Return to Exercise

What's been your return to exercise process? I plan to talk to my Cardiologist/EP and get the ok first. It's been a month and was told 4-6 weeks. I am currently booked off work and wanting to get back at it. So I am looking at getting a referral to a Exercise Physiologist. Has anyone been referred to one? I've read a lot of posts with concerns about heart rate. How has everyone managed? Are there any ah ha moments worth sharing? I've read about cycling. I love maountain biking and I am a little concerned about regulating my HR going up climb trails. I think this is going to be a steep learning curve! Pun intended. Thanks

One other thing I was diagnosed with Cardiac Sarcoidosis so my heart is inflamed...Do you think excersise will worsen my condition? I will of course ask my doctor but thought I'd throw it out there and see what people say. Cheers


1 Comments

A lot depends on your heart muscle health

by crustyg - 2020-04-10 19:00:09

With cardiac sarcoid I think a graded exercise program would make a lot of sense.  Not sure that exercise will worsen the condition, esp. if you're on sensible treatment.

There are many different reasons to end up with a PM so it's not wise to generalise.  My heart health is generally pretty good (hostage to fortune there!), but as I'm prone to tachyarrhythmias I always exercise with a decent chest-strap HR monitor (not swimming) to keep an eye on things.

You may well find it reassuring to wear a chest strap (pulse-ox type gadgets are generally not very good during exercise and particularly useless if there are a lot of heartbeats of varying power - the sensors can easily miss a small beat), but chest straps aren't perfect either.  Regulating your HR isn't something that should be a big concern - you probably weren't too bothered about HR numbers before your PM and there's no point becoming obsessed about them now.  What matters is how you feel and whether you can get back to the level of activity which you had before.  Most commonly you will find that your EP team hasn't given you a maxHR at first that delivers what you need for that level of exercise, but in your case this might need to be a gradual process.  Negotiation is the key here.

Generally the advice is to get back to exercising - how much and how soon you discuss with your EP doc and Cardiac Recovery programme folk (if you join one).  I've heard great reports about Cardiac Recovery classes in S England.  The health benefits of energetic exercise are huge (as you probably know), and the misery of not being able to exercise if you're used to it is really depressing.

Best wishes.

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