• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Exercise

The right diet is more important than exercise to control BS but exercise is always important for overall fitness. Gym's are expensive. I pay around £600 for a year's membership
Yes they are expensive. My local gym and pool would have been £299 for the year but are doing a special offer at £275 for the year which is a bit more affordable.

I also have blood pressure issues so another reason to exercise more.
 
Are you signing up for 12 weeks of boredom at the gym? :)
Yes though it will be free. I do need it as I don’t get a chance to exercise these days and it doesn’t help blood pressure or my blood sugar levels. My BMI has slid upwards to just over 30.6 since I stopped walking to work each day just over a year ago.

Actually it turned out to be a false dawn. I have had to pay and it was £285 for the year for the gym and the pool any time or times per week. So will go tonight and squeeze in 45 minutes on the cardio apparatus.
 
Last edited:
Yes though it will be free. I do need it as I don’t get a chance to exercise these days and it doesn’t help blood pressure or my blood sugar levels. My BMI has slid upwards to just over 30.6 since I stopped walking to work each day just over a year ago.

Just out of curiosity (Don't mean to pry too much), but is there a reason you can't start walking to work again?
 
@Listlad diet is by far the biggest influence on your blood sugar levels. Having said that, I do exercise and while it does help a bit with overall BG levels (the exercise itself can raise them temporarily), I do it for other reasons - general fitness, to assist with bone density and frankly because I enjoy it. And that has to be the key. If you don’t like the gym, you will likely not go regularly. Try building in some extra walking into your daily activities - no membership fees and no big time commitments.

Edited for typo.
 
Last edited:
Just out of curiosity (Don't mean to pry too much), but is there a reason you can't start walking to work again?
Yes. A very good reason.

I now work from home. :D

I still walk, but just a few strides up the stairs where I have a little office in one of the bedrooms where I work remotely. And then exercise my index finger on the computer mouse.
 
Last edited:
Yes. A very good reason.

I now work from home. :D

I still walk, but just a few strides up the stairs.


I was maybe thinking you'd changed jobs or something where distance was too much, but nope!

That makes it tough.... maybe you could walk around your area. I have no idea if that's possible, but walking is so good for many positive reasons. Even just to clear your head.
 
Does the forum believe that exercise is beneficial for those with diabetes or prediabetes or does it only make a minor difference?

Exercise is beneficial, use it or lose it.

May I suggest trying to find a Tai Chi class or maybe yoga. I managed to do some Tai Chi for a couple of years, until the instructor moved on, and was surprised at how much of a sweat you could work up. It was also a way of reducing my stress levels. You have to concentrate on the moves so much, you don't have time to think of stressful things. It would be cheaper as well.
 
I have a sedentary job and post two strokes and fibromyalgia I find exercise exhausting..but I force myself.

At work I will deliberately take single sheets down to the shredder, walk around the building, use the downstairs toilets etc to get the body moving. I do some light weight training with dumbbells and today I walked between 3-4 miles into town and back.

Has to be done.
 
Listlad, I work from home too, but I made a deal with myself.

I do somehting every day - even if it's only a walkl aeround the village. I don't use the carr to run errands inthe village unless it involves a lot of carrying, or it's absolutely throwing it down.

Going to the supermarket, I park well away from the entry/exit. That gives me a few extra steps, ut it alse means fewer door or trolley dings. When I go to town, I always park on the outskirts and drive in (same conditions as village errands), and I always walk to the bottom of the main street (it's a small, no-horse town), and back up the hill again, either before or afterr I do my errands.

Finally, I have a static trainer for my bike, a bit like this, https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/MiddleofLidl.htm?articleId=19893 . I usually have it in my garden, and it means I can do a bike ride without going anywhere. If I have to persuade myself, I download something from iPlayer, or stream something, and watch it with my iPad propped up somewhere. It's amazing how easy peddling for an hour, whilst watching something good is.

Exercise doesn't have to involve lycra or perspiration.
 
Although I get bored I like the after glow of the exercise.

But I do like to compartmentalise exercise so it doesn’t double up with events during the rest of my day.

I will probably take up the gym membership and try and focus more on swimming rather then the gym itself.
 
I used to swim every day, until 6 months in I got a chest infection that resulted in me having to stop as I couldnt shake it and for years after had chest infections regularly. I found that I used to go into a trance like state in the pool after 10 or so lengths and it was great for stress. I have recently joined the gym (pre diagnosis) but if you dont enjoy it you wont keep doing it. Diet will definitely have a bigger impact but getting your body fitter can only help with life in general
 
I use the treadmill for around an hour and in that time I have my favorite music in my ears.... initially I could only do 10 minutes but now 2 years on I can do around 50-60 minutes.... my daughter read a book while doing the stair-machine ... some listen to an audio-book.. just suggestions to make the time less borring at the gym
 
I also pay around 25 pounds pro month but going twice a week I think it is okay to pay that...thats around 8 days a month and like 3 pounds pr. time
 
Yes though it will be free. I do need it as I don’t get a chance to exercise these days and it doesn’t help blood pressure or my blood sugar levels. My BMI has slid upwards to just over 30.6 since I stopped walking to work each day just over a year ago.

Actually it turned out to be a false dawn. I have had to pay and it was £285 for the year for the gym and the pool any time or times per week. So will go tonight and squeeze in 45 minutes on the cardio apparatus.
It turned out to be a false dawn. So had to pay £285 for annual membership with use of the gym any time or number of times. I shall start off with a session this evening on the cardio apparatus.
 
I would have suggested using the money on the purchase of a trampoline - I have had one in the garden for about ten years now - it is handy so once the weather gets even a little warmer I can go out and bounce for twenty minutes, in good weather I go out twice a day.
I was not sure that it was actually exercise, not just fun, but I bought a heart rate monitor and saw that it does increase the heart rate quite a bit. It is also a useful soft surface for rolling around kneeling and stretching, which I can't do on a hard floor or even a foam mat due to the excruciating pain in my knees - I had housemaids' knee a couple of times when working in factories and it might be a result of that.
I have always meant to get a small one for indoors, but as I live on the south coast there aren't many weeks when I can't go out even if the fresh air is very fresh.
 
I would have suggested using the money on the purchase of a trampoline - I have had one in the garden for about ten years now - it is handy so once the weather gets even a little warmer I can go out and bounce for twenty minutes, in good weather I go out twice a day.
I was not sure that it was actually exercise, not just fun, but I bought a heart rate monitor and saw that it does increase the heart rate quite a bit. It is also a useful soft surface for rolling around kneeling and stretching, which I can't do on a hard floor or even a foam mat due to the excruciating pain in my knees - I had housemaids' knee a couple of times when working in factories and it might be a result of that.
I have always meant to get a small one for indoors, but as I live on the south coast there aren't many weeks when I can't go out even if the fresh air is very fresh.
We have a couple of Trampoline parks near us. Indoor ones and modern. We take our daughter occasionally and my wife has a go. Yes it seems to work the legs, especially over a full hour.
 
Back
Top