The effect of exercise intensity on oral glucose tolerance and hindlimb glucose uptake and transport was studied in 26 female obese Zucker rats after a treadmill training program. The rats were randomly assigned to either a low-intensity (LI) or high-intensity (HI) exercise group, with equal work being performed by the two groups. A third group of rats served as sedentary controls (SED). The trained rats demonstrated a significant improvement in oral glucose tolerance while maintaining significantly lower plasma insulin concentrations when compared with the SED rats. However, no significant differences in plasma glucose or insulin concentrations were observed between the LI and HI exercise-trained groups. During hindlimb perfusion (500 microU/ml insulin, 8 mM glucose), the rate of muscle glucose uptake for the HI rats (13.5 +/- 0.8 mumol.h-1.g-1) was significantly faster than that of the LI rats (11.4 +/- 0.8 mumol.h-1.g-1), which was significantly faster than that of the SED rats (8.3 +/- 0.6 mumol.h-1.g-1). The rates of 3-O-methyl-D-glucose (3-MG) transport were substantially greater in the fast-twitch red fibers of the HI (10.11 +/- 0.49 mumol.h-1.g-1) and LI (9.08 +/- 0.46 mumol.h-1.g-1) rats when compared with those of the SED rats (6.15 +/- 0.41 mumol.h-1.g-1). However, only the HI training resulted in a significant increase in the 3-MG transport of the fast-twitch white fibers (HI, 2.37 +/- 0.27; LI, 1.48 +/- 0.11; SED, 1.31 +/- 0.15 mumol.h-1.g-1). Only muscles with an increased citrate synthase activity demonstrated an improved insulin-stimulated glucose transport.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)