Move to celebrate Diabetes Day

Structured exercise is better than physical activity to fight diabetes

Technogym supported a large Randomized Control Trail aimed to evaluate if
prescribed and controlled exercise is better than standard physical
activity. The study involved 600 patients with type 2 diabetes and metabolic
syndrome randomized into an exercise group (300 patients) and a control
group (the remaining 300) doing standard physical activity.

The exercise group followed in 23 Centers a specific training program
prescribed by a team of endocrinologist and Technogym exercise
physiologists. The training was managed with Wellness System, the Technogym
Software Solution for exercise control and evaluation, ideal to share data
between patient, Wellness Centers and doctors.

Preliminary results show that structured exercise is definitely better than
standard physical activity in controlling the main metabolic parameters (eg.
Hb1c and lipid profile) and in improving physical performance as expressed
in V02 max and maximal strength.

The benefits of physical activity are already well-known and supported in
literature, thus diabetic patients generally received the recommendation to
carry an active lifestyle, for example walking 150 minute per week at a
low-moderate intensity – just few doctors would send them to a club for a
specific training program.

Dr. Zanuso – Technogym Exercise Physiologist said that "This study
represents the first large randomized clinical study that supports the
importance of exercising at a controlled intensity with supervision of
trained professionals teaming up with doctors demonstrating that Wellness
Clubs can provide a very good medicine for diabetic patients".

Consistently with its strong commitment on special populations Technogym
developed a Metabolic Fitness Project aimed to raise doctors awareness on
effectiveness of exercise to treat diabetic patients and to create metabolic
exercise specialists within the Clubs.