The Difference Between Exercising and Training With Diabetes

“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

That wisdom is attributed to Polish weightlifting champion Jerzy Gregorek, and it feels especially relevant to life with diabetes.

Diabetes requires hard choices every day. We check our glucose when we would rather ignore it. We prepare for lows that may never happen. We make decisions about food, insulin, sleep, stress, and exercise—often while everyone around us remains unaware of the extra work taking place.

Exercise has always been part of my effort to become the best version of myself with diabetes. But over time, I realized that exercise alone was leaving gaps.

Swinging kettlebells in my garage is efficient. It builds strength, raises my heart rate, and can produce a great workout in very little time. There is tremendous value in that.

But eventually I discovered that exercising and training are not always the same thing.

Exercise is movement.

Training is movement organized around a goal.

For me, that goal became hypertrophy: intentionally building muscle through progressive resistance training.

Why Muscle Matters With Diabetes

Skeletal muscle is one of the body’s largest destinations for circulating glucose. Muscle cells contain proteins called GLUT4 transporters. You can think of GLUT4 as a collection of doors that help glucose move from the bloodstream into the muscle cell.

When a muscle contracts during exercise, the body can move more GLUT4 transporters toward the surface of the muscle cell. This allows working muscle to take up glucose through pathways that do not depend entirely on insulin. Regular training may also improve insulin signaling, increase the muscle’s capacity to store glycogen, and, in some populations, increase the amount of GLUT4 protein available.

Adding lean muscle may give the body more active tissue in which to use and store glucose. However, muscle gain is only part of the benefit. Resistance training also produces cellular adaptations that can improve glucose disposal and insulin action.

The science is strongest in people with Type 2 diabetes. Research specifically involving Type 1 diabetes is more limited, and anyone using insulin must account for the possibility that resistance exercise can raise, lower, or delay changes in glucose. Still, the broader evidence makes a convincing case that resistance training deserves a place beside aerobic exercise—not behind it.

One controlled study found that strength training three times per week increased insulin-mediated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle and increased proteins involved in glucose transport and insulin signaling. Another large trial found that aerobic and resistance training both improved glycemic control in adults with Type 2 diabetes, with the greatest improvement occurring when the two were combined. A later meta-analysis also found that resistance training reduced A1C, with greater gains in strength associated with larger improvements in A1C.

The lesson is not that everyone should abandon walking, cycling, kettlebells, or home workouts. The lesson is that purposeful resistance training can provide benefits that random or unstructured movement may not deliver as consistently.

Exercise Is Activity. Training Is Architecture.

Imagine that general exercise is like collecting useful building materials.

You may have strong boards, good tools, and a pile of bricks. Every workout contributes something.

Training is what happens when you add a blueprint.

You decide what you are building. You select the right tools. You measure your progress. You reinforce weak areas. You gradually increase the load as the structure becomes stronger.

A garage workout can absolutely be part of that blueprint. But for me, joining a gym changed the quality and direction of my training.

The gym gave me access to machines, cables, dumbbells, benches, and loading options that were difficult to reproduce at home. More importantly, it exposed me to exercises and training styles I might never have discovered alone.

Sometimes you see a movement repeatedly used by strong, healthy people and decide to try it. Then, by God, it feels right.

For me, one example was the low-to-high cable fly. It gives me a tremendous chest contraction and feels better on my body than lying flat and performing traditional dumbbell flyes. Without being exposed to more equipment and more lifters, I might never have added it to my routine.

The Benefits Extend Beyond Muscle

I would be remiss if I failed to mention what happens psychologically when you add muscle safely and begin accomplishing goals you once doubted were possible.

There is no substitute for seeing yourself become stronger.

The confidence carries over.

You begin to trust your ability to follow a plan. Your mood may improve. You may have more energy. You start approaching other areas of life with the same question:

What could happen if I trained this part of my life instead of merely reacting to it?

The gym also provides something that can be difficult to recreate alone: proximity to other people working toward improvement.

You are surrounded by people building stronger bodies and better lives. Their energy affects you, and your energy affects them. You do not necessarily know their names or their stories, but you recognize the effort.

You fuel them, and they fuel you.

You are also seen.

That does not mean performing for others or lifting recklessly. It means that being part of a shared environment can raise your standard. When people around you are focused and purposeful, it becomes easier to act like the person you are trying to become.

My Two Goals Are Pulling Together

Through more intentional training, I have increased my body weight from approximately 170 pounds to 182 pounds, with much of that journey focused on adding muscle. I am now working toward 190 pounds.

At the same time, I am working to reduce my A1C from 6.5% toward 5.9%.

These goals could appear to be separate, but I increasingly see them pulling in the same direction.

Building muscle gives me another reason to train consistently, recover intelligently, eat with purpose, and study my glucose patterns. Improving my glucose management helps me train, recover, and build muscle more effectively.

Each goal supports the other.

It reminds me of James Clear’s idea that lasting change becomes more powerful when our habits and goals align with our identity.

I am not simply trying to complete workouts.

I am becoming someone who trains.

I am not simply trying to obtain a lower A1C.

I am becoming someone who understands his body, notices patterns, and makes purposeful decisions.

When goals and identity begin pulling together, the results can compound.

Move—But Also Consider Training

If you live with diabetes, continue doing anything that safely helps you move. Walk. Hike. Cycle. Swim. Dance. Swing kettlebells in the garage.

All movement counts.

But consider pushing slightly beyond your regular routine. Join a gym, begin a structured resistance program, or create a progressive plan using the equipment you already own.

Choose a goal.

Perhaps it is completing your first full-body strength program, performing a pull-up, adding five pounds of muscle, increasing your squat strength, becoming more consistent, or simply walking into the gym three times each week.

Then train toward it.

The harder choice may be beginning before you feel completely ready.

But hard choices can create a stronger body, greater confidence, and an easier life.

What is your current fitness goal? Share it—and tell us what has worked for you. What you have learned may be exactly what someone else in this community needs to hear.

—Taylor LongDiabetes Distilled

References

1. Holten et al., 2004: Participants completed 30 minutes of strength training three times weekly. The trained muscles demonstrated greater insulin-mediated glucose clearance, along with increases in GLUT4 and several insulin-signaling proteins. This included participants with Type 2 diabetes, not Type 1 diabetes.

2. Sigal et al., 2007: In a randomized trial involving adults with Type 2 diabetes, aerobic training and resistance training each improved glycemic control, while combining them produced the greatest overall improvement.

3. Jansson et al., 2022: This systematic review and meta-analysis concluded that resistance training reduced A1C in adults with Type 2 diabetes. It also found that greater improvements in muscular strength were associated with larger A1C reductions.