NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Combining resistance training, such as weight lifting, with aerobic workouts appears to be the most beneficial for type for long-term control of blood sugar control than either form of exercise alone, New Zealand researchers report. However, the outcomes according to type of exercise weren't very significant.

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For any type of exercise training lasting 12 weeks or longer, the researchers found, hemoglobin A1C levels fell by 0.8 percent. There was some evidence that combining aerobic exercise with resistance training had more of an effect than either type of exercise alone. But more intense exercise programs did not appear to be more effective, possibly because they were more difficult for people to stick with, the researchers note.

The researchers also found that exercise had a stronger effect on people with more severe disease, which they call "a reassuring finding for those prescribing exercise to patients."