Fifty male obese type 2 diabetes patients (age 59 ± 8 years, BMI 32 ± 4 kg/m) participated in a 6 month continuous endurance-type exercise training programme.
Consequently, a less intense continuous endurance-type exercise regimen can be equally effective when longer duration of exercise compensates for the lower exercise intensity.
Other studies showed no difference with resistance training in older women or continuous endurance-type exercise in obese patients with type 2 diabetes.
We have recently shown that a single bout of continuous endurance-type exercise strongly reduces the prevalence of hyperglycaemia and lowers blood glucose concentrations throughout the subsequent 24 h in type 2 diabetic patients [ 9].
Exercise training intervention All participants performed three individually supervised, continuous endurance-type exercise sessions per week during a 6 month intervention period within the rehabilitation centre of the hospital.
Continuous endurance-type exercise training has been shown to lower blood HbA1c, increase insulin sensitivity, improve the risk profile for cardiovascular disease and reduce adipose-tissue mass in patients with type 2 diabetes [ 4, 5].
The magnitude of the increase in insulin sensitivity following an acute bout of continuous endurance-type exercise has been associated with the extent of muscle glycogen depletion and the subsequent repletion rate [ 10, 11].
The preference for implementing either an LI or HI exercise regimen in a continuous endurance-type exercise intervention programme for patients with type 2 diabetes is of great clinical relevance, especially when considering the inverse relationship between exercise intensity and patient compliance [ 18].
It seems that different types of physical training (resistive, endurance, continuous or intermittent) have no preference each other in urinary protein loss [ 1], however, some studies oppose this finding [ 2].
The group was initially divided into a training group that mainly performed high-intensity intervals and one training group with continuous loads of endurance training according to their personal 100 m freestyle best time.
