Weight Training and Heart Failure

I was first diagnosed with idiopathic cardiomyopathy in March of
2007. At the time I was working on a large condominium project and was frequently doing physically strenuous work. I was hoping that with medication I would have significant improvement with my condition. I didn't seem to get much worse, but I also was not getting any better. In August of 2007 I finally gave in and had an ICD implanted. Since then I have had improvement in my condition
but my ejection fraction is still 16%. Even with this poor number I am able to go to gym and work out really hard nearly every day. I think this is because I started running and weight training when I was 13 and continued to through my entire adult life. Does anyone have a similar story? I do retain water in my abdomen and worry that the diuretics I take can cause kidney damage, does anyone know if this is true. Any information about this would really be appreciated. Thanks, Russ.

4 Comments

ICD-working out

by TexasBeat - 2008-07-09 06:07:10

With any medication there is always risk. Infact many of the risk of medications are the very ones they intend to treat.
My best advice to you would be this- keep regular appointments with your Healthcare providers. He/She will keep up with your Blood chemistry. They will keep check on Liver and renal function. Remember to ask question. Watch what your eating and maybe have your MD to set you up with a dietician. I am amazed that you can work out with an EF of 16%.

My question to you is this: has the MD mentioned anything about weight lifting if so how much? Is this light weights with many reps? just very curious.

Sort of a similar story..

by turboz24 - 2008-07-09 11:07:17

I have Cardio Myopathy from when I was 17. I didn't notice anything wrong, except I had what felt like a cold for an excessive length of time. Went to the Doc, he heard a murmur, sent me to a cardiologist and found out I had viral Cardiomyopathy. I believe I had dropped to the low 30's on EF, but because I was a cross counrty runner in high school, I never even noticed a difference. Infact, when I was on the treadmill for my stess test, he had to go to almost full incline and push me to a full bore run, even then my heart rate would not exceed 140. My resting rate at the time was still in the 50's.

It wasn't until I was 34 years old that I got hit with sudden onset of arrythmia (Vtach), which was caused by damage from my origional cardiomyopathy, but my EF is still in the 45-55% range (Depending on the tests, etc).

I would say as long as your condition allows you to exercise, you need to. Everyone should workout, both cardio and strength training. Both EP's that I have had basically told me that my conditioning allowed me to tollerate a pretty high Vtach (245-285 bpm) with just a light headed feeling, infact I was in a 240 Vtach for over 30-60 minutes the first time. It came on, though I was just hungry, finished my workout, ate, sat down, finally checked my BP, went to the ER, and they spent a good deal of time trying to lower it without cardioverting me.

Nice to hear someone else...

by boomboom - 2008-07-09 12:07:59

I just had a aortic valve replacement and got a bivent ICD as part of the deal. I acquired complete heart block from the surgery and the bivent was the way to go, as my EF was 15% pre-surgery (and wasn't, unsurprisingly, any better at my 4 week post-op visit).

I started feeling bad about Christmas time last year. Before that, I was probably not quite as active as you, but I have the same history of working out since about 13. In fact, I played an entire (and I do mean entire, as we were short of people) game of lacrosse at the end of last November and felt fine. I've probably had an EF of less than 20% for many years and never felt anything but fine (allowing for the fact that I wasn't 20 anymore).

I'm going to the gym and walking briskly on the treadmill now. I don't do much else, as I am trying to let my sternum heal from the AVR. The only problem I've had is that my max rate was at 130 and I was able to get above that by jogging on the treadmill. I recently had the max set to 140 and that seems to have helped.

Hey boomboom

by Russ427 - 2008-07-11 02:07:40

Hi boomboom,
Russ here, PM me, let's talk.

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