Best Exercises For Type 2 Diabetes and Lowering A1C

A recent study published November 24th in The Journal of the American Medical Association has found that a combination of aerobic training and weight lifting shows the most glucose lowering benefit than either type of exercise alone.


In fact, data revealed that combining the two types of exercise has more of an effect on blood sugar than increasing total exercise time.

The exact recommendations are about 100 minutes of higher-intensity aerobics each week plus 1-2 days of resistance training for 15-20 minutes each time.

The study participants exercised this way for 9 months and dropped their A1C from 7.7% to 7.3% on average. This is a significant drop in A1C and lowers the risk of heart disease.

Weight lifting is important because it builds muscle, which uses up glucose while you are not working out. While aerobic training helps to lower glucose during your work out.

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Sources: RONI CARYN RABIN, Exercise: For Type 2 Diabetes, 2 Types of Training, The New York Times, Published: November 24, 2010

Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/health/research/30exercise.html?ref=vitalsigns