After a hard, short workout, your body releases more sugar and insulin into the blood, which helps your muscles refill their energy faster.

After a short, super-hard workout, your muscles refill their energy stores way faster than after a long, slow one—even if you eat the same amount of carbs.

If untrained guys eat a high-fat diet for 7 weeks, their muscles use less stored sugar during medium-intensity exercise compared to eating a high-carb diet — it’s like saving their fuel — but their legs still take up the same amount of glucose from the blood.

When you push your muscles to their absolute limit with heavy lifting, your muscles quickly pull in more sugar and turn it into a form that helps them keep working hard — like revving up a battery to keep going.

Adults with type 2 diabetes who did aerobic exercise had about 12 more mg/dL lower fasting blood sugar than those who didn't exercise, after 12 weeks.

When you work out really hard and your muscles burn, the buildup of lactic acid might help your muscles refill energy faster—but after lifting weights, less lactic acid means slower recovery.