Diabetes and Weight Training

Up until now most research on diabetes and exercise has focused on aerobic exercise or a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance training. A new Australian study looked at progressive resistance exercise and people with type 2 diabetes and found that the benefits were comparable to adding a second drug to the diabetic regimen. Diabetics are often started on metformin. When that fails to control blood sugar adequately, then a second drug is added in. Progressive resistance training would have the same effect. It is believed that the reason is due to the increase in muscle mass. Muscle requires glucose for energy. The more muscle you have, the more the glucose is used. Exercise also makes muscle cells more sensitive to insulin, which allows the glucose into the cells. The resistance training must get progressively more aggressive. Light weight-training does not have the same effect. While a combination of serious weight training and aerobic exercise is ideal, this study does allow that resistance training alone can be beneficial. This is useful for those people who cannot do aerobic exercise due to physical limitations. 

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