Weightlifing is the only exercise that I've ever managed to make a habit. I do powerlifting 3x/week. I've tried running, swimming, cycling, etc. and hated all of it.
Same. I just take great joy in powerlifting especially squats
Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
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Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#22Dr. Bernstein has long argued this and documents it extensively in his book "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution"[1]. The main reason being that muscles act like natural glucose sinks that drain sugar directly out of the bloodstream, bypassing the liver, so more muscles = more glucose control. I highly recommend the introductory chapter to "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution" by the way, even for non-diabetics. It's bas…
2.5kg variation from moment to moment can be entirely accounted for by hydration status and intestinal content volume.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#23Luckily, we live in the reality where every human who is interested in how their own body, and not the one of some random mouse, deals with blood sugar, can order a relatively inexpensive (for the benefits it provides) device — a continuous glucose monitor — and gather all the data they need to see what helps controlling the sugar level, and what does not. Using a CGM was a truly life changing experience for me, and…
Or just, you know, lift weights and run.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#24I used to do weightlifting, but it's hard to keep up daily discipline with potential injury risk. Rest days are mandatory and this is the #1 killer of compliance over time (for me).
Rowing is my go-to now. It is low impact so I can do it every day without any exceptions. I've been able to hold onto this discipline for 2 years now. The advantage of rowing is that there isn't really a limit to how much it can suck. You can burn 500 calories per hour, or 9000. It's more of a psychological battle than a physical one.
My system is to row at whatever intensity and duration until I my brain starts to internally play music from Spotify. However long that takes. Sometimes it's 40 minutes, sometimes it's 80. I think this variance mostly boils down to blood sugar and what I ate the previous day. If I gorge on a box of snacky crackers, I need to row for at least an hour before I stop feeling like shit.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#25The exercise you like doing and will do beats no exercise at all for blood sugar control
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Controlled experiments in humans are expensive, time consuming, and actually very difficult to do. Meanwhile any grad student can do a mouse model. The motivation of most academic labs is citations and grants, not useful information. Putting it together…
It’s probably saner to look at large populations of different types of athletes / exercise patterns in a longitudinal study.
Selection effects are ridiculously strong for almost anything related to health.
I strongly believe that's why nutrition science is soooo far behind the rest of medicine. There aren't nearly enough serious RCTs (whereas regulations make them abundant for other medical interventions).
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#27I used to do weightlifting, but it's hard to keep up daily discipline with potential injury risk. Rest days are mandatory and this is the #1 killer of compliance over time (for me). Rowing is my go-to now. It is low impact so I can do it every day without any exceptions. I've been able to hold onto this discipline for 2 years now. The advantage of rowing is that there isn't really a limit to how much it can suck. You…
It depends how you train. 6 days per week is pretty common among bodybuilders. Injury risk is also lower (for naturals) because you’re generally lifting at a lower % of 1 RM.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#28Weightlifing is the only exercise that I've ever managed to make a habit. I do powerlifting 3x/week. I've tried running, swimming, cycling, etc. and hated all of it.
Same. I just take great joy in powerlifting especially squats
Yup, love the adrenaline rush, the simple "get up with this heavy shit on you" on it.
After running for a decade without any spectacular performance to speak of and constant weight issues, one year of powerlifting 2x a week - not only is every single health metric better with less running, possibly the best they've ever been, at a point where they should be declining; my running is hitting PBs as well.
The downside, I'm a bore about it.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#29Weightlifing is the only exercise that I've ever managed to make a habit. I do powerlifting 3x/week. I've tried running, swimming, cycling, etc. and hated all of it.
Running is quite meditative when you get in to it (at least for me when outside - indoor running on treadmills is soul destroying though I agree). You don't have to go fast or far, but after 10-15-20 mins I find my mind gets into a fairly calm state, even if my legs and lungs are burning.
We - as a species - are engineered and built to run. I think there is a lot to be said for it.
If anyone is reading this and considering giving it a go, please do. You don't need any specific fancy equipment (just some generic trainers/sneakers will do - running does not damage your knees, quite the opposite in fact). I love travelling for work and packing my running gear and exploring the city I am visiting while running - beats sitting in a hotel room watching netflix on my own.
My biggest advice is that when you first start running outside you will feel like you are going slow even if you are not. If you have a smartphone get an app that will help you track your running pace (Strava is popular but I use runkeeper as I don't like the gamification & social parts of strava) and don't try to go faster than 6 mins/km for the first few runs. When I first started running outside (after doing a lot of gym-based treadmill running and before smartphones were really a thing) I had no frame of reference for how I was moving through the space apart from driving so it felt so terribly terribly slow when in reality I was pushing very hard. There are no prizes here and you are not racing anyone - run at a pace that feels sustainable and let your mind go.
Good luck.
Re: Weightlifting beats running for blood sugar control, researchers find (2025)
#30have you tried grape soda?