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Exercising in a Pandemic: 10 Easy Exercises to Build a Strong Core Without Leaving the House

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Mar 18, 2020
7 min

Exercising in a Pandemic: 10 Easy Exercises to Build a Strong Core Without Leaving the House

Just in time for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) social distancing and closures of gyms and fitness centers in many areas, here’s a revisit of many important core exercises you can do at home to keep yourself strong and healthy. Download the PDF (Ch. 21) for illustrations. You can also find a variety of other at-home exercises on Diabetes Motion Academy for free download. Many people are stuck at home for one reason or another think they can’t work on staying fit, but the tr

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Doing Resistance Training When You're Older or Have Limited Mobility

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Apr 29, 2017
3 min

Doing Resistance Training When You're Older or Have Limited Mobility

In addition to aerobic activities, you can greatly improve your blood glucose by doing some resistance, or weight, training. Like so many systems in the body, if you don’t use all your muscle fibers, you lose them over time. Anyone past the age of 25 is slowly losing muscle mass, which decreases how many carbs you can store in your muscles as glycogen. You need to retain as much of your muscle mass as possible—and gain more muscle if you can. If you’re older or have physical

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Better Dehydrated than Overhydrated during Exercise

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Sep 28, 2015
3 min

Better Dehydrated than Overhydrated during Exercise

An updated position statement on the dangers of hyponatremia (also known as water intoxication) was just released (1). It once again highlights how drinking too much water or any fluids during physical activity in the hopes of preventing dehydration can be potentially fatal. Taking in too much fluid dilutes the sodium levels in your blood, and severely low sodium levels can lead to brain swelling, seizures, coma, and death. Less severe, symptoms of hyponatremia include nausea

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Muscle Primer: What It Is, Why It Matters

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Aug 29, 2015
4 min

Muscle Primer: What It Is, Why It Matters

Muscle mass is likely the most important tissue in your body when it comes to managing insulin action and blood glucose levels. It is also one of the most important things to maintain to live well and independently as you age. In other words, you can’t afford to lose your muscle mass if you want to live long and well. What exactly is muscle? It’s comprised of about 20 percent protein, with the rest mainly made up of water plus a few minerals and some carbohydrate and fat stor

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What Affects How Your Insulin Works?

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Jul 9, 2015
2 min

What Affects How Your Insulin Works?

There's nothing worse than doing everything right (or so you think) and having your blood glucose levels running high inexplicably. The problem may be that many different factors can affect your insulin action (whether it's insulin your body releases or insulin you inject or pump), and you may or may not be controlling for all of them equally well. What we do know is that most athletic individuals have lower levels of insulin and require less insulin release for carbohydrate

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Use Exercise to Prevent Activity-Induced Lows

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Apr 27, 2015
3 min

Use Exercise to Prevent Activity-Induced Lows

You may potentially be able to prevent, treat, or reverse impending hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) during exercise by some novel means (1). One mechanism is short sprints, while another is to alter the order in which you do different types of exercise. Sprints: Doing a 10-second sprint either before or immediately after moderate exercise keeps blood glucose levels stable for at least two hours afterwards (2). Actually, this technique works anytime during exercise, but it do

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Why Resistance Training Improves the Muscle "Gas Tank"

Sheri Colberg, PhD

Oct 17, 2014
2 min

Why Resistance Training Improves the Muscle "Gas Tank"

In recent years, the most compelling scientific evidence for diabetes management has been the inclusion of resistance/strength training as part of an exercise routine. Why is it so important? Think of it this way: our muscles are the main place we have to store any excess carbohydrates that we eat, and the bigger the muscle "gas tank,” the more carbs we can store there. The sad reality is that getting older by itself causes some loss of muscle mass over time. If you go on a

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