Want to get fit? You can exercise without even knowing it!

Watching the Olympic Games last summer with my Uncle Joey was a revelation. Joey, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes shortly after his 63rd birthday in 2004, is not what you’d call the athletic type. Yet he was fascinated by the table tennis tournament. “I loved Ping-Pong when I was younger,” he said, marveling at the fact that the game he used to play in his basement is an Olympic sport.

He reacted with similar amazement when informed that badminton — another activity he’d enjoyed many years ago — was on the roster in Beijing. And when I tuned in to the trampoline finals, he flipped out!

Averse — or maybe stubborn — in his refusal to join a gym, start walking regularly or participate in any other type of regular exercise that is so strongly recommended for people with diabetes, Joey perked up when I assembled a badminton set in his backyard. Within a few hours, he’d moved around more than he had, collectively, since the Carter administration and started asking about age limits for the Olympic team.

A week later, a Ping-Pong table occupied his basement again — though my aunt dissuaded him from buying a trampoline on Craigslist.

Perhaps not an Olympic achievement, Uncle Joey has dropped 25 pounds since the Olympics and his general mood has brightened markedly. What he’s revealed in the process is that he and millions of others with diabetes can improve their health and manage their glucose levels by engaging in a range of fun activities — and never have to call them exercise. Along with badminton and Ping-Pong, count bowling, dancing and gardening among recreational pastimes that provide many of the same benefits of a formal exercise routine, from aerobic conditioning to muscle toning. Add the social and emotional boosts associated with physical activity, and the outcome is gold-medal-worthy.

“Working in the garden is exercise,” says Renee Martinez, RN, the director of member services for Fit4D.com, an online, subscriber-based venture whose goal is to improve the health of people with diabetes through fitness and nutrition coaching. “You’re walking around, lifting things, bending and stretching.”

Without uttering the “e” word, Martinez includes dancing among activities that many of Fit4D’s older members enjoy. Along with the often vigorous movement in many dance steps, “there’s a social component that’s important to older people, some of whom are isolated from family,” she says. “People who are widowed and might not otherwise want to do things can go to a dance class and find a safe environment in which to interact.”

Phil Martin appreciates the social aspects of dancing, but he’s also scientifically proven the healthy side effects of cuttin’ the rug. A lecturer in the kinesiology department at California State University–Long Beach, Martin has been teaching dance classes for years — and using more than 5,000 of his students as research subjects. Periodically he takes students’ pulses after each dance. “Most get their pulse rates up high enough to get the aerobic benefit of a 40-minute workout,” he says.

“We also look at their caloric expenditure and have found they can burn nearly 1,200 calories per hour — the same as someone sprinting.” He says the same applies to older dancers, claiming that dance as exercise “works for every age group.”

Martin, who teaches ballroom, country and folk dance classes, advocates swing, polka and samba for people looking to dance for their health. “The waltz, believe it or not, when speeded up rivals any others because of its fast up-and-down movements,” he adds. He also points to pushing and pulling a dance partner as similar to resistance strength training.

AARP compares dancing to such moderate, low-impact, weight-bearing activities as brisk walking, cycling or aerobics, insisting that it can help:

• strengthen bones and muscles without hurting your joints
• tone your entire body
• improve your posture and balance, which can help prevent falls
• increase your stamina and flexibility
• reduce stress and tension
• build confidence
• provide opportunities to meet people
• ward off illnesses like high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis and depression

Of course, all those attributes are exactly what traditional exercise routines can do for people with diabetes.

“I can’t think of a better exercise for seniors with diabetes than dancing,” Martin says.

“It will not only help keep them fit but also keep them doing it. For a lot of people, dancing is something they can’t wait to do again. When you combine exercise, socialization and music, they really motivate people to participate.”

Now, if I can only convince Uncle Joey that the waltz is being considered for the next Olympics.