Development of Structured Exercise Program for T2DM Management

A structured exercise program is developed incorporating cardiorespiratory and resistance exercise. The cardio-respiratory exercise is interval training (High Intensity Interval Training/HIIT), combination of one-minute High Intensity Exercise (HIE) and four-minute Low Intensity Exercise aiming for six cycles per exercise session at the end of the program. The resistance exercise consist of nine exercises, covers knee extension (leg raise), shoulder press, chair squat, back row, chest press, lateral pull down, hamstring curl, back up, and crunches. The program is to enable subjects to do all the exercises without any major complains, therefore the load is increased gradually. At start, the first two weeks consists of 20-minute continuous cardiorespiratory exercise at 60-70% HR max on treadmill and nine resistance exercise using no weight or minimal external weight. From the third week, the interval training will begin with four cycles of one-minute HIE at 90% HRmax followed by four-minute LIE at 70% HRmax. The resistance exercises are then beginning with one set of light eight-repetition for each exercise. The training load of interval training will increase at the seventh week to reach the target of HIE at 92% HRmax followed by four-minute LIE at 75% HRmax. The resistance exercises progress with one set of 10-repetition of light resistance at week 3-6, then two sets of 10-repetition of medium to heavy resistance.

The subjects are recruited from the diabetes registry at primary care clinics near the exercise facility. The patients are contacted and going through screening examinations such as physical examination including Blood Pressure and ECG recording; fundus photography; blood examination for HbA1c, Hb, and and urine examination for albumin and creatinine measurement.

The eligible subjects will the follow the initial examination to determine the level of physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition measures); plasma MDA and SOD; HbA1c; and Quality of Life (QoL) measure.

Two groups will be formed, the experiment (EXP), and control (KTR) groups using block of four random allocation. Twelve-week structured exercise program is conducted under physician supervision. For each exercise session, the eligibility criteria is resting HR not more than 100/min; resting BP not more than 180/100 mmHg, and glucose level not more than 300 mg/dL. The subjects are also advised to report any adverse feelings or if they perceived untolerable exertion.

The EXP group program consists of three-session per week of cardiorespiratory interval training and two-session per week of resistance exercise. The KTR group program consists of once per week of continuous cardiorespiratory exercise. The program for the KTR group is also a progression of duration and intensity from 20-minute 60-70% HRmax to 30-minute 75-80% HRmax at the last six week of the program.

During the 12-week program, the subjects are asked to maintain their medication, diet, and physical activities. All of the subjects carry a pedometer during the 12-week program, and the diet and physical activities are to be recorded at the end of each 4-week time using three-day food record and Bouchard's three-day physical activity record.

At the end of the program, the examination to determine the level of physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition measures); plasma MDA and SOD; HbA1c; and Quality of Life (QoL) measure are repeated. The EXP-KTR group mean difference and the difference of increase/decrease between group are measured to determine the effect of the program.

To ensure about the effect of the program, the influence of nutrition intake and physical activity to the primary results will be analyzed. So as the influence of other independent factors such as gender, age, and the previous history of length of diagnosed as T2DM and regular physical activity.