Browse the evidence

Combining high protein intake with resistance exercise synergistically increases muscle mass and improves insulin sensitivity more than either intervention alone in older adults with T2D.

For the best results in managing diabetes and building muscle, combine resistance training (3 times a week) with a high-protein diet. This combination is more effective than diet or exercise alone, significantly reducing insulin levels and building muscle mass.

Achieving 6-7 guideline-recommended risk factor targets (non-smoking, physical activity, healthy diet, BMI 20-25, BP <140/90, HbA1c <7%, total cholesterol <5.2 mmol/L) eliminates the excess mortality risk and life expectancy loss associated with Type 2 Diabetes compared to non-diabetic individuals.

If you have Type 2 Diabetes, do not accept reduced life expectancy as inevitable. Focus on achieving seven specific health targets: never smoke, stay physically active (150+ mins/week moderate activity), eat a healthy diet (fruits, veggies, whole grains, fish), maintain a BMI between 20-25, keep blood pressure under 140/90, keep HbA1c under 7%, and keep total cholesterol under 5.2 mmol/L. Achieving 6 or 7 of these targets can reduce your mortality risk to the same level as someone without diabetes.

Higher adherence to the Food Compass nutrient profiling system, measured by an individual's Food Compass Score (i.FCS), is associated with lower all-cause mortality, improved cardiometabolic risk factors, and lower prevalence of chronic diseases in U.S. adults.

Focus on eating foods with higher Food Compass scores, which prioritize nutrient density, healthy fats, fiber, and whole ingredients while minimizing additives and ultra-processing. This dietary pattern is linked to lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and early death. You don't need to track every nutrient; choosing foods rated highly by this system generally leads to better health outcomes.

Brief, vigorous high-intensity interval stair climbing (STAIR) improves cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak) in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) to a degree equivalent to traditional moderate-intensity continuous training (TRAD), while requiring significantly less total exercise time.

If you have coronary artery disease, you can improve your heart fitness by climbing stairs vigorously for short bursts, rather than walking for long periods. Try climbing 12 stairs up and down, resting for 90 seconds, and repeating this 3 times. Do this 3 times a week. This takes about 7 minutes of actual exercise (plus warm-up/cool-down) and has been shown to improve heart fitness just as much as 30+ minutes of moderate walking, without increasing risk.

Rest-pause training elicits superior strength adaptations compared to traditional resistance training when total training volume is equalized.

If you want to maximize strength, use rest-pause sets. Perform your main lifts at 75% of your one-rep max, but instead of resting between sets, take short 10-20 second breaks within the set to complete your target reps. This method generates more strength than doing the same total number of reps with standard rest periods.

A multidisciplinary intensive lifestyle intervention (nutrition, exercise, behavioral therapy, and medication adjustment) sustains significant weight loss (approx. 6.4%) and improves cardiovascular risk factors in patients with Type 2 Diabetes and obesity for up to 5 years in real-world clinical settings.

For T2D patients, do not rely on diet or exercise alone. Engage a team (dietitian, exercise physiologist, psychologist). Start with a structured, hypocaloric meal plan (1200-1800 kcal) and progressive exercise (up to 300 min/week). Crucially, work with your doctor to switch weight-gaining diabetes meds (like insulin or sulfonylureas) to weight-neutral or weight-loss agents (like GLP-1s or SGLT-2s) to facilitate sustainable loss.

High repetition resistance training protocols (approx. 20 reps) generate significantly higher blood lactate concentrations and higher perceived exertion than moderate repetition protocols (approx. 10 reps) when total time under tension is equated.

If you want to maximize metabolic stress (lactate buildup) without changing the total time you spend lifting, do more reps rather than moving slower. For example, doing 20 fast reps creates more metabolic stress than doing 10 slow reps, as long as the total time under tension is the same. Use high repetitions (around 20) to induce this stress.

Long-duration static stretching (1 hour daily for 6 weeks) induces significant increases in maximal strength, muscle thickness, and range of motion in the plantar flexors for both males and females, with males demonstrating superior magnitude of adaptation.

If you want to increase calf strength and size without heavy weights, you can try static stretching for 1 hour daily using a device that holds your ankle at a stretched position. You need to feel significant discomfort (7-8/10) at the start, but it will subside. Do this for 6 weeks. Note that men will likely see bigger gains than women, but both sexes will improve strength, size, and flexibility.

High-volume resistance training (lighter loads, higher reps) produces greater skeletal muscle hypertrophy than high-load resistance training (heavier loads, fewer reps) when volume is equated or higher in the high-volume condition.

To maximize muscle growth, prioritize higher volume with lighter loads (around 60% of your one-rep max) performed for more repetitions (e.g., 10 reps per set) rather than just heavy loads. This approach was shown to significantly increase muscle size in trained individuals over 6 weeks, whereas heavy loads alone did not produce significant growth in this specific protocol.

High-load resistance training produces greater strength gains than high-volume resistance training, despite potentially lower hypertrophic outcomes in the short term.

If your primary goal is to increase strength, prioritize high-load training (heavier weights, fewer reps) over high-volume training. This approach was shown to produce greater strength gains in trained individuals over 6 weeks.

Optimizing resistance training in hypoxia with moderate loads (60-80% 1RM) and short inter-set rest intervals (≤ 60s) enhances muscle hypertrophy (CSA) compared to normoxia.

If you train in hypoxia, use moderate weights (60-80% 1RM) and keep rest periods short (under 60 seconds) to potentially maximize muscle growth. Without these specific settings, hypoxia offers no advantage over normal air.

Significant weight loss (induced by metabolic surgery, very-low-calorie diets, or intensive insulin therapy) prior to irreversible beta-cell damage can induce durable remission of type 2 diabetes, defined as HbA1c <6.5% without medication.

If you have recently been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, especially if overweight, aggressive intervention is critical. This may involve significant weight loss through very-low-calorie diets, metabolic surgery, or short-term intensive insulin therapy. The goal is to restore beta-cell function before damage becomes irreversible, potentially allowing you to stop medication and maintain normal blood sugar levels.

Suboptimal dietary patterns, specifically low intake of nuts, seeds, and fruits, and high intake of processed meat, are responsible for over half (53.8%) of all cardiometabolic disease mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, fixing your diet is the single most impactful thing you can do to prevent heart disease and diabetes death. Focus on eating more nuts, seeds, and fruits, and cutting back on processed meats. These specific changes address the majority of diet-related risk in the region.

Achieving a body weight loss of 5% or greater within 12 weeks of initiating SGLT2 inhibitor treatment significantly reduces the risk of new-onset atrial fibrillation in patients with type 2 diabetes.

If you are taking an SGLT2 inhibitor for Type 2 Diabetes, aim for a body weight loss of at least 5% within the first 3 months. This specific threshold is associated with a significantly lower risk of developing atrial fibrillation compared to those who do not lose weight. However, this weight loss benefit did not extend to reducing heart failure hospitalizations or other major cardiovascular events in this study.

Low-bar wide stance squats increase hip extensor demand (greater hip contribution to total moment and higher gluteus maximus activity relative to high-bar narrow stance) compared to high-bar narrow stance squats.

If you want to prioritize your quads, use a high-bar narrow stance. If you want to prioritize your hips and glutes, switch to a low-bar wide stance. These technical changes directly shift the mechanical load to the target muscles.

Drop set training produces similar muscular strength and hypertrophy adaptations compared to traditional training, while offering greater time efficiency.

If you are short on time, drop sets are a valid alternative to traditional sets for building muscle and strength. You do not need to sacrifice results for speed. Perform exercises to failure, then immediately reduce the weight by 10-20% and continue to failure. This can reduce your workout time by 30-70% while producing similar adaptations to traditional training. Note that current evidence is limited to young men.

Low-load resistance training (25-35 reps) to failure produces significantly greater volume load accumulation over 8 weeks compared to high-load resistance training (8-12 reps) to failure in well-trained men.

If you want to maximize the total amount of work (volume load) you do in a session, use lighter weights and perform more repetitions (25-35) until you can't do another rep with good form. This approach accumulates significantly more total weight moved over 8 weeks than using heavier weights for fewer reps (8-12), provided you train to failure in both cases.

Adopting a proinflammatory diet (Energy-Adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index > 0) is associated with significantly increased risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, whereas maintaining a neutral or anti-inflammatory diet minimizes these risks.

Focus on avoiding proinflammatory foods rather than striving for a perfect anti-inflammatory diet. A neutral diet is likely sufficient to minimize your risk of heart disease and early death. Small, sustainable improvements to reduce inflammatory potential are more effective and maintainable than extreme dietary restrictions.

Twice-daily consumption of a multi-ingredient nutritional supplement (whey protein, creatine, calcium, vitamin D, omega-3s) reduces systemic inflammation (TNF-α, IL-6) in healthy older men, an effect enhanced by subsequent resistance and high-intensity interval training.

Older men looking to reduce chronic, low-grade inflammation should consider a specific multi-ingredient supplement containing whey protein, creatine, calcium, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids, taken twice daily. This nutritional strategy, combined with a mix of resistance and high-intensity interval training, was shown to significantly lower inflammatory markers like TNF-α and IL-6 more effectively than exercise or carbohydrate control alone.

When higher training frequency allows for greater total training volume (unequalized volume), higher frequency yields greater strength and hypertrophy gains due to the volume increase.

If you choose to train a muscle group 3 times a week, you likely will get better results than training it once, but this is because you can perform more total sets (volume). If you can match the total volume of the 3x/week program in a single 1x/week session, the frequency itself adds no extra benefit.

A single dose of a creatine-based multi-ingredient pre-workout supplement (MIPS) containing 3g creatine, 2g arginine, 1g glutamine, 1g taurine, and 800mg beta-alanine improves performance fatigability (measured by time to task and EMG conduction velocity) compared to placebo when ingested 2 hours before resistance exercise.

If you take a pre-workout containing creatine, beta-alanine, arginine, glutamine, and taurine, taking it 2 hours before your workout may help you sustain effort longer during high-intensity resistance training compared to taking a placebo. However, taking just creatine alone (3g) 2 hours before the workout did not show the same benefit, and the multi-ingredient mix was not superior to creatine alone in this study. Focus on the timing (2 hours prior) and the specific mix if you seek acute fatigue resistance.

Higher training volumes impose greater recovery demands, particularly when combined with proximity to failure, requiring strategic placement within the microcycle to avoid performance impairment in subsequent sessions.

Start with moderate volume (e.g., 10-15 sets per muscle group per week) and monitor recovery. If performance drops or fatigue accumulates, reduce volume before increasing it. Prioritize volume on less critical days or for specific muscle groups (specialization) while keeping other volumes lower.

High-intensity exercise training (77-95% max HR) improves walking performance and cardiorespiratory fitness more than low-intensity training in PAD patients.

To maximize your walking distance, aim for high-intensity exercise. Target 77-95% of your maximum heart rate or a Borg scale rating of 14-17. This may involve significant leg pain, which is expected and part of the adaptation process.

Greater variety of stretching exercises, longer mean duration of single stretching exercises, and increased time under stretching per session, week, and in total are associated with greater skeletal muscle hypertrophy.

To maximize any potential muscle growth from stretching, use multiple different stretching exercises, hold each for longer than 60 seconds, and increase the total time you spend stretching per week.