Research

Hormonal

Exercise training improves insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant individuals by increasing lipid oxidation and reducing intramuscular lipid species (ceramides and diacylglycerol) that inhibit insulin signaling.

If you are insulin resistant, your muscles might be storing fat in the wrong places (like inside the muscle cell), which blocks insulin. Regular exercise helps your muscles burn this fat for energy. This 'cleaning' process removes the specific fats that block insulin signals, making your body more sensitive to insulin over time.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The findings by Bruce et al. (2006) suggest that exercise training may improve muscle insulin sensitivity by increasing the proportion of lipids targeted for oxidation, thereby reducing the accumulation of lipid species that are known to inhibit insulin signal transduction...
John A. Hawley et al. · Acta Physiologica · 2007

Why this rating

Supported by specific human studies cited (Bruce et al. 2006, Goodpaster et al. 2003) showing strong correlation between lipid oxidation and insulin sensitivity.

Source

Exercise training‐induced improvements in insulin action

John A. Hawley et al. · Acta Physiologica · 2007

DOI 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2007.01783.x

narrative_reviewCited 444×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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