Fitness Weight Training

Strength Training May Lower Diabetes Risk in Teens

(HealthCentersOnline) - Overweight or obese adolescents may lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes by doing strength training exercises at least twice a week, a recent study showed. The study was conducted by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC).

Being overweight or obese significantly boosts a child's risk of developing insulin resistance, which is the inability of body cells to effectively use the hormone insulin to process blood glucose, which can subsequently lead to type 2 diabetes.

Both aerobic and resistance exercise have been shown to improve insulin sensitivity among adults, but little information exists on benefits for overweight teenagers. Researchers used a resistance training regimen for this study.

The researchers focused on Latino teenagers, who are at greater risk for diabetes. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about half of all Latino children born in 2000 are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.

For this study, 22 boys ages 14 to 17 performed weight lifting exercises twice a week for 16 weeks. Personal trainers guided the teens, who were using gym equipment. As the study progressed, the trainers had the teens do fewer repetitions but with increased weight resistance.

The results showed that 91 percent of the study participants considerably improved their insulin sensitivity. Although there was no change in the boys' total body fat mass, their percentages of body fat significantly decreased and lean muscle mass increased.

"This shows that lifting weights is a good form of exercise that overweight teens can excel at and benefit from. Whether they lose weight or not is not important—they still benefit by increasing muscle mass," Dr. Michael Goran, the study's leader and USC professor of preventive medicine, said in a press release.

This study appears in the July issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

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