{"id":18946,"date":"2025-04-14T10:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T10:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18946\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T10:20:15","slug":"lifting-weight-may-lower-type-2-diabetes-risk-per-new-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/18946\/","title":{"rendered":"Lifting Weight May Lower Type 2 Diabetes Risk, Per New Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are a woman born in America in 2000, research suggests you have a 39 percent risk of develop type 2 diabetes in your lifetime<\/a>. And while its hard to pinpoint risk numbers for the entire population, you can assume it’s pretty high since one in ten Americans have diabetes, and about 90 to 95 percent of those are type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n

So, it makes sense that you might want to do everything you can to lower your personal risk of developing the disease. Major medical organizations<\/a> suggest lifestyle changes like eating a healthy diet and incorporating regular movement into your day to lower your risk, but new research has found that a simple fitness tweak may help take your prevention game one step farther. <\/p>\n

It involves strength training<\/a>, which is good for your health in so many ways, from bone and brain health to faster metabolisms and better mobility. Still, if you\u2019ve been looking for another sign that you should add more muscle-building activity to your life, you\u2019ve found it. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the new study discovered, plus why having muscles is so helpful for type 2 diabetes prevention.<\/p>\n

Meet the experts<\/strong>: Christoph Buettner<\/a>, MD, PhD, chief of the division of endocrinology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab<\/a><\/p>\n

What did the study find?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The scientific analysis was published in the journal BMC Medicine<\/a> and crunched data from 141,848 people in Britain who didn\u2019t have type 2 diabetes at the start of the study period. <\/p>\n

The researchers looked at muscle strength (in the form of grip strength, a commonly-used marker of strength), along with each participant\u2019s risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Over the course of seven years, 4,743 participants were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. <\/p>\n

The researchers found that people with high muscle strength had a 44 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes during the study period compared to their weaker counterparts, even when they had a genetic risk of developing the disease. This, the researchers concluded, is a solid sign that more studies need to be done around the impact of strength training and type 2 diabetes risk. <\/p>\n

Strength Training From WHHow does muscle strength help reduce type 2 diabetes risk?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Muscles use glucose (blood sugar) and fats as a source of energy, explains Christoph Buettner<\/a>, MD, PhD, chief of the division of endocrinology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. As a result, having more muscle means you have less blood sugar and fat circulating around your body. \u201cThat help actually control diabetes,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab<\/a>, agrees. \u201cThe more lean muscle mass you have, the better your body\u2019s ability to manage your blood sugar,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

But muscle strength can also reflect how healthy you are overall, Dr. Buettner points out. If you\u2019re not particularly strong, it may suggest that you\u2019re not overly active\u2014and that alone can be a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. <\/p>\n

How much muscle mass would you need to be effective?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not clear. This particular study just looked at hand strength, and didn\u2019t actually measure muscle mass in the participants. However, it\u2019s fair to assume that doing your best to build up some muscle can help lower your risk of type 2 diabetes for the reasons we just listed. <\/p>\n

What are the best ways (and workouts) to build muscle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creating a strength training routine you\u2019ll stick with is always helpful, and it’s a good idea to try to fit in two days of muscle-strengthening activities per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC).<\/p>\n

But if you\u2019re just starting out, Matheny recommends focusing on lower body exercises. \u201cThat\u2019s where the majority of muscle is, especially for women,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

That means doing things like squats<\/a>, deadlifts<\/a>, and lunges. Once you get more comfortable with strength training, he suggests adding in more compound movements like pull-ups, bench presses, and reverse lunges. <\/p>\n

Overall, Matheny says that adding strength training to your workout routine is always a good thing for your health\u2014and you can just add “may lower your type 2 diabetes risk” to the myriad benefits.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual health and relationships, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men\u2019s Health, Women\u2019s Health, Self, Glamour, and more. She has a master\u2019s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to own a teacup pig and taco truck one day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you are a woman born in America in 2000, research suggests you have a 39 percent risk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[1380,12508,1331,1630,105,1381,12507,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-18946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-8638f493-56af-4db3-b67d-b8bfa0580e23","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-locale-us","14":"tag-shorttitle-this-fitness-advice-can-help-reduce-diabetes-risk","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114335817917041683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}