Resistance training
Lowers HOMA-IR and fasting insulin in overweight without diabetes and raises HDL modestly. Triglycerides and LDL have no row of their own: the larger meta-analysis found no benefit from resistance training alone there.
Order of magnitude
Two resistance sessions per week, on the major muscle groups, on top of daily life and not instead of endurance work.
Boyer 2023 applies to adults with overweight or obesity without diabetes. Smart 2025: among lipids, resistance training improved HDL only. Costa 2019 reports standardised mean differences without mg/dL and is therefore not turned into a percentage. Ferritin, uric acid, ApoB and fasting glucose stay without a row.
Effects in detail
Each row is a directed edge from our database, with range, latency, evidence grade and the condition under which it applies at all.
| Marker | Effect | Latency | Mode of action | Outcome | Evidence | Condition | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOMA-IR | helps. Lowers -1.05 HOMA-IR units confidence interval of the estimate, not the range one person can expect Boyer 2023 −1.05 HOMA units (95 % CI −1.33 to −0.76) at an assumed baseline of 3.0, overweight without diabetes. HOMA-IR has never been a hard-outcome trial endpoint. | 8–20 weeks | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade B | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| Diastolic blood pressure | helps. Lowers -3.04 mmHg one bound only: no interval is printed In the same 270-trial analysis, dynamic resistance training lowered resting blood pressure by 4.55/3.04 mmHg, slightly more than aerobic training for diastolic pressure and about the same for systolic. Point estimates without confidence intervals in the abstract, so one bound each. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade A | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| Systolic blood pressure | helps. Lowers -4.55 mmHg one bound only: no interval is printed In the same 270-trial analysis, dynamic resistance training lowered resting blood pressure by 4.55/3.04 mmHg, slightly more than aerobic training for diastolic pressure and about the same for systolic. Point estimates without confidence intervals in the abstract, so one bound each. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade A | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| HbA1c | helps. Lowers -0.40 percentage points of HbA1c confidence interval of the estimate, not the range one person can expect In the same 158-trial network meta-analysis, resistance training lowered HbA1c by 0.40 percentage points (95 % CrI -0.59 to -0.21), ranking below aerobic, combined and interval training. Batch 1 gave resistance training an insulin-resistance row and no lipid row. | 12–12 weeks | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade A | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| Triglycerides | helps. Lowers Direction known, size not established The largest lipid meta-analysis includes resistance-training groups among its 227 intervention groups and concludes that combined aerobic plus resistance training is the optimal mode, but it reports no resistance-only lipid estimate in the abstract. Direction only, no effect size: the pooled numbers cannot be attributed to resistance training on its own (gaps.md G-E3). | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade C | applies regardless of the starting value |
What this measure costs
Counteracting effects of the same measure.
| Marker | Effect | Latency | Mode of action | Outcome | Evidence | Condition | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creatinine | costs. Raises 0.09 mg/dL one bound only, and it is a difference between two groups rather than a change within a person In 170 healthy people, those taking moderate to intense physical activity had a serum creatinine of 1.04 +/- 0.12 mg/dL against 0.95 +/- 0.17 in sedentary people, alongside higher lean mass. Grade C: cross-sectional and not a training intervention, and the 0.09 mg/dL is a difference between groups rather than a within-person change. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade C | applies regardless of the starting value |
Moves without implying progress
Informational or no established effect: the marker moves or was checked, and that is not progress.
| Marker | Effect | Latency | Mode of action | Outcome | Evidence | Condition | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cystatin C | checked, nothing happens. No established effect In the same 170 people, mean cystatin C did not differ between the physically active and the sedentary, and neither body weight nor lean mass correlated with it, even after adjustment. The point of the pair. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade C | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| Homocysteine | moves, and does not count. Lowers Direction known, size not established A narrative systematic review of 34 studies reports that resistance training programmes lowered homocysteine, while the aerobic training studies were too varied methodologically to support a conclusion. Grade D: no pooled estimate, no confidence interval, one database, a fixed decade of literature. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade D | applies regardless of the starting value | |
| high-sensitivity CRP | moves, and does not count. Lowers Effect size, not in the marker's unit confidence interval of the estimate, not the range one person can expect The same meta-analysis of 83 exercise trials that supports the aerobic row: mean effect size 0.26 (95 % CI 0.18 to 0.34) for a decrease in CRP. Grade C rather than B because the source pools exercise modalities and does not report resistance training separately. | not specified | chronic | unclear | Evidence grade C | applies regardless of the starting value |
Sources
Full details of every study the rows above rely on.
Effects of exercise training on blood lipids: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Smart et al. · Sports Medicine · 2025 · Meta-analysis
The effects of resistance training on insulin resistance in adults with overweight or obesity without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Boyer et al. · Obesity Research and Clinical Practice · 2023 · Review
Influence of muscle mass and physical activity on serum and urinary creatinine and serum cystatin C
Baxmann et al. · Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology · 2008 · Cohort study
Effect of exercise training on C reactive protein: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials
Fedewa et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2017 · Meta-analysis
Effects of exercise training and physical activity advice on HbA1c in people with type 2 diabetes: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Garcia et al. · Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice · 2025 · Meta-analysis
Exercise training and resting blood pressure: a large-scale pairwise and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
Edwards et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2023 · Meta-analysis
Effects of physical activity and training programs on plasma homocysteine levels: a systematic review
e Silva et al. · Amino Acids · 2014 · Review