Exercising at Home During Covid-19

Everyone knows that exercise is important, but why is that? It’s certainly true that exercise is fundamental to building strength and maintaining a healthy weight. However, there is another important reason that many of us overlook — its ability to manage our glucose levels and increase insulin sensitivity.

Exercise plays a pivotal role in glycogen management. Glycogen is our body’s storage form of glucose, it provides our body with an easy-to-access 24-hour energy reserve. Glycogen stores only exist in two places in the body: the skeletal muscle and the liver. While the liver can shuttle glucose throughout the body, the muscle holds on to its own glucose, using it as fuel when the need arises. Exercise allows the body to make use of the stored glycogen in the muscles and increases that muscle’s ability to siphon excess glucose from the blood for a period of time after the workout. The eventual increase in muscle mass also translates to increased storage space for glucose. Whereas the liver cannot change much in size, we can certainly increase our muscle mass through repeat exercise.

The second way that exercise helps us manage glucose is by enhancing our cells’ sensitivity to the hormone insulin. This translates to less insulin production by the pancreas and an increase in insulin’s glucose-lowering effects. While traditional exercise recommendations indicate a need for 150 minutes weekly to reap these benefits, research has shown that the intensity of exercise matters just as much as duration.

Research Brief: Short on time? Both diabetics and non-diabetics can reap the benefits of high-intensity exercise (HIE) training. Utilizing training programs of 20 minutes HIE or less, insulin sensitivity has been shown to increase for 1–3 days afterward. In non-diabetics, just 40 minutes of maximal interval running weekly improved blood glucose to the same effect as 150 minutes moderate-intensity exercise weekly. In individuals with type 2 diabetes, a single session of HIE improved post-prandial glucose for 24 hours. Read the full study here.

With your gym closed, staying active can be a challenge! “Sheltering at home” doesn’t mean you have to give up your exercise routine though, you may just need to change it up a bit. Here are our tips for incorporating glucose-lowering exercise while stuck at home:

1. Try an online workout channel (for free!). There are a ton of great free options online today, and many of them require very minimal equipment. YouTube channels like Fitness Blender, Sydney Cummings, Yoga with Adrienne, Adam Rosante, BodyRock, and Scott Herman Fitness offer exercise routines for all fitness levels and time commitment preferences.
2. Download an app. Peloton’s workout streaming app is offering a 90-day free trial. Aaptiv, an app focused on quick, audio-based workouts, offers a free 7-day trial period all year round. Alternatively, check your smartwatch for free training programs to reach your fitness goals.
3. Get creative with your household items. Strength training is important for glucose disposal and building glucose storage space. No equipment at home? No problem! Try using a couch or desk to do tricep dips. Fill a backpack with textbooks and do lunges. Try building a circuit with ab exercises, push-ups, and stair lunges or jumps. Incorporate weights and banded movements if able, and do what you can with what you have.
4. Build an EMOM. EMOMs, or Every Minute on the Minute, are great for time constraints. Typically only 10–20 minutes long, they can give you a swift kick in the behind. Simply choose your desired workout length, and pick a handful of movements to complete. For example, a 20-minute workout might include 12 burpees the first minute, 20 squats the next, 20 push-ups on minute three, and 10 pull-ups or tricep dips on minute four. Complete the first exercise, and the rest of the time remaining in that minute is your rest time. When the next minute starts, begin the next exercise. Repeat 5x total. Find more ideas here.
5. Workout with NutriSense! Use the following guide to come up with new and exciting workouts. Be sure to follow us on Instagram @nutrisenseio for more bodyweight workout ideas!