I am sure every nation and GP have their own recommendations. I got this recommendation from the University of Dublin:-
The following recommendations have been set for individuals with type 2 diabetes (Colberg et al 2010):
- Aerobic exercise: A minimum of 150 minutes/week of moderate intensity or, in moderately fit people, 60 minutes/week of vigorous exercise
- Resistance exercise: At least 2-3 days/week of moderate (50% of one-repetition maximum) to vigorous resistance training (75-80% of one-repetition maximum)
- Unstructured physical activity: Increase total daily unstructured (commuting, occupational, home and leisure time) physical activity
- Combining aerobic and resistance exercise: Combined aerobic and resistance exercise is recommended as it is more effective than either one alone
- Exercise counseling: Structured exercise counseling is recommended, but it is more effective in combination with supervised exercise training (Balducci et al, 2010, 2012).
- Flexibility: This may be included as part of a physical activity programme, although it should not be a substitute for other training.
Adjunct modality: Low-volume high-intensity interval training (HIT)
Many individuals with T2D cite ‘lack of time’ as a barrier to regular participation in exercise programmes. High-intensity interval training (HIT) is physical exercise characterized by brief, intermittent bursts of vigorous activity. Low-volume HIT is emerging as a time-efficient exercise strategy for improving health and fitness in people with or at risk for cardiometabolic disorders.
A practical model of low-volume HIT consists of
10 × 60 seconds work bouts at a constant-load intensity that elicits ∼90% of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60 seconds of recovery. This means that only 10 minutes of exercise is performed over a 20 minutes training session (Gibala et al, 2012).
This practical, time-efficient HIT model is well tolerated by people with T2D, and preliminary studies suggest that it improves glycemic control (i.e regulation of blood sugar levels) in T2D (Little et al, 2011).
Because of the cardiorespiratory response in diabetes, exercise is harder than it is for the general population of the same age. With this in mind the university claim they reccomend ways of introducing more exercise into carrying out the normal daily routine. There are many athletes with diabetes so the VO2 is not necessarily a barrier to fitness as long as you build up to it gradually. As a regular way of monitoring your general fitness you might consider your personal variation of the 6 minute walk test. Health professionals use cones in a long hallway with a set regime of encouraging remarks at designated stages. We set a stop watch for 6 minutes and walk to the shops. Briskly, not running etc (no roads to negioate) when the alarm goes we note the address of the property we have got too. Do that once a month and at least you know how you are getting on and if you need to be concerned.
Since I do have links to reports you might like this one. A small participant group but it illustrates some of the issues to be considered.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21868679