Indian yoga practitioners participate in a session organised by the Bharatiya Yog Sansthan association on the outskirts of Amritsar on June 9, 2013. NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

Women, you may want to pick up those weights or head to the yoga studio.

Middle-aged and older women who did muscle-strengthening activities were shown to lower their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

The study, which was published on Jan. 15 in PLOS Medicine, showed that women who did at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercises per week and one hour of muscle-strengthening exercises were 33 percent less likely to develop the disease compared to women who did not work out.

Diabetes preventive benefits held even after researchers adjusted for aerobic activity and only focused on muscle conditioning exercises and resistance activities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults get a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity a week. They also need muscle-strengthening activities on 2 or more days each week.

Researchers were interested in looking at weight training and resistance activities like weight lifting and yoga, because previous studies have shown that glycemic levels -- which reflect how quickly blood sugar rises -- improve with muscle-strengthening exercises. However, studies havent shown that these types of activities help prevent Type 2 diabetes.

About 25.8 million Americans -- 8.3 percent of the population -- have Type 2 diabetes, according to government statistics. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.

Diabetes often leads to kidney failure, lower-limb amputations and new cases of blindness. It also causes heart disease and stroke.

The researchers looked at more than 99,000 female nurses between the ages of 36 and 81, the majority of which were of European descent. They were asked to self-report how much they exercised.

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Women who lift weights, do yoga may avoid Type 2 diabetes