Why To Exercise Today: The Aerobic/Weight Mix To Beat Diabetes

I somehow missed this one when it came out in late November — many thanks to Dr. Eddie Phillips of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine for pointing it out. Now where did I put those hand weights?

(HealthDay News) — Variety in your workout routine may be key to optimal diabetes management, new research suggests.

The study found that when people with type 2 diabetes did aerobic exercise some days and resistance training on others, they had lower blood sugar levels after nine months than people who did either type of exercise alone.

"From a health perspective, the combination exercise program really outshined the others," said the study's lead author, Dr. Timothy Church, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University System in Baton Rouge. "We really thought that the walking group and the combination group would be similar, but the combination group was the only group that had significant improvement."