Exercise, blood glucose levels and muscle recovery

[etmsreec]

Given a 30-odd year history of diabetes, I should know the answers to these but I'm at a bit of a loss at the moment.

This evening, I was swimming for about an hour. Mixture of front crawl and breaststroke. First half hour was fairly solid work and the second half hour kind of a slow down.
Just after I got out of the pool, my blood glucose was 7.2. An hour and a half later it was 20.3.
Is such a rebound after exercise normal?

It's often said that muscles will be sore the following day after a workout, the soreness coming from the muscles repairing themselves. If I suffer muscle soreness, it tends to be two or three days after the exercise. Is it just that the repair of the muscles takes longer with being diabetic in the same way that other healing processes are slowed down?

Thanks in advance

 

[dowuchyalike]

Etmsreec, as I understand things, the general rule is that aerobic activity will utilise blood glucose as an energy source and hence lower it, while anaerobic exercise on the other hand can cause a flood of stress hormones (largely cortisol) into the body that increase the liver's production of glucose and reduce the muscles' uptake of blood sugar, therefore often leading to hyperglycaemia.

The problem for diabetics is knowing exactly where the line between aerobic and anaerobic is. If, for example, you cruise along steadily at a moderate pace for 45 minutes, then you've worked purely in an aerobic capacity; however, if you were to throw in a few flat out sprints as well, then you've done a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic and, in this situation, I know from my own experience, it can be incredibly difficult to plan for or to predict exactly what the outcome will be for your glucose levels.

My guess is that the elevated glucose level that you experienced is down to the hormonal response that I outlined above. It's certainly something that I've experienced frequently and not only with swimming but with other forms of exercise.

As for your other point, as a personal trainer I find that most clients (non-diabetic) complain more about muscle soreness TWO days after an intense workout rather than one, so what you're describing as a diabetic is not really so different. There may well be some physiological reason why a diabetic would experience muscle repair slower than a non-diabetic but it certainly is not my own experience and I've had Type 1 for 27 years. The best advice I can offer towards avoiding DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is to make sure you stretch well immediately after exercising in order to avoid post-adaptive shortening of muscle fibres and then to eat some carb-rich foods as soon as you can to help replenish muscle glycogen stores.

Hope that helps

 

[etmsreec]

Thanks dowuchyalike.
Steve

 

[AntLockyer]

eat some carb-rich foods as soon as you can to help replenish muscle glycogen stores.

this is what I'm experimenting with at the moment. I've always re-fueld straight after exercise with carbs and protein, I've been told this is best done in the window 20 minutes after finishing. Now the trick with us is we need to have teh insulin to cover the carbs but it should then transport the glucose and protein to the muscles for repair and hopefully reduce DOMS.

Ice baths are amazing at reducing it bit difficult at the swimming pool though.

 

[dowuchyalike]

Indeed, you do have to make sure you have the insulin on board to get the benefit of the carbs (and/or protein) and judging how much is often a real guessing game because your insulin sensitivity is increased following exercise. Insulin also has the added benefits of reducing the catabolic effects of weight training, and of being mildly anabolic; the latter being useful to those seeking muscle growth (hypertrophy).

Compression clothing is also very useful for assisting in muscle recovery.

 

[Kidmargin]

Etmsreec, as I understand things, the general rule is that aerobic activity will utilise blood glucose as an energy source and hence lower it, while anaerobic exercise on the other hand can cause a flood of stress hormones (largely cortisol) into the body that increase the liver's production of glucose and reduce the muscles' uptake of blood sugar, therefore often leading to hyperglycaemia.

The problem for diabetics is knowing exactly where the line between aerobic and anaerobic is. If, for example, you cruise along steadily at a moderate pace for 45 minutes, then you've worked purely in an aerobic capacity; however, if you were to throw in a few flat out sprints as well, then you've done a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic and, in this situation, I know from my own experience, it can be incredibly difficult to plan for or to predict exactly what the outcome will be for your glucose levels.

My guess is that the elevated glucose level that you experienced is down to the hormonal response that I outlined above. It's certainly something that I've experienced frequently and not only with swimming but with other forms of exercise.

As for your other point, as a personal trainer I find that most clients (non-diabetic) complain more about muscle soreness TWO days after an intense workout rather than one, so what you're describing as a diabetic is not really so different. There may well be some physiological reason why a diabetic would experience muscle repair slower than a non-diabetic but it certainly is not my own experience and I've had Type 1 for 27 years. The best advice I can offer towards avoiding DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is to make sure you stretch well immediately after exercising in order to avoid post-adaptive shortening of muscle fibres and then to eat some carb-rich foods as soon as you can to help replenish muscle glycogen stores.

Hope that helps