Resistance Training Significantly Lowers Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Study
This prospective cohort study of US adult health care professionals found that regular resistance training was associated with a substantially lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). The protective effect was strongest among individuals who maintained consistent resistance training throughout midlife, especially when combined with adequate aerobic exercise and limited sedentary television viewing. These findings support incorporating resistance training as a core component of lifestyle strategies for diabetes prevention, alongside aerobic activity and reduced sedentary behavior. The study was published in JAMA Network Open by Zhang T. and colleagues.
The researchers conducted an extensive analysis of the medical data that had been collected from 3 long-running American landmark investigations: the Nurses' Health Study, the Nurses' Health Study II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Data from health care professionals who had undergone at least 3 comprehensive exercise evaluations during their ages between 40 and 60 were used to identify specific exercise patterns throughout their lives.
Time spent on resistance exercises was consistently obtained every 2 to 4 years and classified into 5 groups: persistently low, high to low, low to high, varied, and persistently high. The main outcome measure during the follow-up period was the development of type 2 diabetes. Cox proportional hazards regression models helped calculate multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals after adjusting for dietary factors, initial body weight, smoking habits, and family histories.
Key findings:
- The longitudinal epidemiological study on the incidence of type 2 diabetes successfully collected and analyzed the healthcare information from a composite group consisting of 143,715 adult participants.
- The average baseline age of the composite health professional group was 56.0 ± 10.5 years old and consisted of 78.3% females.
- During a comprehensive average follow-up of 19.2 ± 5.0 years, 10,038 cases of type 2 diabetes developed.
- The participants who undertook resistance exercise for 2 or more hours each week showed a lower incidence of diabetes compared to those participants who didn’t do the training with hazard ratio at 0.73 (95% CI, 0.66 – 0.81).
- Regarding the tracking of long-term trajectory, the people who undertook regular weight training of ≥0.5 hours each week had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 42% (HR = 0.58; 95% CI, 0.45 – 0.74) than the people in the consistently low category.
- Those people who trained actively over time, after beginning with a non-active lifestyle ("low to high" tracking pattern), had a significantly reduced risk of diabetes of 21% (HR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.66–0.94).
- The lowest diabetes risk was recorded among participants who successfully combined recommendations for aerobic exercise (at least 15 metabolic equivalent hours per week) and weight training (at least 1 hour per week) with limited sedentary television viewing (under 2 hours per day), achieving a dramatic 62% reduction in disease rates (HR = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.34–0.42).
Resistance exercise among American healthcare professionals has been found to be linked with a significantly reduced risk of developing T2D, especially those who have exercised regularly throughout their middle age and in combination with appropriate levels of aerobic exercise and minimal time spent watching TV sedately. These groundbreaking findings from decades-long database analysis have provided a valuable empirical basis for contemporary metabolic medicine.
Reference:
Zhang T, Zhang Y, Lee DH, et al. Long-Term Resistance Training and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. JAMA Netw Open. 2026;9(6):e2619420. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.19420
