Getting my pump on (With The MiniMed 640g)

This week pre-season conditioning came to an end, which meant two things for my training regime; firstly that I don't have to do quite so many circuits sessions anymore. Then secondly that the circuits have now been replaced by weightlifting sessions. I haven't blogged much about weights before, because before I had treatment on my achilles, they were a bit of a challenge. However, having had achilles treatment, this season I plan to do a full programme of weights to prepare for the sprints season ahead.

The type of weights we do for sprinting are mainly some of the types known as 'Olympic lifts' such as cleans, squats, snatch etc, with just a couple of machine weights built into the mix. But the reason that I'm identifying this point is that both have a completely different affect on my blood sugar levels. Explosive lifts such as the Olympic ones normally cause my blood glucose levels to drop because they require the most physical exertion, because they engage the whole body in the movement. Whereas my blood sugar levels tend to rise when doing machine weights, which I assume is because these isolate parts of the body and are not physically exerting enough to counteract the affect of adrenaline (which often causes glucose levels to spike).

Getting My Pump On Lifting Weights In The Gym

When I started my first weightlifting session this week, my glucose levels were 12.0mmol, but I left them there because I couldn't be sure of the effect that the first weights session would have. Luckily I was wearing an Enlite sensor for the Medtronic MiniMed 640g pump, because what I saw was that I actually got an initial slight adrenaline spike, to 13.0mmol by the end of the session. This was because of the excitement at being back in the gym and going from no lifting to heavy sets and relatively heavy weights. But what I was particularly relieved about was that I was wearing a sensor to help with the numerous amount of hypos I would have gotten afterwards. The Smart Guard system on the pump prevented two hypos altogether and told me about one I was having, that when I tested was a 2.9mmol. Luckily I was at home for this and was able to treat it straight away. It then prevented another overnight would have been hypo too.

I must stress that whilst hypos post and during sport can be a possibility, they're not always as great in numbers as this. But this definitely highlights the need for blood sugar testing during exercise, whether you're on a sensor or not. They occurred because my body was worked so hard with the weights and also possibly because I'd had the flu jab on the same day. But nutrition played a big role in getting back to normal, by having quite carb heavy meals after the session and the next day I was able to refuel my used glycogen stores and stop anymore hypos from happening so that when it was safe to do so I could train again.

Deadlifting Whilst Wearing The Medtronic MiniMed 640g Pump