The scientifically tested Metabolic Fit training program helps you regulate your metabolism. This program starts easily and gradually increases intensity as your body adapts to heavier weights, ensuring optimal progress and success.

Do you have type 2 diabetes and need methods to regulate your blood sugar and promote your overall health? Then try Metabolic Fit, a training program developed specifically for you by EGYM+.

Physical activity is a key component of holistic treatment for type 2 diabetes. The combination of strength and endurance training is considered a particularly effective method for actively counteracting insulin resistance. Our tailored training program on EGYM+ equipment is science-based and specifically designed to meet your unique needs.

Type 2 Diabetes at a Glance
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder that causes elevated blood sugar levels. This is due to insulin resistance, which means the cells do not respond properly to insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows muscles or the liver, for example, to absorb sugar from the bloodstream.

If insulin is not effective or if the body’s cells do not respond properly to it, blood sugar levels remain high. In the long term, this can cause damage to blood vessels, nerves, and organs. Initially, there may be no symptoms, or symptoms may be very non-specific, such as fatigue, increased susceptibility to infections, frequent urination, dry and itchy skin, or increased thirst. Because of this, type 2 diabetes is often discovered during routine check-ups.

Type 2 diabetes can lead to serious complications, such as stroke, heart attack, nephropathy (kidney damage), neuropathy (nerve damage), or retinopathy (retinal damage).

Benefits of Strength and Endurance Training for Type 2 Diabetes
There are approximately 30 million Americans with diabetes in the US, and 95% of them have type 2 diabetes. Besides genetic predisposition, your lifestyle is the most important factor determining whether you develop type 2 diabetes and how the disease progresses. Being overweight and a lack of exercise play right into the disease’s hands. If you regularly eat food containing too much fat and sugar, your weight increases, which in turn affects your physical fitness. Regular training is therefore extremely important for your health.

Strength and endurance training is one of your best options. It has a positive effect on your sugar metabolism and increases the insulin sensitivity of your cells, meaning training drastically lowers your blood sugar levels. Increased physical activity helps restore the interrupted flow of glucose from the blood to the muscle cells. Regular training can help lower your HbA1c levels, which indicate your average blood sugar level over time. Strength and endurance training helps increase muscle activity and muscle mass while breaking down excess fat. It increases the number of calories you burn, and your basal metabolic rate improves along with muscle growth.

Additionally, systematic strength and endurance training can lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and other health factors, strengthen the immune system, improve sleep, increase well-being, promote general health, and reduce the risk of complications such as vascular disease.

Full Body Strength and Endurance Training on the EGYM+ Circuit
Your training performance is significantly influenced by how often and how intensely you train, what type of training you do, and which machines you use. With Metabolic Fit, we have put together a precisely targeted training program for you. As with all EGYM+ training programs, our Metabolic Fit program—specifically developed for people with type 2 diabetes—is based on training with our EGYM+ strength machines. This modern approach to training optimally combines endurance and strength training. You therefore benefit from the advantages of both endurance and strength training when it comes to managing type 2 diabetes.

Especially if you are a type 2 diabetic who has never done endurance training before, or if you haven’t trained regularly, it’s important to start slowly and not overexert yourself. That’s why this training program starts very gently and slowly increases in intensity. 18 strength-endurance training sessions are followed by six muscle-building sessions to maintain your progress.

Previously, this kind of tailored training schedule was only available to those who could afford 1:1 guidance from a personal trainer. In contrast, training on EGYM+ machines is fully automated, allowing you to train independently in accordance with your individual intensity requirements. The regular and automatic strength tests, the foundation of every EGYM+ training program, guarantee the right amount of effort for every session. Furthermore, consistent training sessions with lighter weights are better for your blood pressure.

Another important feature for ensuring an effective training session is a concept known as periodization. This means the training session is divided into four different phases, one after the other. In each phase, different training methods are used, with different training stimuli to increase the effect of your training session.

The Four Phases in the Metabolic Fit Training Program Are as Follows:

Phase 1: Activation (negative)

Activates your metabolism
The negative training method is perfectly suited to slowly introduce you to strength training. For example, effort levels during negative training are perceived as lower than during regular training. Additionally, your muscles are gently acclimated to strength training through the increased weight in the eccentric phase (lowering).

Phase 2: Metabolism (regular)

Accelerating the metabolism
Strength-endurance training using the regular method allows your muscles to consume a lot of energy in a short time. The average weight and high number of repetitions create a metabolic load that trains and accelerates your metabolism. The increased demand for calories ensures that sugar flows out of your blood and into your muscles. The result is that your muscles become more sensitive to insulin!

Phase 3: Fat Burning (negative)

Increased fat burning
In the third phase, we return to a negative method. However, there is a significant increase in intensity in this phase. The heavier weights and increased number of repetitions will challenge you and kickstart your metabolism. The result is clear: your body will start burning more fat. You are on your way to a healthy metabolism.

Phase 4: Muscle Building (regular)

Healthy muscle building
In the final phase, we will again use the regular training method. The goal is to use heavier weights and a slightly lower number of repetitions to stimulate muscle growth. Since every extra pound of muscle mass is good for your metabolism, the rule is: the more muscle you have, the more sugar you can burn, even at rest!

Scientifically Proven Training Program for Regulating Blood Sugar Levels
Our Metabolic Fit program is based on a nationwide study in Germany, conducted in collaboration with the University of Leipzig and EGYM+ partner clubs between November 2016 and April 2017. The goal was to investigate how effective a digitally supported strength training program, which had already proven effective in experimental studies, would be for people with type 2 diabetes training in normal fitness and health facilities.

The main goal of the study was to lower HbA1c levels. The HbA1c value reflects blood sugar levels over time and is used to measure the severity of the disease. The subjects’ HbA1c levels were measured by a doctor. All subjects had a value equal to or higher than 6.9 (average: 7.6) and were therefore considered diabetic.

The result of the study was a positive influence on all health parameters considered:

• Blood sugar levels over time: HbA1c -10% (***)
• Functional tests: strength +39% (), walking test +35% (), sit/stand test +32% (***)
• Measurements: weight -3kg (), waist -5cm (**), hips -3cm (*)
• Blood pressure: systolic -3%, diastolic -6% (*)

Statistical significance p < 0.05 () / 0.005 () / 0.0005 ()

We developed our Metabolic Fit program based on insights gained from our diabetes study. If you have type 2 diabetes, we can now offer you a practical, scientifically validated training program proven to help lower blood sugar levels over time and improve your overall health. You can find more information about the study results here: EGYM+’s diabetes training program shows positive results.

Training Tips for People with Type 2 Diabetes

There are two essential things to remember for strength-endurance training as a person with type 2 diabetes:

1. Check your blood sugar often and avoid hypoglycemia: when exercising, your muscles need a lot of energy. This can cause your blood sugar to drop quickly. How fast this happens varies per person. We therefore recommend measuring your blood sugar before, during, and after training and noting the results. This helps you learn how your body responds to exertion.
2. Keep fast and slow carbohydrates handy at the club: during longer training sessions, we recommend a combination of fast and slow carbohydrates to raise your blood sugar and keep it more or less stable. Fast carbohydrates include glucose, for example, while slow carbohydrates can be found in muesli bars. People with diabetes who are sensitive to low blood sugar should always have a small emergency supply of fast carbohydrates with them during training.