It’s been awhile since I posted, although I do check the forum every day, so I have been following all the usual suspects and new arrivals.
I was diagnosed at 65 in 2020 with PAF and really struggled to come to terms with my diagnosis as it was mid pandemic and also my mother had the same condition and suffered a devasted stroke in 2003.
Gradually things settled down, I got used to the medication (Apixaban and Bisoprolol ), lost a lot of weight and got on with life with only occasional episodes which I manage at home with slow breathing and relaxation.
I had some routine blood tests 2022 which indicated slightly raised indicator Nt-pro BNP and comment in my records possible heart failure, which was alarming. I have since been told that this can sometimes happen just after Afib episodes although I didn’t think I had any. It took months to get some more tests (echocardiogram and 24 holter) and in fact a year to get to talk to a specialist cardio nurse. Happily everything looked more or less the same as 2020.
My 10mg Bisoprolol has been cut to 5mg and I feel so much better and can do a lot more. I am also waiting for an angiogram in view of possibly in the future swapping from Bisoprolol to Flecanide.
Life has been a bit challenging for a few months and due to injury I haven’t been very active, so started to put some weight back on.
Now that I am on a lower dose of Bisoprolol, I would like to get a bit more active and wonder if anyone can recommend exercise routine for Afibbers or is it just the matter of walk walk walk. Has anyone tried the BHF rehab cardio videos.
I watched YouTube video of Dr Gupta talking about a a study in Norway about the benefits of cardio excercise for afibbers and it seemed that it consisted of warm up and then short bursts of getting your heart beat up to about 80% to 90% capacity in three minutes bursts for a few times and the cooling down. So just plodding along is not doing the trick.
I am a bit reluctant to start pushing my heart rate as before I was diagnosed all my episodes came after excretion, but I suppose I will have to just try.
What’s your favourite way to keep fit?
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aFibber55
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Currently a fan of walking in "bursts" or what is called interval training, however, 3 minutes at 80-90% and 3 minutes slow, might be a bit ambitious to start with.
Currently, I'm sort of following the exercise program in the book, "South Beach Diet Supercharged" and at this point it's 15 seconds walking at max or near max and then 45 seconds slow walking (recovery). Repeated 8 times. Then it gets progressively harder, but it's still not every day, more like every other day. On the of days, it's just moderate walking for about 20 minutes. BTW if you have a link to that Norwegian study let me know. Sounds almost too easy, but I'm finding better than just simply walking 30 minutes at a moderate pace.
Angiogram seems sort of agressive to qualify for Flecainide. My ep was satisfied with an exercise stress test. If you do get an angiogram, just be aware that during the procedure, they often stent and or do angioplasty if they encounter a blockage. However, a relatively new study shows that a medical and lifestyle approach is as good as stents, angioplasty and open heart surgery even with significant blockages. So if you do end up with an angiogram you should have the "what to do (or not to do)" discussion versus different scenatios BEFORE the procedure starts. Here's a link that talks about that.
I have resumed my strength training, but watch my heart rate and make sure it doesn't go too high. For cardio I'm doing long bike rides in zone 2, but nothing above 110 PBM. The goal after my ablation and recovery is to be able to resume zone 5 cardio work 1x or twice a week. Though exercise isn't a trigger for my AFIB, the doctors think it is because I went into afib during cardio stress test. I wasn't taxed fitness wise, it was the stress of the whole test.
Hi,
My favourite way to keep fit ? .... I don't have one because I don't go in for all this healthy keep fit stuff. My AF is controlled by medication and diet and I only walk as much as I need to in conjunction with my day to day activities - despite the fact that I live down the pointy end of Cornwall littered with so called exotic coastal walks. Given that our weather down here 47 weeks a year varies from crap to beyond crap there is no inducement to exercise. I am a weather vulnerable/sensitive soul.
Apart from which I'm blessed osteoarthritic pain most days in both shoulders and in the left knee. My right knee has already been surgically sorted. Most of this pain is worsened by changes in weather. So I'm not inclined to do anything. At 78 I am what I am and year on year my AF events are lessening, down to two last year (2022) and none this year so far. HR very good, BP also ( consistent with age) very good. My last Echo reflected a pretty well worn heart but what would you expect at 78. Most key heart indicators such as EF at over 60% do not need any further medical intervention at either GP or Consultant level or any other level.
Exercise is so individual. However to generalise, I would avoid fancy programmes, tune into how your body feels after different forms of exercise, make it daily and do not over exert.
In my case, I have found brisk walking for 1 mile x2 per day incorporating slow breathing exercises ideal. I would also advocate trying something new that you have always wanted to do; I took up walking basketball, never played since school but has given me a real boost.
Thank you all for your answers, I knew I can trust you!
I think I am so easily influenced by all the well intentioned advice in the press and particularly in Good Housekeeping Magazine (I know, I know) how you have to keep active, stretch and strengthen and invest in leotards and dumb bells, to see another year beyond sixty.
I very badly damaged ligaments in both knees on Christmas Eve while jumping behind a door to hide from my 3-year old granddaughter and ended up doing the splits sideways from the knees 😱😱😱 what a fun day that was in A&E, joy and peace to one and all.
I then shared a really viscous flu bug with the said princess and coughed myself inside out for the next 8 weeks.
No wonder the scales are moaning again and I am sagging like an old mattress.
Then just when it looked like it was time to lace up the trainers again, my husband had a gallstone operation - day surgery - and six weeks of fun involving catheter, two emergency trips to A&E, UTI, incorrect antibiotics and the joy that is 111.
I also had a dental problem over one weekend in the middle of all this (please tell your nashers to behave till Monday, there is absolutely nowhere to go) 111 “your age please? Me - “ 68”. 111 “are you pregnant?”
Aaaanyway. After all this I was easy meat for “excercise yourself to eternity approach”.
Of course just get of your butt and walk, push a little it if feels right. Stretch a bit when you feel tight, eat well and remember that biscuits and ice cream only fill your waist and not that bottomless hole that anxiety digs in your soul.
Also,a big hurrah to NHS workers who are heroes working within a broken system. Each and every individual we met on our recent NHS adventures were wonderful, but the lack of access to GPs is really hurting.
There's another program on health unlocked called living with afib which cover exercise and has some good information. Here is linkhealthunlocked.com/programs...
I highly recommend Get Fit with Rick - free on You Tube, which are all walking workouts with really good routines and music to choose from, they vary from 10mins to 30mins so completely doable and entirely up to you how strenuous you want them to be. Also, Fabulous 50 - again free on You Tube, they are again walking workouts for over 50, I’m 68 and try to do one every day - alternating between both.
Really gets your heart rate up if you work hard enough and helps get your steps in.
Thank you all lovely people again. I have booked marked all your suggestions and will start with just waking back to happiness and then start adding exercise when I start feeling more able.
My cardio at the moment is well covered by dealing with a boiler that has shuffled off its mortal coil. Everything about the situation is keeping my heart rate as high as a kite. No heating since Friday and now probably not until after Easter and it’s going to cost a king’s ransom, provided we can actually get someone to quote us.
I'm bound to say that we are all different and it depends on our exercise history. Despite being a cardio exercise obsessive, I had a stroke in 2016 when I was 70. Exercise now, is walking across varied terrain, and a rowing machine that I use outdoors when weather allows. I closely monitor my heart rate on the rowing machine, as it will easily exceed 180. Nevertheless, I have a Concept2 tee shirt emblazoned with 2 million metres, and this year God willing, I'll pass 3 million metres (or meters as the American spelling).
I'm also aware of that Malmo study you mentioned which showed a positive reduction in Afib incidence over a 12-week period for group using the high-intensity training routine. There is also a new much wider ranging study in Germany ongoing comparing high-intensity interval training, moderate-intensity continuous training and strength training in patients with PAF. It will be very interesting to see the results of that.
I was diagnosed in 2017 with PAF and I started on the high-intensity programme, essentially the same Malmo study routine, 3 times a week in 2018 after my cardiologist confirmed it is fine to do and have continued ever since. I've only had one Afib episode since during a period where I had stopped training. Who knows how much it has helped but regardless I've felt much fitter and have a lower resting heart rate. There's no silver bullet here but I'm convinced it's made a difference for me.
Hiya, I find it hard to walk for more than 20 minutes. So I've started to follow walk a mile for your heart on YouTube. It takes about 17 minutes, then you can move it up to two miles. Stay well
At 63,I had an ablation 5 weeks ago, and found that lifting small weights makes my heart spike. Still need to heal, I guess. In fact, just bending over to tie my shoes shoots my heart from 50-110 and back down in just seconds. So I sit and spin on an exercise bike for an hour 5 times a week. My drugs keep my max heart rate very low-120- and I sweat hard at only 85-90.
My EP said the spikes are normal and will subside.
No chest pain, thighs get tired, and weight is dropping.
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