Fitness

Find our fitness posts here! Read about topics on efficient exercises, recreation and active living to improve Type 2 diabetes and overall health.

Review: FitVille Footwear

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For people with Type 2 diabetes, foot issues can make getting around painful and frustrating. That’s a big problem because walking is actually one of the best exercises for diabetes. Most shoes don’t have the comfort you need if you suffer from diabetes-related foot conditions, and can even make foot condition worse. So the DiaBettr team tried out FitVille shoes, one of the few shoe brands designed for people with diabetes or foot conditions.

FitVille’s Stride Core Running Shoe

Pros

  • Comfortable
  • Non-slip, feels steady
  • Prolonged walking/standing

Cons

  • Mediocre design
  • Limited color options
  • A lot of ankle space

FitVille’s Stride Core running shoes are designed for people with foot issues, like diabetes-related nerve damage. These conditions can make walking more painful because most shoes are too narrow and create friction. And you may not feel that friction due to numbness, making the foot condition worse.

FitVille’s shoes are made with their patented “PropelCore” dual-density soles, which they’ve designed to east foot discomfort. The Stride Core has a wide toe box to give extra room and uses a breathable upper (the entire part of the shoe that covers the foot) for more breathability and comfort.

Our Experience with FitVille shoes

We used FitVille’s Stride Core shoes doing mostly light-intensity walking, and short bursts of jogging on a treadmill. Our tester, Jeff, is a 43-year old male with a high BMI and exercises about once a week. Our tester used the men’s version but from our research, should be similar to the women’s version.

Photo Credit: DiaBettr.com

What We Like

One of the first things we noticed was how comfortable the shoes are. The padding and the sole gave the right amount of cushion. The shoes did feel a little loose around the ankles – which took some getting used to – but our feet felt snug and secure. We imagine the extra space is to let the shoes breath better. Our tester spent about 45 minutes with the shoes but said he could have spent over an hour walking in the shoes and would have little discomfort.

The other thing we noticed was walking felt more steady and balanced. The shoe’s wide base and anti-slip helps ‘plant’ your feet to the ground so you’re less likely to stumble. Even during light jogging, the shoes kept our tester steady and didn’t have to worry about slipping or tripping on the treadmill.

Lastly, we thought the Stride Core’s price was reasonable, which sells for about $90. That’s priced below from competitor Orthofeet.com where their shoes for diabetes are priced well above $100.

What We Don’t Like

The Stride Core’s bland design and limited color options are the biggest negatives. The azure colored shoes we tested had some yellow trim for contrast but is mostly just blue. The other color options are black and tan so you don’t have a variety to choose from.

The overall design is clean but does look a little bland. The brand’s “F” logo is on each side and doesn’t look too busy (a plus for us). But aside from basic lines and stitching, the overall design doesn’t really catch the eye.

There’s nothing wrong with simple designs but having only two other colors available is a drawback in terms of looks and appearance. And according to their website, FitVille only sells four other shoe models designed for diabetes. While competitor Orthofeet sells over a dozen models.

Our Verdict

We give FitVille’s Stride Core a score of 8/10. The shoes really do provide extra comfort and cushioning that you don’t find in most shoes. And the wide toe box and anti-slip feature makes your feet more secure, which is important when exercising.

But the bland design and lack of color options is what lowered the score for us. With competitor brands offering more styles (but at higher prices), it would be nice for FitVille to offer more colors to choose from.

If you care more about performance than design, then the FitVille’s Stride Core is a reasonably priced athletic shoe to start exercising and getting fit.

Why Walking is Perfect for Type 2 Diabetes

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Getting active is important for Type 2 diabetes self care but is one of the hardest things to do. Managing diabetes has a lot of daily tasks and exercise is often last on that list. If that’s the case, starting walking program is one of the best things to do to improve your overall health. Walking is an aerobic exercise that offers physical health benefits like increased blood flow and lower blood pressure, and reduces stress for mental wellness. It’s also a low impact movement which is best if you have aches, pains or mobility issues related to diabetes.

We go over the many health benefits of walking for people with diabetes, how to set realistic goals and things to do before taking a walk.

Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links. This means we may get a payment if you make a purchase through the link – at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure for more info.

How Walking Helps Diabetes

1) Low Impact on the Body

Walking is the perfect starter exercise because it’s low intensity and can fit any age and fitness level. Many people with diabetes have limited mobility or have higher body weight. This can make other exercises, like jogging or weight lifting, hard at first and even prevent someone from starting any exercise.

What’s great with a walking routine is that you control how easy or hard to go. If you have arthritis pain, joint pain or get tired easily, start with short walks or go at a slower pace. Over time taking a walk as part of your daily routine will strengthen muscles to help alleviate joint aches and help regain mobility.

And don’t worry if you can only do short walks at first. Even a 10-minute daily walk is valuable physical activity when you have a sedentary lifestyle. Eventually you want to work towards longer walks or moderate intensity walking (like a brisk walk) to see more health benefits.

2) Controls Blood Sugar Levels

Adding walking to your daily routine can lower and control blood sugar levels. Regular brisk walking is a moderate exercise that uses blood glucose for energy, which helps lowers blood glucose levels.

If you don’t get a lot of physical activity even short walks will improve your blood glucose. This study from the American Diabetes Association showed that short bouts of light intensity walking or simple resistance activities helped slow after-meal blood glucose and insulin increases.

People with diabetes often have other complications such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and nerve damage. These complications are associated with diabetes because chronically high blood glucose levels can restrict blood flow, damage blood vessels and lead to high cholesterol.

Like other aerobic exercises, regular walking boosts your cardiovascular fitness and heart health. Brisk walking increases heart rate as the heart pumps more oxygen throughout the body, which strengthens the heart and lungs. Blood circulation also increases and helps heal damaged blood vessels and nerves (or prevents damage from happening).

4) Doesn’t Make You Hungry

Walking is actually an exercise that doesn’t make you hungry, which is a huge benefit if you’re trying to reach a healthy weight. This study of overweight participants found that after 40 minutes of moderate pace walking, their hunger didn’t change and did not need to eat more calories.

Weight loss is mostly about eating less calories than your body uses. While more intense workouts can burn a lot of calories, they often leave you hungrier and more likely to overeat. Since you’re less likely to overeat after taking a walk, this makes weight loss easier if you’re on a restricted diet.

5) Improves Mental Health

Not only does walking boosts physical activity but it also improves mental wellness. Long walks alone gives you time away from distractions and clears your mental state. And walking with other people is a healthy way to maintain social relationships and peer support (important when managing diabetes).

Scientific research shows aerobic exercises (like walking) reduces anxiety and depression and walking through forest areas is effective in lowering negative moods. Also, a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias showed that nursing home patients who participated in a certain walking program was associated with slower cognitive decline.

6) Walk Anywhere and Anytime

Not having enough time or inconvenience are common reasons that make diabetes self care hard for people. But a major benefit of walking is convenience!

Finding a place to walk is easy and walking different areas makes for more interesting walks to helps keep you from getting bored. You can also walk faster or a take brisk walk when you don’t have much time and still see the many benefits of walking. In this 2018 study, older adults tried walking sessions based on high intensity interval training (3-minute bouts of intense walking) and saw significant reductions in their blood glucose.

How much walking is good exercise?

The most important thing at first is to start walking regularly. This makes you commit time and get your body used to the physical activity. Questions like how to long to walk or how many miles to lose weight become more important after you have a walking routine.

Once you’re ready, an easy starting goal is to walk at least 2,000 steps per day, which is roughly equal to 1 mile or 30 minutes. After a week or so increase the goal to at least 2 miles / 4,000 steps per day or about an hour. The American Diabetes Association recommends an optimal goal of at least 3.2 miles or 6,400 steps a day for people with diabetes to see greater health benefits.

You can also set goals by increasing the intensity level such as walking faster, walking up an incline (either on a hill or treadmill), or using ankle weights.

Getting Ready for Walks

Walk After Meals

Time your walks after meals so your body uses up carbs released from eating. This helps keep blood glucose from spiking and make any blood glucose increases more gradual. This also helps lower the chance of having excess glucose in your blood.

Warm up

It’s always a good idea to warm up before exercising, especially if you don’t have an active lifestyle. Warming up increases blood flow to muscles and joints to prep the body for physical activity. For light walks you can gently stretch or deep breathe. Or do deep stretching, jumping jacks or stationary squats to get ready for a higher intensity walk.

Wear Proper Shoes

Some people with diabetes have foot numbness caused by nerve damage related to their diabetes. However, walking shoes that fit too tight can create friction and cause sores or blisters. And you may not feel the friction due to the numbness which makes the situation worse.

You can help prevent this by using shoes with a wider width or have good cushioning. There are actually companies that specialize in shoes for people with foot conditions or designed for diabetes, such as FitVille.com.

Take Care of Foot Pain

Having minor foot pain or aches is common (even in healthy adults) but can lower the quality of your walks. Over the counter products such as capsaicin cream or other pain relief ointments can help alleviate common pain or soreness. However you should consult your care provider for any severe or persistent pain.

Summary

Walking is one of the best ways for people with Type 2 diabetes to exercise regularly and start getting in better health. Regular walking offers many physical benefits – like reversing heart disease and controlling blood sugar – and mental health benefits of reducing stress. At the same time, it’s a low impact movement that’s safe for people with mobility issues or haven’t exercised in a while.

Over time you’ll want to add other exercises to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. But adding a daily walk is the best ‘first step’ to optimal health and diabetes self care!

Resistance Band Squats: Get Strong the Easy Way

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Banded squats are an easy and safe way to burn calories and get stronger.

Strength training burns tons of calories, helps lose weight and is effective at lowering blood sugar.  This 2017 study on strength training and the risk of Type 2 diabetes found participants who did any strength training saw a 30% reduction of Type 2 diabetes.  But strength training can be hard if you have some aches or pains, or if you haven’t exercised in a while.  Using resistance bands can solve this and banded squats are a simple and effective way to ease into strength training.

What are resistance bands?

A resistance band is an elastic band and when under tension, creates resistance or “load.”  Using a resistance band with bodyweight exercises adds load to contract muscles and build strength.

Types of Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are made of latex, nylon or rubber and come in different levels of resistance.  The amount of resistance can be labeled “light,” “heavy,” etc. or by weight such as 20 lbs., 50 lbs. and so on.

They also come in a variety of lengths, thickness and styles.  They have loop bands, free bands (non looped), tube bands with handles, and others.  Ultimately, the type of band you need will depend on the exercise or movements you want to do.

For the banded squats we talk about below, you’ll need loop bands in both large and small sizes. But it’s good to have a combination of bands so you can try other exercises as well.

Why Use Resistance Bands

Easy, safe way to build strength

A resistance band is easier to manage than weights, which is important if you haven’t exercised in some time or have minor aches. This allows you to focus first on proper form and movements, which helps prevent injury.

In fact, resistance bands are commonly used for physical therapy to strengthen muscles and rehabilitate body movement.  You control the resistance from the band by your movements and band placement so you can workout on your own pace.

Focus on specific muscles

By simply changing the placement of a resistance band, you can target specific muscles or create more or less resistance. This is a huge advantage over using weights where you’re more limited in how you hold or place weights.

Take for example doing bicep curls with a loop resistance band.  Gripping the band with your hands workout bicep and forearm muscles.  But using the forearms for the curl actually reduces load on the forearm muscles (by not having to grip the band) and limits the curl movement to focus on the biceps.

A resistance band allows you to easily target weaker muscle groups and is a big reason why they’re widely used in fitness.

Convenience

Resistance bands are lightweight and very portable so you can exercise anywhere.  Not having time to workout is one of the most common reasons we hear that limit peoples’ diabetes self care (which we wrote about here).  We know self care is hard when you don’t have much time in your day but if you start by committing 15 minutes a day for self care, that’s a big step towards controlling diabetes.

Resistance bands work wonders for if you have limited time. Doing just 5 minutes of the bands squats we talk about below is enough to start burning blood sugar. Keep a pair of bands in your car or at work and you can easily get 15 minutes of quality exercise every day.

Adds variety to exercising

One of our favorite reasons to use a resistance band is that you can add them to any body weight exercise and even create different exercises.

With weight training, the movements are more controlled because of the added load. And changing movements usually means changing body positions, weights or even the whole exercise.

But a resistance band gives flexibility with body movements and allows you to work out different muscles at a time.  And doing a variety of exercises keeps you from getting bored to help stay motivated with working out.

In this article we only go over a few variations of banded squats but you can easily find a dozen other versions for this one exercise.

Learning How to Squat

Before doing banded squats, learning proper squat form is critical. The classic squat is an important movement that we learn as kids and use in everyday life.  It’s a compound movement that uses muscles in the legs and thighs (quads and hamstrings), bottom (glutes), as well as the core (lower back and abs).

But most of us don’t use correct form when we squat. Think of all the times we reach down to the floor but don’t bend our knees. It’s a common mistake but can lead to muscle pain and sometimes injury.

Below are steps to do a body weight squat which is used for many banded squat movements.

1. Starting position

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and weight balanced evenly.  Don’t lock your knees and tilt your chest slightly forward, like you’re getting ready to run.

2. Squat down

Squat downs slowly with knees bent and butt back, keeping your chest and head facing forward. As you move down, keep your knees outward and back straight.

3. Bottom of the squat

Squat down until your butt is level with your knees and thighs parallel to the ground.

4. Stand up

Slowly stand up back to the starting position using your leg and glute muscles. Be sure to keep feet planted, back straight and chest forward.

3 Simple Banded Squat Exercises

Now that you know how to do squat exercises, we go over three kinds of the resistance band squat. We chose  resistance band squats because they workout the larger muscles (quads, hamstrings and glutes) so you can burn the most calories in a short amount of time.

The banded squat exercises below work best with loop bands in both large and small sizes. We suggest starting with a lower resistance level to work on proper form and get comfortable with the movement, then increase resistance as you’re able to.

Banded Back Squat

This banded squat variation is similar to conventional bar squats but instead of a bar, a large loop band adds the load. Like standard squats this also works out lower body muscles along with other muscles in your core.

Place the loop band on the back of your neck (near shoulders) and step on the inside of the loop. Stand at the squat position with feet shoulder width apart or wider. Keep the band on the outside of your knees as you squat down, using the same movement as a standard squat.

You’ll notice that resistance band squats adds load at the starting position.  This differs from a standard squat where there’s more resistance at the lower part of the movement.  This is because the resistance band is under full tension at the start of the squat position then decreases as you squat down.

Quick Variation: Use a wide standing position.

This is the same as the banded back squat but take a really wide stance for the standing position. Keep about 3 feet of space between your legs. The variation puts more emphasis on the inner thigh and calf muscles.

Banded Squats with Mini Loops

This variation is basically a body squat but with mini loop bands around the thighs.  This resistance band squat isolates the glutes and hip abductors, which can be one of the weak muscle groups for many people. The band pushes the thighs inward and is countered by pushing the knees outward, which then strengthens weak glutes and hip abductors.

Place the mini loop band around your thighs or closer to the knees for additional resistance.  Use the starting position of a regular squat with feet shoulder width apart. You should feel tension from the band – if not, take a wider stance or use a heavier band. Squat down until thighs parallel to the floor.

Quick Variation: add a side step to the squat.

When you squat down, take a side step so that your knees are past hip width. Hold for a few seconds then step in with the other leg and move up to the standing position.  The side step stretches the mini loop band for even more resistance to really work the glutes and hip abductors. 

Banded Split Squat 

The banded split squat is similar to lunge exercise but you hold a resistance band to create an imbalance as you lunge down, which you need to stabilize by using the core muscles.   Aside from strengthening legs and butt muscles, the banded split squat helps improve balance and coordination.

To start the split squat position, grab the looped band (you can also use free band) with both hands and take one foot and step on the middle of the band. Step back with the other foot, slightly bend your knee, and keep your heel off the ground.

Keep your torso straight with weight mostly on the forward leg, and feet and hips pointed forward.  The band should be in full tension at the starting point – if not, the band may be too long and won’t have enough resistance.

Bend both knees to lunge down until your back knee is almost touching the ground. Slowly stand up using the front leg for power and at the same time keep balance using the back leg. Do a couple reps then switch legs for the next standing position.

The standing point and movement are the same as a banded split squat but at the end, add a bicep curl to get a quick upper body workout. The key thing here is using a loop band with the right length.  The band needs to have enough tension at the starting point but not too much that you can’t pull to a bicep curl.  Once you find the right size, this variation is an easy way to combine lower and upper body workouts to save time.

Summary

There’s no doubt strength training is effective at lowering blood sugar and weight loss – two big priorities for people with Type 2 diabetes.  Banded squats work great to ease you into training, especially if you haven’t exercised in a while or have some aches and pain.

We showed you three easy banded squat variations that are guaranteed to burn calories and help make you stronger. Best yet – bands squats only take 15 minutes of your day and can be the easiest part of your daily diabetes self care.