Weight Training Can Help Prevent Diabetes

Updated June 09, 2015.

Physical activity helps to prevent type 2 diabetes and manage the condition of those with diabetes, along with a healthy diet and weight maintenance. That's what the experts like the American Diabetes Association confirm. Weight training and strength training is an important part of the exercise mix in this prevention strategy.

Pre-diabetes: Next Step, Diabetes

Pre-diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) is diagnosed when blood glucose (blood sugar) is above normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease of abnormal blood glucose as a result of the storage hormone insulin being insufficient or not working well enough. If not treated, this early stage can progress to diabetes with some rapidity.

Weight Training Helps Reduce Blood Glucose

Exercise helps reduce abnormal blood glucose by using it from the blood and muscle as fuel and by making insulin more sensitive and efficient at storing glucose in a form called glycogen in muscle and liver.

Strength training has a particular role to play because when we lift or push weights the main fuel used is that stored as muscle glucose. Building extra muscle also provides us with a larger storage area for glucose, so the combination of these two factors -- increased muscle and regular emptying of these muscle stores -- improves the body's glucose processing, a factor crucial in preventing and managing type 2 diabetes.

Aerobic exercise helps by burning glucose and fats and assisting with fat loss, while strength training also assists with weight management by expending energy and building muscle.

Weight reduction is particularly important in preventing pre-diabetes from progressing to a full-blown diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, which is generally not reversible.

Recommended Exercise for Prevention and Management of Diabetes

In their consensus statement of 2006, The American Diabetes Association recommends a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise as follows:

For people with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week including aerobic exercise and weight training.

Performing 4 hours / week of moderate to vigorous aerobic and / or resistance exercise physical activity is associated with greater CVD risk reduction compared with lower volumes of activity.

In the absence of contraindications, people with type 2 diabetes should be encouraged to perform resistance exercise three times a week, targeting all major muscle groups, progressing to three sets of 8–10 repetitions at a weight that cannot be lifted more than 8–10 times (8–10 RM).

The report recommends that an experienced trainer should supervise this exercise program initially and that a pre-exercise medical assessment be performed as appropriate. So if you are considering a weight training program for this purpose, a trainer with some experience of training in diabetes management is preferable. Liaison with your doctor and / or dietitian is always a good idea.

Exercising with Diabetes

Non-insulin dependent or type 2 diabetics sometimes have a unique set of problems to deal with. For some people, eye damage called retinopathy, and diabetic nerve damage leading to foot ulcers complicate the care required when physical activity programs are followed. If this applies to you, a doctor's consent is mandatory and he may suggest that you and your trainer be aware of, and adjust exercise for retinopathy, foot ulcers, insulin injection, history of hypos (low blood sugar) on exercise, or angina.

We need to get moving to prevent diabetes, that's the main message. Even in the absence of weight loss, regular physical activity, including weight training, can significantly improve your chances of warding off type 2 diabetes.
Reference

Sigal RJ, Kenny GP, Wasserman DH, Castaneda-Sceppa C, White RD. Physical activity/exercise and type 2 diabetes: a consensus statement from the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes Care. 2006 Jun;29(6):1433-8.