afib and exercise - a recent study

[lovetogarden]

Being a whole-hearted believer in the health benefits of exercise, I found the results of this study interesting.

An Exercise and Physical Activity Program in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation: The ACTIVE-AF Randomized Controlled Trial

jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1016/j....

[WildIris]

Thanks for posting this. It reflects my experience with diet/exercise/afib.

[Rainfern]

Thank you lovetogarden. I shall try to keep up the walking, qigong and dance. Sometimes I get stuck in a kind of inertia - partly a kind of natural laziness, but also not wanting to face the changes my body has gone through so fast with onset of Afib. I was so fit beforehand, now I feel too weak to barrow fresh compost onto the vegetable patch. It's like starting out all over again!

[lovetogarden in reply to Rainfern]

Moving compost to the veggie patch is my gardening season exercise too! I usually order a small truckload of compost and then spend the summer moving it around. First, fresh compost to the raised veggie beds. Then whatever is left goes towards smothering more and more of my lawn for native plantings. Love doing it, but stupid anti arrhythmia meds really hold me back when the weather warms up.

Hope you can slowly build up your strength again! Happy gardening!

[KMRobbo]

Excellent!

[Jajarunner]

My EP and all the cardiologists I've seen alway tell me that the heart copes with afib better because I am (was) fit. Thanks for sharing x

[Kinfusion]

Thank you indeed for this. Very heartening.

[Buffafly]

I was particularly interested in the illustration because it shows that exercise was tailored to the individual and increased in time and intensity as the trial progressed but described exercise as ‘moderate’ ie work up and more intense is not better.

[Jmc43 in reply to Buffafly]

Overall, good news. I don’t have a subscription so can’t get more details, but it would be interesting to see the ages and levels of exercise that were prescribed, and whether it was interval training or not. I note that the treatment group got 220 minutes of assigned exercise. I do about 150 minutes a week of brisk walking and then probably 120 minutes of Pickle ball every week. At 79, that seems sufficient to me, but who knows….feels good though..😎

[lovetogarden in reply to Jmc43]

brisk walking and pickleball sound like an excellent combo!

[Jmc43 in reply to lovetogarden]

yes…although I do tend not to do both on the same day. 75-90 minutes of PB is enough for me in a day. Can be quite a workout. I too am interested in the interval training during brisk walks, and how that might work.

[lovetogarden in reply to Jmc43]

just posted some info on zone 2 training below. Basic idea is moderate level of exercise 3 to 4 times a week will build a stronger heart, able to pump blood more efficiently.

[lovetogarden in reply to Buffafly]

the increase in time and intensity reminds me of what is often referred to as Zone 2 Training. Moderate level of intensity, but not all out training. Apparently it’s what elite athletes do to train and is excellent for building up cardiac and pulmonary fitness. I’ll post some links below. It certainly has changed my exercise routine on my treadmill, not as hellbent on doing high intensity intervals as I once was.

[momist]

I've long held to the motto "Exercise is always good". However, I have sometimes pondered this when people tell me they broke their foot doing badminton, and similar distressing stories. 😆

[lovetogarden in reply to momist]

or trying to do push-ups and the injure their shoulder… I’m been refraining from push-ups for a while. Ouch! 😀

[Sacstate]

Thank you, Lovetogarden, for this. I also am a whole-hearted believer in the benefits of exercise; I am 76 and was diagnosed with AFib about a year ago. This study recommends exercising from 150 to 220 minutes per week while I enjoy the pleasure of exercising activities at least an hour per day for at least  420 minutes per week. My exercises vary from day to day and by season and include brisk walking, bicycling, lap swimming, hiking. However, while I make sure my exercising is moderate in intensity and raises my heart rate, I have not paid attention to the aerobic interval training the study talks about. That is, for example, instead of walking at a sustained brisk moderate intensity for, say, 40 minutes, interval aerobic training, as I understand it, would require walking, say, 4 minutes at fastest high intensity possible, then slowing down to a slower, resting pace for 4 minutes, then repeating those 4-minute high-intensity/resting intervals for the whole 40-minute walk. Thanks to my just reading this study you passed on to us, I am going to email a copy of it to my cardiologist and ask him what he thinks of my many more minutes of weekly exercising compared to those in the study, and what he thinks of my incorporating aerobic interval training and how often and how many minutes per week I ought to do that. I’ll let you know what he says. Thanks again for the study. By the way, my wife and I also love gardening (a good occasional exercise in itself) here in Sacramento, CA where we grow fabulous veggies throughout the year. …John

[lovetogarden in reply to Sacstate]

Yay you! That’s a lot of good and varied exercise. I do get more exercise in good weather, being in CA, you get more of that weather than we do in upstate NY, though you’ve had a rough time of it lately! And gardening certainly counts, especially when I get my annual dump truck full of soil/compost delivered and need to wheelbarrow it around the garden. 😀

[lovetogarden]

Some more info on Zone 2 Exercise that I’ve been looking at after seeing it recommended by a cardiologist. He recommended looking at info from this trainer.

mindbodygreen.com/articles/...

"Zone 2 cardio makes your heart stronger, and it will require fewer pumps to pump blood, making it more efficient," says Niren. "Your body also expands its vascular system, better enabling it to deliver oxygenated blood to different parts of the body."

"The minimum effective dose of zone 2 cardio to get the mitochondrial benefits seems to be 45 minutes," says Niren. She recommends 80% of all cardiovascular exercise to be in zone 2, with a small amount of high-intensity interval training thrown in, maybe one session per week.

One easy way to gauge if you're in zone 2 during your favorite exercise is to do the talk test: You should be able to hold a conversation in this zone, and it shouldn't feel painful or uncomfortable. Instead, you should feel as if it's possible to move at this intensity for hours at a time.

[johnkeithdowning]

This has been my experience with exercise and PAF. Started with episodes 6 years ago occurring every 2/3 weeks. In the early days some episodes became permanant resulting in two cardioversions. Take apixaban and flecainade.

18 months ago started twice weekly swimming sessions due to arthritic knees resulting in very poor mobilty and hence very little cardio vascular exercise.

Since then AF episodes have been two very short ones.

Works for me, long may it continue

[lovetogarden in reply to johnkeithdowning]

that’s wonderful !! Wish exercise was that effective for my SVT events. Regardless, I love to run and it’s helped keep my heart strong.

[dmac4646]

Does anyonr know why this is ? "Total symptom burden was lower at 6 months in the exercise group but not at 12 months."

[lovetogarden in reply to dmac4646]

I don’t have access to the full paper. But it seems likely that usual benefits of exercise (lowering blood pressure, having a stronger/slower heart, losing weight, etc) are all helpful in lowering the incidence of afib.