We’re going to cover a heart attack also known as a myocardial infraction which is a long-term health condition. So you might be asking is physical activity safe? We will be going over some recommendations and things to consider to help with exercising safely after a heart attack.
Some interesting stats here, in the UK there are around 100,000 hospital admissions each year due to heart attacks. Roughly 1.4 million people who are alive in the UK have survived a heart attack. Cardiovascular disease caused over a quarter of all deaths in the UK, or around 170,000 deaths each year. Which is an average of 460 deaths each day or one every three minutes in the UK. There are more than 8 million people living with cardiovascular disease in the UK. Individuals who have a family history of coronary heart disease are more likely to develop vascular dementia.
Why Exercise After A heart attack?
Now physical activity is very beneficial for those with a diagnosed heart condition. As well as individuals who have experienced a major life event such as a heart attack. It can be useful to understand how exercise actually benefits our health and more importantly our heart.
Exercise can help:
· Strengthen muscles, including the heart and lungs
· Reduce high blood pressure, which is especially helpful for people diagnosed with hypertension
· Help reduce high cholestrol
· Lower stress levels
· Reduce the risk of future heart problems
Regular physical activity can reduce the risk of heart and circuitary disease by up to 35%. Stronger muscles puts less strain on your heart. Something else of note is that every human being loses roughly 3-8% of muscle per decade over the age of 30. This increases to 5-10% per decade when you reach over the age of 50.
Having stronger, more toned muscles supports your metabolic health because muscles use help the body use and remove sugar from the bloodstream. Which helps regulate blood sugar and prevent type 2 diabetes. Building muscle improves your cardiovascular health, and lowers your risk of chronic disease. Also it’s important for independence, so think getting up from the chair or getting up from the floor. Which require strong legs to do.
Cardiac Rehabilitation
If you’ve had a heart attack, heart failure or heart surgery you will be offered cardiac rehab. With the goal of helping people to recover and get back to do the things you love to do. Where you attend in a large group that includes exercise in the form of circuits. Talks and advice, assessments, and meeting other people who have been through a very similar experience.
How Much Exercise To Do
Some people think you need to spend hours exercising. But the good news is it’s not the case! We’ll go into some recommendations so it gives you a much better idea of where to start. That being said starting out moving in any way is good.
So somewhere between 30-60 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise most days of the week, for example brisk walking. Look to exercise at an intensity of up to 5 out of 10. Aerobic exercise which the focus is on getting the heart rate up and your breathing going.
Resistance training 2-3 days per week focusing on all your major muscle groups for example chest, back, legs, and shoulders. Aim for a low to moderate difficulty, which means avoid heavy lifting. Where you could manage between 3-6 more repetitions after completing a set. Resistance training also known as strengthen training is movement where you either use your own body weight, a resistance band. You could use a weight such as a hand weight like a kettlebell, dumbbell. Even a full bottle of milk is a simple way to provide resistance against your body. One example of a strength movement is a squat or sit to stand from a chair.
You can either use your home, or even your own garden to train. Don’t believe you can’t resistance train if you don’t have access to a gym. If you want to learn more about ways of doing strength trainining at home. Take a look at a previous blog here.
I would recommend slowly building up physical activity over time. So it could look like starting at 30 minutes of strength based exercise 1 day per week. Maybe two 20 minute walks per week just as an example. However, I’d look to increase what you’re doing to get towards the 2-3 resistance training. 30 minute cardiovascular exercise per week. Slowly increase how challenging both cardiovascular and strength training over time.
The Importance Of Warming Up
Often some people will skip a warm up and go straight into their main body of their session. Normally the duration of a warm up is around 5-7 minutes for the general population. But if you have a heart condition, a warm up needs to be longer to at least 10-15 minutes. This is for the reason to prevent sudden cardiovascular stress, so that the heart rate and blood pressure increase gradually.
A warm up will:
· Gradually raise the heart rate
· Prepares the body for exercise
· Warms the muscles you’re going to use
· Lubricate the joints
Hopefully you’re starting to appreciate the benefits of warming up to prepare your body for training.
Focus On The Breath
Ensure you breathe throughout. So if you’re doing strength training breathe out during the lifting phase. Breathe in within the lowering phase of a movement. What this looks like practice is breathing in when you lower your body towards the floor in a push up. Breathing out when you’re pushing the ground away from you when raising your body towards the ceiling. When you’re doing aerobic activity use slow, deep, diaphragmatic breathing. The reason for this is to prevent blood pressure from spiking. Which can happen if you hold your breath which we want to avoid during training.
To add to this you may want to avoid isometric exercise. This is when you hold a position for a specific length of time and squeeze specific muscle groups. The reason for this is you may be more likely to hold your breath which again raises your blood pressure.
When To Stop Exercise
Exercise may carry risk in the short term, but over the long haul the benefits outweigh the risks. Because you’ll lower the risk of heart attack and even other health conditions like stroke.
It’s recommended to exercise if you’re feeling well. But if you start to feel chest pain, palpitations (feeling like your heart is pounding, or skipping a beat). Shortness of breath that’s unusual then stop your exercise session and rest.
Finally
Although most people can benefit from physical activity, and especially those with heart conditions. I would ensure you’re cleared by your doctor so that you’re safe to exercise. And that you’ve been through the relevant process for your situation.
Gradually build up the frequency of your exercise. The duration of activity at a time, over the course of the weeks, and months ahead. Which will be as your stamina improves after your recovery, as you’re muscles, heart and lungs get stronger. Where your energy levels improves. Hopefully you can appreciate improving your heart health also reduces the risk of other long-term conditions. Health conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, stroke, and vascular dementia.
