Exercise Concepts for Better Results and Less Pain

Amp up your workout enjoyment and results 

Diet and exercise are often grouped together, but one is more important than the other. Have you ever heard the expression “You can’t outrun a bad diet”? Well, it’s true. What you eat is far more important than if you exercise. So make your Revero diet your priority. 

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Would exercise help you get better results? There’s a good chance it would. At least breaking up periods of sedentary time to get some movement helps, too. If your job requires you to sit, it could mean getting up every hour and walking or doing some type of movement. 

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Exercise does provide many health benefits, but it’s not a requirement on Revero. While we certainly wouldn’t discourage it, it’s not mandatory. 

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Once you have successfully integrated the nutritional components of your protocol and experienced some level of relief from metabolic disease and inflammation, you may incorporate some simple exercise concepts (more on that to follow).

Good Reasons to Exercise

It’s no surprise that exercise is healthy for us. How much you exercise, how intensely, and how often can affect how much benefit you derive from it. Exercise can help you lose weight and better manage your blood glucose, but please understand that it does not replace a good low-carbohydrate diet for treating metabolic disease. 

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However, exercise can also help:

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• Improve your functional fitness, so you can move around, do chores, or just get up off the ground more easily.
• When your fitness improves you can better enjoy sports or other activities with family or friends.
• Exercise may improve your ability to concentrate and think clearly.
• It may improve your sleep.
• Exercise can help reduce the effects of stress. 
• You’re more resistant to injury in good physical condition.
• Your immune system may work better.
• It’s another opportunity to do something with others and build better social connections.
• Your self-esteem may improve.

Reasons to Avoid Exercise

• You may simply not find any pleasure in exercising. This may mean you haven’t tried a sport or hobby you enjoy, so it’s worth experimenting with new things. 
• You might feel intimidated by exercise, or be afraid of injuring yourself. If you really don’t want to exercise, it’s ok! 
• You can always try later if you change your mind. 

Movement and Exercise Are Not Identical

While exercise is specific movements or sports that don’t necessarily accomplish any useful work, just physically moving about carrying out chores, walking to the store, collecting and splitting firewood, or other activities also have some physical benefits. This is particularly true if you compare them with sedentary behaviors like sitting in front of a computer, gaming console or television. 

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A lack of physical activity, or being sedentary, is a common denominator in many people’s lives. The number of hours spent being sedentary every day is directly correlated to a number of diseases. 

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Even if you’re not actively exercising, just breaking up the sitting time and doing almost anything that involves physical movement time is a great improvement. If you must sit for work, just take breaks to get up and walk around, do a few squats, go down the hall to the restroom or water cooler, or walk outside and keep the smokers company during their smoke breaks. 

Are There Risks to Exercising?

If you haven’t been exercising, it is best practice to start with something very gentle and not challenging. Starting out with fast, heavy, or intense exercise is a recipe for disaster! You should also get cleared by your doctor first, in case there are medication issues or other problems you may not have thought of. 

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For example, if you’re using blood glucose lowering medications, your blood sugar may get too low after exercising. That’s because you’ve burned up some of that blood sugar, which isn’t a bad thing unless you end up hypoglycemic, weak, and shaky. 

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Pay attention to the feedback your body gives you, and err on the side of caution so that you don’t cause yourself an injury or other problem. 

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Many other familiar recommendations also apply to exercise:

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• Make sure you drink enough water. If you’ll be perspiring heavily, drink water and take some salt before exercising
• Don’t skimp on your sleep
• If you’re recovering from illness or injury, finish recovering before exercising
• Start out gently (i.e. warm up) and give yourself time to wind-down (cool down). 
• Don’t forget to get your 5 grams per day of salt, unless you’ve been told otherwise

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What Exercises to Choose?

This is completely up to you. In general, it is easier to stick to an exercise routine if it is something that you enjoy doing. Try not to choose something that you think will be dreadfully boring. If you’re not sure, have a chat with your health coach. 

Biomarkers and Exercise

• Moving regularly and exercise at low intensity may boost your ketones
• Intense or long-duration exercise will lower your ketones temporarily because your muscles burned them for fuel
• Short, easy movement sessions like taking a walk or doing mild yoga can help lower your blood sugar after eating. 
• Intense exercise may result in higher blood sugar levels afterward, but it’s not a bad thing. It is just your body fueling your movement.
• Increasing lean muscle mass will help control blood glucose while improving insulin sensitivity
• You may lose additional weight from exercise, but don’t count on it. Your diet is a far more powerful tool for weight loss
• If you build muscle mass, you may notice that your clothes fit better but you weigh more. Muscle is more dense than body fat. 
• If you keep gaining weight but don’t think it’s muscle, make sure you’re not simply eating more

Getting Started

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• Decide what your daily schedule will look like and when you’ll fit in exercise session
• Choose a movement or exercise
• Decide your entry point with regards to intensity and duration. In some cases, this may involve choosing which group to join as some may be more advanced than others
• Start slowly
• Journal your activity and progress

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Remember, torture doesn’t need to be part of exercise. Instead, follow your diet and stay within the right intensity zone to help progress to happen, faster and more painlessly. And don’t forget to just get out and play, which is great for the body and the mind! 

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