4 Ways Walking Supports Blood Sugar Control

There are many benefits to walking from improving muscle strength to bringing down blood sugar. Add walking to your daily routine for a happier, healthier you!

We've been talking about setting goals for the new year, being sure that they're clear, that it's something that we really want to achieve and that we have a plan in place for achieving that goal.

One goal many people have for the new year is to get in shape, to start exercising, to finally use that gym membership that you've been paying for over months and months.

So what will you do to start getting into better shape?

Well, one suggestion is to start walking. Why walking? Well, most everybody can do it. Second, it's very easy to ease into it. You can start a walking program by simply walking around the outside of your house until you feel more confident. Then you can go maybe five minutes out ,five minutes back and then work your way up to longer times.

It's very easy to increase what your walking until pretty soon, maybe you'll be walking in a 5k or a 10K.  You don't need any special equipment to do it. You can do it anywhere. Perhaps a good pair of walking shoes would be great, but you really don't even need that.

The other thing about walking is it builds and strengthens the muscles in your legs. These are pretty big muscles compared to the other muscles in your body. The gluts are the biggest ones, then you've got the quads and the hamstrings and the calves.  Walking helps strengthen and condition these muscles, including abdominal muscles and back muscles that are used to stabilize you as you're walking.

To get into a good sort of workout walking program, consider three different terrains.

First, walking on a flat terrain is nice. It's good but it doesn't really challenge you. Walking on an uneven terrain is a great way to deal with balancing and stabilizing muscles. This would be like going on a hike or something that's off road a bit where it's not perfectly level. Of course you need to pay more attention as you're doing this. It's a great way to work those stabilizing muscles.

Next, walk uphill. This is going to be great for your hamstrings and for your thighs. And you're going to burn the calories doing that.

Next, walk downhill. A lot of people think walking downhill is very easy and, in general it is, but when you're walking downhill, you are moving and breaking at the same time. So a lot of this work will fall on the thighs. You can see that using these different terrains is going to be very helpful in your workout.

How does walking help control blood sugar?

The muscles overall are the ones that burn sugar for fuel. So the more muscle you have and the better condition it's in, the more blood sugar you will burn. Now, the great thing about that is it increases insulin sensitivity which means it takes very little insulin to unlock the cell and get the glucose in. And it reduces insulin resistance.  This is good news, better sensitivity, less resistant.

It's a great stress reliever. We have a stress hormone called cortisol.  When we are stressed, that cortisol comes out and it does a lot of things for us. One of the things it does is dump blood sugar into your system to prepare your body for fight flight or freeze.

We don't want that but being outside and walking, being able to calm down, getting away from work or home life for a bit is so healing in many ways.

Third, 20 minute walks after every meal can really bring your blood sugar down.  Especially after the evening meal, you might want to do what they call an evening constitution, where people would go for a 30 or 45 minutes walk after dinner. It's great because you're able to burn off some of that sugar. And for those of you who are using insulin, perhaps you might not need to use as much.

Finally walking helps reduce the risk of getting type two diabetes.

The very best way to manage diabetes is not to get it.

Eating well, exercising and sleeping are ways to help manage diabetes and help avoid getting it in the first place.

Even ff you currently have a regular daily exercise routine, consider adding some walking to it. I think you'll be surprised at how good it feels and how much it helps.

Thank you so much for listening.

Dr. Elaine

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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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