Improve your HbA1c in 3 minutes

[Dillinger]

Well, that's the plan anyway.

Is anyone up for joining me in a very quick bit of High Intensity Training of a morning and seeing what the effects are on our blood sugars?

What I propose is this;

1 minute of a plank
1 minute of burpees

That's it.

It's even easier than that as the burpees are done in 3 20 second bursts with 30 seconds rest between them.

You do that every day in the morning and rest on the weekends.

I'm cheating a bit as I've already started and I think my blood sugars are improving; I've certainly noticed that my nighttime levels have markedly flattened out. I went to bed last night with a 6.4 and woke up this morning with a 6.3 for instance. I started out doing 20 burpees for a week then in the second week going to 25 and now 3 sets of 20 (which is about 30 burpees).

I use the 'Tabata Pro' app on my iPhone for timing and these are diagrams of the exercises;

Plank - hold this for 1 minute

Burpee -

Except you should jump in the air at step 5 (I edited this as the last one included a press up and that just slows everything down; the idea is to complete the repetition as quickly as possible).

My aim is to increase the burpees to 5 sets of 20 seconds a day and the plank time to 2 minutes but for me the point is that this must be quick and easy to do; I do them in the kitchen as my children have breakfast.

I also do them after my morning shower as you don't sweat with such a quick burst of exercise but you do get out of breath.

I've just had an HbA1c done (results not back yet) and will compare to my next one in October.

Anyone up for joining me on this? You need 3 minutes 40 seconds to spare of a morning and to be able to do burpees!

Best Dillinger

 

[gfmoore]

I haven't got room in my bedroom :wink

The idea is good though. I remember seeing some guy on tv who was extolling the benefits of high intensity exercise in three sets of 30-45 seconds on a bike with a rest period of a minute (or perhaps less) between them. I could try that on my bike I suppose. Let me think.

 

[dawnmc]

There is a very good HIIT on the bike on you tube, but I don't know the link. Maybe its one for the younger end, my knees couldn't cope with a burpee

 

[Andy12345]

id be happy to do it too dillinger, small problem is the plank, 1 minuteman be too easy, i never tried burps though except after a diet coke, but if it dosent matter if its too easy id be happy to play along?

 

[carty]

I would really like to try this but I think that I would go from step 4 back to step 3 and have to stay there for some time!!I really need an exercise that does not involve my knees as in cycling or getting up off the floor
CAROL

 

[Dillinger]

I haven't got room in my bedroom :wink

The idea is good though. I remember seeing some guy on tv who was extolling the benefits of high intensity exercise in three sets of 30-45 seconds on a bike with a rest period of a minute (or perhaps less) between them. I could try that on my bike I suppose. Let me think.

Hi,

It was Michael Mosley who came up with the 5:2 diet that raised it recently; and he did 20 second sprints on his bike so that sounds perfect

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17177251

Best

Dillinger

 

[Dillinger]

id be happy to do it too dillinger, small problem is the plank, 1 minuteman be too easy, i never tried burps though except after a diet coke, but if it dosent matter if its too easy id be happy to play along?

Is this more your style for the plank Andy?

Best

Dillinger

 

[hanadr]

Having lost my left side streng5th to a stroke 12 years ago, I can't do either a plank or a burpee.I go to the gym 3 times a week. That will have to do.
Hana

 

[sanguine]

Yeah I'll go for that - something easy to do anywhere (hotel room etc) when away from home. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Andy12345]

Is this more your style for the plank Andy?

Best

Dillinger

Pffft! easy!

lol thats amazing!

 

[mo1905]

Nice idea Dillinger I'm in !

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[smidge]

I tell you what Dillinger - I don't think I'd stick to that, but I'll get up a bit early and do 5 minutes on the cross-trainer before breakfast. My levels have been markedly worse since I stopped regular exercise (partly due to time and partly due to complete apathy!) So, back on the straight and narrow from tomorrow morning! I'll let you know if I notice a difference.

Smidge

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Donal O'Neill in the Cereal Killers film was doing 8 minutes exercise a week. Your 21 minutes a week seems like a marathon.

 

[desidiabulum]

I will do my own variant -- running up and down stairs ten times. Always gets my BG numbers down for the day more quickly than the dreaded exercise bike. Does this count?

 

[Dillinger]

Good stuff - shall we see how we are all doing after a week?

Stair running @desidiabulum is hard core! Definitely counts.

Anything that makes you breathless and gets the heart going.

I didn't really feel like doing these this morning but did anyway and they were completed in a flash.

One thing I've noticed though is, as an insulin dependent diabetic, I need more insulin in the morning as my post breakfast blood sugars were rising.

All others seemed to be good though.

Best

Dillinger

 

[Andy12345]

not sure it helped my bg but sure woke me up fast lol

 

[Dillinger]

I tell you what Dillinger - I don't think I'd stick to that, but I'll get up a bit early and do 5 minutes on the cross-trainer before breakfast. My levels have been markedly worse since I stopped regular exercise (partly due to time and partly due to complete apathy!) So, back on the straight and narrow from tomorrow morning! I'll let you know if I notice a difference.

Smidge

You don't have to go for the 5 minute marathon stuff; is it possible to 'sprint' on the cross-trainer? That's the thing to aim at; just 20 seconds all out with 30 seconds gap between them.

I think the idea is to deplete glycogen reserves in our muscles so more blood sugar get's 'pulled' out of the blood - in uber layman's terms (which are the only terms I have available...)

Best

Dillinger

 

[sanguine]

Tried a couple of burpees last night and managed a 45 second plank this morning - bl00dy hell that's hard! But you can feel the impact!

I take it you are meant to (try and) spring to and from the crouch position and prone position in the burpee like a squat thrust?

 

[gfmoore]

My bg kept rising today, even after walking home from the dentist - poss a mile. Unusual.

So at 1pm I went to the bike, did a one min warmup, then 3 lots of 20 sec bursts with 40 second easy and a two minute warm doen. My heart rate did go above 200 - yikes, but came down during the warm down. Half an hour later my bg was down to 5 from 7.9. That's a result. Has risen slightly in the last 2 hours - I guess the liver must have been scared witless!

Must watch that hr though, diabetes is bad enough without having a heart attack as well

However need I need to do it regularly as per the original post to see how it affects long term level.

 

[Dillinger]

I take it you are meant to (try and) spring to and from the crouch position and prone position in the burpee like a squat thrust?

Yup, and then jump in the air to get back to the starting position.

Nasty eh?!

Dillinger