I was sitting with a client in his mid-60s today who was expressing his frustration that all his life he has been longing to retire and, now that he can, he feels limited by his diabetes.

I wanted him to know that he is not alone — his age group has the highest prevalence of diabetes of any age group. It is estimated that one in five Americans age 60 and older has type 2 diabetes. 

But ... a recent study has shown that type 2 diabetes in people in their 60s can be prevented or delayed by doing something fairly simple — resistance training. Resistance training, or weight lifting, helps to build muscle mass and was shown to improve glucose tolerance by 25 to 30 percent.

And this improvement was seen after just 12 weeks in people who worked out three times each week for just over one hour. Let's do the math: that's less than four hours each week to stave off type 2 diabetes.

If you already have diabetes, the take-home message is that exercise can really help to control glucose levels. Exercise should include both resistance training as well as aerobic exercises (walking, swimming, biking, etc.).

Share with those around you the importance of exercise, and you may help to prevent someone else from being diagnosed with diabetes.