In a recent research article, diabetics did the best by incorporating both resistance and aerobic activity, so your friend defininitely should do both. It wouldn't shock one to see a little rise in the blood sugar in response to intense exercise, since stress hormones such as cortisol may be activated. This would be off set by the benefits of the metabolism being boosted in the longer term and the calories being burned off and the cardiovascular benefits of intense aerobic exercise. What to do about post-workout carbs is a tougher question that I don't fully know the answer. The most simple answer, given that his A1C is so good would be to rearrange his current diet to put some carbs before and after exercise. Although, in theory, we don't want wild fluctuations in the blood sugar, in real life we don't know that an A1C with fluctuations is any worse than the same A1C with stable numbers. Given that the A1C is a test of the blood sugars over 3 months he'll have to do some experimenting and watch and wait a while for an answer. I'd be very interested in any follow-up you can give us.
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