The effect of different types of exercise on indicators related to type 2 diabetes: A systematic review

Different sport exercises may have different effects on the control and treatment of diabetes. The aim of this review was to analyze the recent studies related to the effect of different sports activities on the indicators related to type 2 diabetes.

Persian and Latin databases of PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Magiran and SID were searched using the keywords, including exercise training, resistance training, high-intensity interval training, diabetes, insulin sensitivity, HbA1c, aerobic training and combined training to retrieve published papers during 2010-2022.

In total, out of 140 papers in the initial screening, 35 papers were finally reviewed. Aerobic exercises and especially high-intensity interval training (HIIT) may have faster effects in the process of controlling and reducing blood sugar in patients, however, the positive effects of resistance exercises remain for a longer period.

The beneficial effects of various types of sport exercises in controlling the glycemic indices of patients with type 2 diabetes have been proven. However, the present study showed that the beneficial effects of resistance exercises compared to endurance exercises can last for a longer period. Thus, it is suggested that sport medicine experts should pay attention to the importance of the type and form of sport exercises when presenting exercise programs to patients.