Hi. I do martial arts 2 times a week. However, this year our sensai has decided to up the endurance a lot. We do a large amount of endurance excercises, and i get really annoyed because my sugars always go low. I get concerned that the others think I am using my diabetes as a way of getting out of the exercise, even though I take part in everything - but I need to stop halfway through to have sugar as I go low. I find I cannot do the exercises as long as others because the sugars go low. I hate it. I don’t want to keep having to break away, I want to do the endurance like everyone else. Our work is going to get harder, and I love doing it.
I run a lot and have the same problem. If I were you I’d make sure you eat a bunch of carbs and some protein before you begin. The carbs will bump up your BS and the protein will keep it level. If you get a quick break test your sugar and see where you’re at. If you need to, eat some more. Sip on juice during the workout too if you can.
I have hypos all the time when I exercise, actually with any kind of movement. I also suffer from hypoglycemic unawareness, so I don’t know when I am going low.
When I do venture out on some form of exercise, I test and bring my bgs up to 150 by eating 15-20 carbs, then I have to continue to do 10-15 carbs every half hour.
I feel ya, I just started to get back into weightlifting about 3-4 weeks now, but I am having all kinds of problems with getting low during exercise which I think I’ve figured out a good basil rate while I lift, but then from about 8:00pm until I wake up I am super low. No matter what it seems like I do it still catches up to me somehow. I just thought I’d share because I know what your facing! Take care and good luck.
I know how to react during exercise, I usually set my basil rate about sixty percent of the normal and it usually works out great. I still test probably every half hour to see where I’m at. I test so much because I want to figure out how my body is works. It is difficult, but even more difficult to figure out is how I’m getting low during the night even though I worked out 12 hours earlier. Has anyone faced these problems before? I like to think that exercising in extreme conditions you won’t need any insulin at all if it like i said extreme for short lenghs of time. But when you are sitting in between exercise it is somewhat impossible to get what you want. You must take the time to watch how your blood sugar is acting like testing every ten to 15 minutes to see what you could do. This way you know how to respond to specific recomendations. But if not on the pump it is going to be much more difficult. My suggestion is to keep cutting back and control your blood sugar by the amount you exercise, just cut back and work harder, but it takes a lot of practice to perfect this technique. I’m sure you’ve tried, but keep at it and good luck…
I pretty much do the same thing I still get crazy numbers during my workout though. I’m weight lifting and only take at most 1-3 minutes before sets and most of the time my bg stays in control, but sometimes it will jump all over the place. It just seems so time consuming. It makes me think though. Oh I wanted to mention to how my sugars don’t usually stay between 80-100 I wish they did but there is still to much fluctuation. Oh by the way how healthy do you actually eat if you don’t mind me asking. I’ve gotten better, but still eat pretty relaxed, but have realized I must count my carbs as good as possible. What is the ideal or realistic goal of how i should eat. I feel like I give in to a lot of things and I guess everyone has their own limits. But I guess I don’t want complicaitons down the road, I was just wondering?
Hey, Riely. I am on long acting insulin and it is Lantus. I am going to ask my diabetic nurse about the pump because so many people have recommended it to me, but I live in the UK where it isn’t so common.
The lows can definatley be discouraging. I sympathize with your frustration. You control you BS through MDI. How often do you check your sugars? Do you know when your activity is going to be more along the lines of endurance? How do you alter your injections prior. Do you check a couple hours after eating to see how your body reacts. Unfortunately, I have found the best way to avoid the lows is constant monitoring. WHile not convenient, and expensive, I check up to 15 times a day if it is a long endurance training day. I have the ability to check my sugars while I train as I am not trying to avoid getting punched or kicked. I too am on a regimen of MDI. I pumped for several years and decided to go to Lantus/ novolog when training for an Ironman a few years ago. Constant trend monitoring, and ingesting roughly 30 carbs/hr works well for me. Endurance is very possible, I have had great success controlling my BS through multiple 50 mile runs, marathons, and an Ironman. Avoiding the lows makes maintenance the key, and it can be aggrevating, but it is far less frustrating than having to stop because of a low. Good luck.
My biggest problem is that my life is so eratic. I am training to be an editor for films, and I write a lot of short stories, so I find I am sitting down most of the time. Then I do the martial arts, but it isn’t something I do every day - just twice a week, on a Sunday then a Monday. My life is really irratic and unpredictable most of the time.
My martial arts tutor did tell me that the exercises we are now doing are very intense - more so than he would normally put people through, and that he was impressed with how my sugars were. No one really thinks less of me because of my health issues - it just upsets me, that’s all.
