You already know the importance of exercise; you know how active you can be with a regular workout habit. But what if you are a kidney patient? Will exercise affect adversely your kidney health? What is the best exercise for kidney health?
So many logical questions like these may pop up in your mind.
Well, that’s not an issue. Because this article is going to help you with a comprehensive guide about kidney disease diet and exercise so you don’t make your health condition worse. Also, we answered some relevant questions so you can leave the page with zero confusion regarding the topic.
Now, let’s get straight to the point.
How Kidney Patients Will Benefit By Doing Exercise?
Starting this section with the most asked question by kidney patients- can I participate in vigorous physical activity? The answer is affirmative. It’s even a great decision to start exercising because it will provide you with more strength and energy you can try Watermelon smoothies.
While doing exercises, your organs and tissues receive a larger amount of nutrients from your blood. Which means you’ll get more energy.
Moreover, you can make your muscles and bones stronger by exercising, there’s nothing to worry about just because you have kidney disease. Doing aerobic exercises for quite an extended period will make your heart work harder which will result in lowering your high blood pressure.
Exercise is a must for diabetes patients. You can prevent diabetes with exercise and can lower the further risks as well if you already have it. Let’s see what else benefits a kidney patient can get from exercises:
- A healthier weight
- The risks of heart attack and stroke will lower
- A significant improvement will be noticed if you have arthritis (joint pains)
- Better sleep
- Improvement stress management
- The lower levels of cholesterol and triglycerides
- Improved muscle plus physical functioning
Best Exercise for Kidney Health
In simple words, continuous activities like aerobic dancing, walking, etc help the most if you’re concerned about kidney health. Moving large muscle groups continuously works like a champ for kidney patients.
Now, here’s a shortlist of the most beneficial exercises for kidney health
- Stretching
- Walking
- Taking dance class
- Swimming
- Taking fitness class
- Bicycling
- Skiing
- Using exercise machines such as a peloton
Other than these, you can consider low-level strengthening exercises. If you need more detailed information about the most useful types of exercises for kidney health, this section below will help you.
Warming Up
Maybe you’re already aware of warm-up activities. Doing some light cardiovascular activities is the zero step of any exercise which is called warming up. Warm-up sessions last only 10–15 minutes. It helps you to work harder for an extended period afterward.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Unlike warming up, cardiovascular exercise is a continuous activity like cycling or walking, or working on large muscles. You can choose from a lot of options when it comes to cardiovascular activities, any of them will benefit your whole body and make you feel great.
About duration, these exercises should be up to 30-40 minutes. Still, if you think the duration seems hard to manage for you, no worries, you can go with your flow. But try to increase the time a bit every 10 days.
Resistance Exercise
Here comes the hardest part. Resistance exercises are hard for anyone so you can do it only a few times. Since these exercises are especially for muscle strengthening, people think that they might not be that significant. But besides muscle strength, it’ll benefit your whole body.
It’s common for kidney patients to suffer from muscle weakness so building stronger muscles helps them do other sorts of exercises more easily.
Healthy Diet Habit for Kidney Patients
A healthy diet is as important as doing exercises or taking medicine. When your kidneys don’t work properly, controlling this balance may seem impossible to you. But you can change your eating and drinking habits to help with this.
Now, if you ask about a kidney-friendly diet, you have to choose a diet habit that:
- Balances your body’s fluids
- Balances the minerals in your body such as salt and potassium
- Makes hormones that can affect other organs’ working capability
And, the diet should protect your kidneys from being damaged in any way.
In most cases, kidney patients don’t need any special diet chart unless they have more advanced kidney disease or they are on dialysis.
But in general, you have to abide by some key rules like cutting out salt and avoiding alcohol. So, what’s wrong with eating salt?
Unfortunately, taking too much salt in your foods is linked with heart disease and high blood pressure which may result in damaging your kidneys. About consuming alcohol, try to completely avoid it or take no more than 2 units a day.
So, overall, limit the salt and minerals in your body like sodium, phosphorus, and calcium. Try to quench your thirst with sugar-free candies, frozen grapes, or ice chips.
Worth mentioning here, you can go for the DASH diet which means Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. DASH is a diet rich in low-fat dairy products, fruits, beans, veggies, fish, poultry, and nuts. And, it must be low in sodium, red meats, fats, sugars & sweets.
I would like to suggest a Pollo Tropical Keto Menu which will give you more low carb calories.
FAQs
Question: Is walking good for kidney disease?
Answer: Yes! Walking is not only good but also highly recommended for kidney disease. People who have chronic kidney disease and who are on dialysis are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular diseases and walking helps prevent such dangers.
Question: Is cycling good for kidney patients?
Answer: Yes. Moderate-intensity cycling for around 30 minutes helps kidney patients stay active.
Question: Is running good for kidneys?
Answer: Yes and no. Because moderate running can lower the risk of chronic kidney disease but it’s a preventive step. Now, if you’re a kidney patient and you run a marathon (26.2 miles), it may worsen your kidney health.
Question: Can exercise damage the kidneys?
Answer: Moderate exercises never damage the kidneys. But too much exercise can adversely affect your kidneys. More specifically, working out over 3 hours per day (unless it’s a marathon, hiking, or kayaking) can harm your kidney health.
