Is Cardio Exercise Better Than Resistance When You Have Diabetes? Here's What Dietitians Say

You’ve heard it time and time again: regular physical activity helps you stay healthy.

Yet just 1 in 4 U.S. adults meets the recommended guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise. Busy lives often get in the way, making it challenging to prioritize movement. However, the benefits of regular exercise are undeniable. Exercise can boost mood, manage weight and prevent and manage chronic diseases.

Along with making dietary changes, exercise can also help manage diabetes. But what type of exercise is best? Should you focus on cardio or resistance training—or both? And how can you possibly fit it all into your weekly routine? Here’s what you need to know.

How Exercise Helps Diabetes

If there’s one lifestyle habit to maintain, it’s moving your body more. “Exercise is like medicine for people with type 2 diabetes,” says certified diabetes care and education specialist Amy Kimberlain, RDN. She explains that people with diabetes either have insulin resistance or their bodies don’t produce enough insulin. This causes blood sugar to build up in the bloodstream, unable to enter cells, which leads to high blood sugar.

However, exercise improves insulin function and helps glucose enter cells to provide energy. “Exercise—or movement—helps the body use its insulin better and can help lower blood sugar levels. The more you move or exercise, the better your insulin response,” Kimberlain says. Exercise can also help a person with diabetes manage other risk factors—having weight considered overweight or obese or high blood pressure, cholesterol or triglyceride levels—to reduce the risk of health complications.

How Does Cardio Exercise Help Diabetes?

Love to walk, run, dance or swim? All of these are considered cardio (aerobic) exercise, and each can benefit people with diabetes.

“While walking a mile and running a marathon will require a completely different amount of energy, there is enough research to show that cardiovascular exercise is vital in diabetes management”, says Briana Butler, RDN, lead dietitian and co-owner of Stef & Bri Wellness. She explains that cardio has the potential to improve both insulin resistance and blood sugar control. 

When your muscles work hard during cardio exercise, they suck up glucose (sugar) for energy. This in turn helps regulate blood sugar levels, which you can see reflected in daily and long-term measures of blood sugar.

How Does Resistance Training Help Diabetes?

Lifting free weights, using weight machines, resistance bands or your own body weight are all forms of resistance (strength) training. Building and maintaining muscle mass through resistance training is crucial for diabetes management.

“The more muscle mass we have, the more insulin receptors we have, and the better we’re able to use the glucose that we take in,” says Kimberlain. Just like with aerobic exercise, she explains that instead of glucose hanging out in our bloodstream, resistance exercise encourages glucose to be delivered to cells for energy.

Muscle tissue is also more metabolically active than fat, meaning it burns more calories at rest. For individuals with diabetes, building muscle mass can improve insulin sensitivity, overall blood sugar control and potentially help lower body weight and maintain weight loss.

On the flip side, a lack of strength training can lead to decreased muscle mass and a reduced ability to clear glucose from the bloodstream. This can lead to high blood sugar numbers, decreased insulin sensitivity and potentially poor blood sugar control. 

Is Cardio Exercise Better Than Resistance When You Have Diabetes? 

So, what’s better—cardio or resistance training—when you have diabetes? Our experts conclude both cardio and resistance training are equally beneficial. “Ideally, you should include both in a consistent routine to maximize the benefits of each type of exercise,” Butler says.

Combining cardio and resistance training yields the greatest reduction in A1C levels compared to either exercise alone—though any movement is beneficial. Whether you're lifting weights or walking, your muscles contract during exercise, enabling muscle cells to efficiently absorb glucose during and after exercise.

So how much of each exercise do you really need to do each week? Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous cardio exercise per week, and at least two days a week of resistance training. Below we share tips on how to tackle both and incorporate them into your weekly routine. 

Tips to Incorporate Exercise in Your Routine

The first step before starting any type of exercise is to consult with your doctor. Once you get the green light, remember to start slowly. We recommend starting with walking, which when done often can significantly improve your health. Grab your sneakers and give our 7-day Walking Plan to Lower Your Blood Sugar Levels a try.

Secondly, it's important to understand how your body responds to exercise. Blood sugar levels can fluctuate differently for each person and may differ based on each type of activity you do. “It's essential to assess how your body responds to exercise and work with your physician and dietitian to adjust your meal timing, meal contents or medication timing accordingly, especially if you're taking insulin,” Butler says. She recommends regularly checking your blood sugar before, during and after exercise to avoid hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia.

Remember, breaking up exercise into shorter sessions can be just as effective. “Some people think that if they can’t get in 30 minutes then it’s ‘not worth it.’ Some studies show that even if you break up the 30 minutes into 10-minute increments it can be beneficial,” Kimberlain says.

Find a workout buddy or join a fitness class to stay motivated and accountable. Exercise doesn’t have to just be cranking miles on the treadmill or minutes on the elliptical machine. Try out new fitness classes, such as Pilates, HIIT, kettlebell or Zumba. You may discover one you love doing, and if you enjoy it, you're more likely to stick with it long-term. And, as always, don’t overlook the benefits of a brisk walk.

Finally, schedule exercise blocks into your weekly calendar, just as you would any other important appointment. Once it becomes a habit, it becomes easier to stick to, creating a weekly routine.

The Bottom Line

Cardio and resistance training are equally important for managing diabetes. Neither exercise is superior to the other, and combining them yields the best results. Exercise acts like free medication, improving your body’s ability to use insulin and helping to control blood sugar levels. Even short bursts of activity throughout the day can add up to big results.