Weight Training Significantly Lowers Diabetes Risk

Weight training may reduce the risk of men to develop type-2 diabetes.  Frank Hu, from Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on 32,002 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study from 1990-2008. During that time, there were 2,278 new cases of diabetes during 508,332 person-years of follow-up. The researchers found a dose-response relationship between an increasing amount of time spent on weight training or aerobic exercise and a lower risk of diabetes.  In addition to the 34% lower risk for men who did at least 150 minutes per week of weight training only, the authors reported that those who did at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise had a 52% lower risk. Further, those who did both aerobic exercise and weight training for that amount of time had the greatest reduction in risk.