Strength training can be a valuable part of managing blood sugar and improving your overall health. By helping your muscles use glucose more efficiently and improving insulin sensitivity, regular resistance exercise may contribute to a lower A1C over time. Here, we’ll explore the connection between lifting weights and A1C and provide practical tips for incorporating it safely into your diabetes care plan.
Quick Overview: Can Strength Training Lower A1C?
- Regular strength training may help lower A1C by improving insulin sensitivity and helping your muscles use glucose more efficiently.
- Changes in A1C generally take two to three months to become noticeable because the test reflects your average blood sugar over time.
- Many adults with diabetes can aim for two to three strength-training sessions per week, depending on their health and fitness level.
- Blood sugar may temporarily rise after an intense workout, but this does not necessarily mean that strength training is harming your long-term glucose management.
- Check your glucose as recommended, keep fast-acting carbohydrates nearby, and talk to your healthcare provider before beginning a new exercise routine.
What Is Strength and Resistance Training?
Strength training, also called resistance training, is a type of exercise that makes your muscles work against a force or resistance. This helps build and maintain muscle strength and can improve how your body uses blood sugar.
Resistance can come from several sources, including:
- Body weight: Exercises such as squats, wall push-ups, and chair stands.
- Free weights: Dumbbells or other handheld weights used for exercises such as arm curls and shoulder presses.
- Resistance bands: Elastic bands that provide resistance when stretched.
- Weight machines: Gym equipment designed to strengthen specific muscle groups.
You don't need a gym membership or expensive equipment to get started. Simple exercises using your own body weight or resistance bands can be effective, especially for beginners. However, it is always a good idea to check with your healthcare provider before beginning a strength or resistance training program.
What Is A1C?
A1C is a blood test that estimates your average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months. It measures the percentage of hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells, that has glucose attached to it. The higher your average blood sugar has been, the higher your A1C result will generally be. Although a healthy A1C target can vary from person to person, the general ranges are typically the following:
- Normal: Below 5.7%
- Prediabetes:7% to 6.4%
- Diabetes:5% or higher
Healthcare professionals typically use A1C to help diagnose prediabetes and type 2 diabetes and monitor how well an individual diabetes care plan is working. Since the test reflects a longer period of time, a single strength-training session is not going to immediately change your A1C. However, exercising consistently can improve your overall blood sugar patterns and contribute to a lower result over time.
Can Strength Training Lower A1C?
Yes, consistent strength training can help lower A1C levels, particularly in people with type 2 diabetes, but the amount of improvement varies. Regular resistance exercise helps working muscles use glucose for energy and can improve the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Over time, building and maintaining muscle may support more consistent blood sugar levels and better long-term glucose management.
A 2024 study involving adults with type 2 diabetes found that resistance training reduced A1C by an average of around 0.5%. Research has also found that resistance training can produce more meaningful improvements in A1C than the effects of aerobic training. Therefore, the type of exercise can make a difference, especially when you want to improve blood glucose levels. That's not to say that aerobic exercise isn't recommended, only that, on average, it seems that resistance training improves A1C more noticeably.
It's also important to understand that the amount of change varies based on your starting A1C, workout frequency and intensity, nutrition, medications, sleep, and overall health. Additionally, since A1C reflects your average blood sugar over the previous two to three months, these benefits generally require several weeks or months of consistent training in an exercise routine that involves weightlifting.
Does Strength Training Help With Type 1 Diabetes?
For people with type 1 diabetes, progressive resistance training can improve muscle strength, fitness, body composition, and insulin sensitivity. However, its effect on A1C and blood sugar control may be less predictable because glucose responses are also influenced by other factors.
Can Strength Training Help With Prediabetes?
Strength training can also benefit people with prediabetes by improving insulin sensitivity and supporting healthier blood sugar levels. When combined with aerobic activity, balanced nutrition, sufficient sleep, and regular medical care, resistance training may help reduce the likelihood that prediabetes will progress to type 2 diabetes.
How Does Strength Training Affect Blood Sugar?
While there are several benefits of resistance training, its effect on blood sugar is especially important for both younger and older adults with type 2 diabetes. Strength training improves the efficiency with which your cells draw sugar from the blood and can help with several other components, such as:
Working Muscles Use Glucose for Energy
When your muscles contract during strength training, they need more energy than they do at rest. This encourages them to take in and use glucose. Depending on the intensity of your workout, medications, recent meals, and other factors, this process may lower your blood sugar during or after exercise.
Strength Training May Improve Insulin Sensitivity
Strength training can make your cells more responsive to insulin, which helps glucose move from the bloodstream into the cells more efficiently. This increased insulin sensitivity may continue for hours after your workout. When resistance exercise is performed consistently, these short-term effects can contribute to better long-term blood sugar management.
Building Muscle Increases Glucose Storage
Skeletal muscle is one of the body’s primary places for using and storing glucose. Building or preserving lean muscle gives your body more tissue capable of managing glucose, potentially supporting steadier blood sugar levels over time.
Intense Exercise May Temporarily Raise Blood Sugar
Although strength training often supports blood sugar management, intense sessions can sometimes cause a temporary increase. Challenging exercise triggers hormones such as adrenaline, which prompt the liver to release additional glucose so your body has enough energy to perform.
This short-term spike doesn't necessarily mean strength training is harming your diabetes management. Monitoring your levels before and after exercise can help you identify your personal patterns and discuss any recurring highs or lows with your healthcare provider.
How Often Should You Strength Train to Lower A1C?
Many adults with diabetes can aim for two or three nonconsecutive strength-training sessions per week, depending on their health, experience, and care plan. These are the general guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) for people with diabetes, but your doctor may provide different recommendations. However, consistency is key, and recovery is just as important, so it's important to avoid excessive exercise that may lead to burnout.
A beginner-friendly routine may include:
- Frequency: Start with two sessions per week on nonconsecutive days, such as Monday and Thursday.
- Duration: Plan for approximately 20–30 minutes per session, adjusting based on your fitness level.
- Exercises: Choose four to six exercises that work major muscle groups, including your legs, arms, back, chest, and core.
- Repetitions: Begin with one set of 10–15 repetitions per exercise, using a level of resistance that allows you to maintain proper form.
- Progression: Gradually increase repetitions, sets, or resistance as the exercises become easier.
For example, a simple at-home workout might include chair squats, wall push-ups, resistance band rows, and seated arm curls.
Combining resistance training with aerobic activities such as walking, swimming, or cycling may provide additional benefits for blood sugar management and cardiovascular health.
Always discuss a new exercise routine with your healthcare provider, particularly if you have diabetes-related complications or take medications that can cause low blood sugar.
Is Strength Training or Cardio Better for Lowering A1C?
Both strength training and aerobic exercise can help improve blood sugar management in people with diabetes, but they work in different ways.
Strength training helps build and maintain muscle, which supports the body's ability to use glucose efficiently. Aerobic activities, such as brisk walking, cycling, and swimming, help improve cardiovascular fitness and insulin sensitivity.
The effects of resistance training may offer more notable results for hemoglobin A1C levels than an endurance training program. However, when combined, endurance and strength training increase overall health and longevity and can help you maintain a healthy body weight. This is especially true for high-intensity interval training paired with regular resistance training.
Additionally, current research suggests that combined strength and endurance training may provide the greatest overall benefit for adults with type 2 diabetes. So, it's best to talk to your doctor about how to create an exercise training program that's safe and enjoyable for your current lifestyle.
How to Strength Train Safely With Diabetes
Weight training can be great for long-term diabetes care and insulin resistance, but it's still important to make sure that you're taking the necessary precautions when living with diabetes. Below are some tips to help you stay safe when lifting weights with diabetes, along with a few signs you should contact your doctor:
- Talk to your healthcare provider: Ask whether you need to modify your routine because of heart disease, neuropathy, retinopathy, kidney disease, foot problems, or other complications.
- Check your blood sugar: Monitor your glucose before, during, and after exercise until you understand how different workouts affect you.
- Watch for delayed hypoglycemia: Blood sugar may fall several hours after exercise, especially if you take insulin or medications that increase insulin production.
- Keep fast-acting carbohydrates nearby: Carry glucose tablets, juice, or another source containing about 15 grams of carbohydrates in case your blood sugar drops.
- Be cautious with high blood sugar: Follow your care plan for elevated glucose and check for ketones when advised, as vigorous exercise may be unsafe when ketones are present.
- Keep diabetes supplies accessible: Bring your glucose meter or CGM supplies, medication, medical identification, water, and any necessary backup supplies.
- Start gradually: Begin with lighter resistance and fewer sets before slowly increasing the weight, repetitions, or workout duration.
- Use proper form: Controlled movements and correct technique can reduce your risk of muscle, joint, and connective-tissue injuries.
- Wear supportive footwear: Properly fitting shoes can reduce friction, instability, and the risk of foot injuries.
- Check your feet afterward: Look for cuts, blisters, redness, swelling, or irritation, particularly if you have reduced sensation from neuropathy.
- Stay hydrated: Drink water before, during, and after training, as dehydration may make blood sugar more difficult to manage.
- Allow time for recovery: Avoid training the same muscle groups on consecutive days and give your body time to adapt.
- Stop if you develop concerning symptoms: End the workout and seek appropriate care for chest pain, severe shortness of breath, dizziness, confusion, vision changes, or persistent glucose abnormalities.
There are several benefits of strength training, from regulating blood sugar to improving overall muscle mass and strength. However, it's important to clear any changes to your current exercise regimen with your doctor beforehand. In addition to incorporating strength training exercises into your blood sugar management plan, it's important to have the right supplies. Byram Healthcare carries a wide range of diabetes products that can be discreetly delivered to your door. Contact us today to learn more.
