Pumping iron hones glycemic control in type 2 diabetes.(Clinical Rounds)

KEYSTONE, COLO. -- Weight lifting is an attractive option to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes, Richard Weil said at a conference on management of diabetes in youth.

The great majority of research on the metabolic benefits of exercise in patients with type 2 diabetes has focused on aerobic exercise, which has been shown to increase insulin action and improve glycemic control. But getting patients with type 2 diabetes to embrace aerobic exercise can be a tough sell.

Type 2 diabetes patients usually are overweight or obese and have been sedentary for many years, he said at the conference, sponsored by the University of Colorado and the Children's Diabetes Foundation at Denver.

That's why recent studies demonstrating that strength training also improves glycemic control are so exciting. This is a form of exercise that many long-sedentary people find easier to embrace.

"Particularly when beginners are starting to lift, you can see 40%-50% increases in muscle strength within a couple weeks. It happens even before their muscle mass gets bigger. So where's the strength coming from? The brain is firing more, recruiting more muscle fibers. The body responds very quickly. That's very encouraging for people who are sedentary," explained Mr. Weil, an exercise physiologist who is director of the New York Obesity Research Center Weight Loss Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York.

A representative study by researchers at Tufts University, Boston, randomized 62 type 2 diabetic adults to either a control group or a group that underwent 16 weeks of supervised, ...