by item. It's all extra steps.

MrsA2 said:

Walking with a friend! Mine are brilliant, we chat so much that I don't notice time or distance or tiredness!
Luckily I have several that fulfill that specification and rotate myself between them.
The couch to 5k app is good at getting someone started by increasing amounts a little day.

Dancing, free to the radio, or learn from you tube vids. Done in privacy at home. Ditto online yoga or pirates to increase flexibility and strength.

Another idea is to volunteer to walk a dog. In the UK the brilliant Cinnamon Trust arranges walkers for pets of those in hospital for example.

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I dog walk two for a friend on a Sunday around a field at speed walking/running and I love it. I am unable to have a pooch at the moment, but love dogs and will have quite a lot when I move! I am also hoping to foster when we move (if ever we move), cannot wait for dog company lol The Cinnamon Trust is something I will be considering and the RSPCA for cat cuddling, when the time comes

NeeNee87 said:

My doctor has told me that I should be getting more excercise (and to lose weight) to help manage my diabetes.

I set a goal to get 5000 steps a day which is more than I normally get by quite a bit. Since it is getting cooler, I am starting to walk some to meet that goal.

I am interested to see if anybody here has any experience or ideas what other excercise I could do as somebody who doesn't have a lot of money, isn't going to join a gym anytime soon, and is truly a beginner.

Any ideas are appreciated so hopefully I can get my numbers down and lose some weight along the way.

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Have you considered getting a min trampoline, its hours of fun! You can get them with a rail so you don't fall

NeeNee87 said:

My doctor has told me that I should be getting more excercise (and to lose weight) to help manage my diabetes.

I set a goal to get 5000 steps a day which is more than I normally get by quite a bit. Since it is getting cooler, I am starting to walk some to meet that goal.

I am interested to see if anybody here has any experience or ideas what other excercise I could do as somebody who doesn't have a lot of money, isn't going to join a gym anytime soon, and is truly a beginner.

Any ideas are appreciated so hopefully I can get my numbers down and lose some weight along the way.

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Here in the Netherlands, walking is getting to be an ever bigger thing for diabetics... Some GP practices'll organise weekly walks for the diabetics in their care, so they walk with someone there who is medically trained to boot. Me, I don't do people, I do cats. So I try to go on walks and bring my camera when I do, meeting up with the local cats along the way. They know me, they greet me, they cuddle, they pose, and I walk on. Sometimes it helps to have a goal, so I used to send my mom lots of postcards and such, to have a reason to walk a long way, aside from cheering her up with mail. That could be 1k from my place, as you're hard pressed to find a mailbox anywhere these days, or a walk to the next town over which'd be more like 3 to 5 k... Goals help. For me, walking is basically the only thing I do, the rheumatism and inflammations all over the place keep me from being more active than that, so... If it's just walking, then it's just walking. No need to add in more, if cost is a thing. Anything you do is a bonus. Diet is the main thing (As is often said here, "You can't out-run a bad diet"), but nothing wrong with a good, long walk! And they can turn ever longer as you go!

NeeNee87 said:

That sounds fun but I wonder what the weight limit is on those and if I'd be over.

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Not sure but you could google and find out. You can also get skipping ropes with no rope and that's a laugh also. You cannot cheat though you still have to jump if you know what I mean I tried a hula hoop a few weeks ago and they really give a cardio! Just watch the weighted ones as they can leave bruises!!

NeeNee87 said:

That sounds fun but I wonder what the weight limit is on those and if I'd be over.

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They come with different weight limits - I think the big one in the garden is up to 120 or even 130kg - it is some time since I bought it. It is very good for anyone who is unfit, as it is a very low impact exercise and also makes a good surface for stretches and yoga poses. I was very feeble when I started and could not even bounce off the surface, but in a few months I was doing 1000 bounces twice a day.

I was very overweight and still am, but somewhat less so after 2.5 months on this journey. I led a sendentary life prior to diagnosis - long days, working behind a desk, with work from home reducing activity levels further, so my fitness was very poor.

Based on my experience, walking is absolutely the best place to start. You can moderate your pace according to how you feel, you can keep it low impact, there's no machinery involved (such as with a treadmill) so less risk of injury, you can adjust distances easily, and you can build your exercise regiment bit by bit. It's also good for mental health, helps keep blood glucose in check, reduces blood pressure, and reduces stress too. Best of all, it's free.

Start gently, as you've said. Then as you build some fitness, either walk for steadily increasing distances, or keep the distance the same and try to walk it quicker each day. I was doing less than 1000 steps some days prior to diagnosis, I now easily do 5000 on my less active days. My fitness has been built on walking and I love it.

Resurgam said:

They come with different weight limits - I think the big one in the garden is up to 120 or even 130kg

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Which can be too little for some of us, which limits choice.
Wording it like 'even 130 kg' can be painful, as if it's such a high weight people over this don't exist.
Fat people like to jump as well, and if they're both tall and fat, it's very easy to be over the 130kg mark.

There are more sturdy ones available but the price sharply increases for those.

Antje77 said:

Which can be too little for some of us, which limits choice.
Wording it like 'even 130 kg' can be painful, as if it's such a high weight people over this don't exist.
Fat people like to jump as well, and if they're both tall and fat, it's very easy to be over the 130kg mark.

There are more sturdy ones available but the price sharply increases for those.

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Oh dear - I did not mean it disparagingly - just that my memory isn't good enough to remember the specification of the one I bought.
It was some time ago now that I bought it, but I am pretty sure that the choices went from maybe 80kg to over 200 accommodated by the number and strength of the springs.

Resurgam said:

Oh dear - I did not mean it disparagingly

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I was pretty sure you didn't mean it disparagingly at all, but it did hit a nerve, hence my sharp reaction.
I'm pretty sure all is wel now though.

NeeNee87 said:

Yeah sadly I did the conversion and I'm quite a bit over that.

Guess im doing the walking for now to see what happens.

Maybe I will get there someday!

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While exercise in any form is a good idea, and will likely make you feel better in general, diet plays a much larger role in both blood glucose and weight. So you might find things will improve a lot with adjusting your diet to fewer carbs and more fat/proteins.
Still, jumping on a trampoline is great fun!

Hi @NeeNee87 I've no idea whether what I'm about to say will make sense but I'll give it a go.
Over the last couple of months I've gone from 90kg to 83 so I've lost about 13lbs but I'm 5ft 1 so I'm still significantly over weight and I absolutely credit low carb for the weight starting to come off but I too would like to exercise more.
I had a knee replacement in May and am having a second replacement in November so my mobility can be a bit limited and even going for a walk can be challenging when I never know what my knees are going to do next. That said there are days I can spend 10 minutes on my exercise bike or run through all my physiotherapy exercises and I work full time (in a somewhat sedentary job) and keep a house and family.
I realised a while back that on the one day a week I did the "big" housework (you know, hoovering, bath scrubbing etc) My step counter was reading 8 or 9 thousand rather than the usual 2 or 3. It was a lightbulb for me. I now think I burn calories just in "doing" rather than exercising, For example if I have laundry I'll take it out and hang it on the line rather than throwing it in the tumble dryer or if I need something from another room I'll fetch it myself rather than asking one of the kids. All day long I try to do little bits of doing that I might not have previously and at the end of the day this adds up to literally thousands on my step counter.
I've no idea if that made sense but its an alternative/addition to walking.
Good luck

NeeNee87 said:

Yeah sadly I did the conversion and I'm quite a bit over that.

Guess im doing the walking for now to see what happens.

Maybe I will get there someday!

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As we all know, diabetics are sometimes more prone to injury. Us larger folk have some additional risks too, particularly if we've been sedentary, with joints/ligaments/tendons/muscles all under additional load and not conditioned to strenuous exercise. If we're going to exercise, it's important to push hard enough we're improving our fitness, but not so hard we set ourselves back by getting injured. This is why walking is the best starting point in my opinion, it reduces many of the risks and costs that come with other forms of exercise.

As @Margarettt pointed out, it's not about doing everything, it's more important to just do something. Those something's quickly add up and we can then do more.

Paul_ said:

As we all know, diabetics are sometimes more prone to injury.

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I have not since any evidence of this.
My understanding is that if our BG levels are higher it can affect our body's ability to heal but not that we are more prone to injury.
It is certainly not my experience after 20 years of diabetes.

NeeNee87 said:

Yeah sadly I did the conversion and I'm quite a bit over that.

Guess im doing the walking for now to see what happens.

Maybe I will get there someday!

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Swimming / aquarobics might be a very good place for you to start, as the water supports you and reduces the strain on your joints.