How does exercise affect insulin resistance?
In other words, your signals are broken. Your body doesn’t get the message to let the sugar in, so your body releases more and more insulin because your blood glucose stays high. So what does all this mean when it comes to training?
It’s easier than you think to create big problems with your hormones by doing the wrong types of exercises. As women, when trying to lose weight, we seem to go for the long ends of cardio. Trust me, I get it. For years I listened to the “experts” on the Internet and to people who did not understand hormonal disorders. I did workouts that included light to medium weights, full body workouts with no rest periods, instead jumping around doing “fat burning” plyometrics. I did high intensity metabolic workouts on the days in between, I went low, low carb, and high fat. All I got was bloated, tired, angry, and no weight loss.
You can absolutely go overboard with long cardio sessions like running which can trigger the stress hormone (cortisol) which is what I was experiencing. You have to think about how your body handles stress and if you have any hormonal issues then stress is something you need to reduce to slow the rise in cortisol. Your body doesn’t know the difference between good and bad stress, therefore exercise can be seen as stress. All your body is feeling is a racing heart rate, heavy breathing, and anxiety, so we have to change what the body is experiencing and make it a less anxious event.
This is where walking comes into play for most of your cardio sessions. I used to think it was the most boring thing to do until I started paying close attention to taking at least 10,000 steps a day and noticed an immediate difference in my inflammation. It became a game of making sure I got my steps every day. I used it as an opportunity to slow down from my normal busy and fast-paced schedule, get outdoors, clear my mind and really started to enjoy these moments.
Walking is a hormonal stabilizer and a movement that our body must do every day.
Weight training:
Your muscles are where excess glucose is stored, and by increasing your lean muscle mass, you help resolve your insulin issues, resulting in a healthy body composition. Which translates to a leaner, firmer body, which is the goal here.
But how do you gain more lean body mass? This is where weight training comes in, but I’m not talking about Barbie bells, ladies. Don’t be afraid to lift heavy weights. To increase the amount of muscle your body has then you need to challenge the muscle with weights and the only way to do that is by lifting heavy weights.
I’m not saying walk up to the dumbbell rack and grab the biggest weights on the rack; you need to lift what is heavy for you right now. BUT… keep in mind that this should change every workout. Challenge yourself each workout by pushing one more rep or lifting a little more weight. Your body will respond and you will start to see some beautiful changes. You need to keep in mind that we’re trying to keep our bodies calm, which means you also need to pay attention to your rest periods between your training bouts.
Remember earlier when I mentioned that I wouldn’t sit still between my sets, but rather do plyometrics.
Well, this is where you need to take 1-2 minutes to rest your muscles. I know it seems boring, it took me a bit to get used to, however it serves two purposes. First, it allows your muscles to recover so you can lift heavy on the next set. Second, you keep your body calm so it doesn’t feel stress and start producing more cortisol.
Whether you have PCOS, diabetes, Hashimoto’s disease, or menopause, if you start to follow the advice I’ve included here, you’ll start to see the changes you’re looking for in your body.
If you need help with a training program, contact me. I provide private one-on-one training at home and in our private studio, as well as online training programs that include demo videos of all exercises. Our programs are tailored to your goals and your fitness level.
