Excericse and paroxysmal afib or afib

[Casualvisitor]

Hi there,

Which excericses do you do which work with paroxysmal afib .

I go to the gym and do weights and rowing.

Plus have a good 1 hour walk a day.

I have a well maintained warm up and cool down routine which I was given as part of my cardio rehabilitation post heart attack.

I've found the rowing sends me into afib so am now inclined to avoid it. Which is a shame as it's such an excellent cardio workout and gave me a sense of achievement.

I can't run ( dodgy knee).

Any excericse routines ,tips or suggestions which have worked for you would be helpful.

many thanks

[BenHall1]

TBH, I don't and never have done ever. Nor do I intend to start at my age 80. My paroxysmal AF is partly genetic, partly food, I maintain a healthy medication diet for life and get a bout of AF around every 4 or 5 years. No sweat.

[Peacockmumma in reply to BenHall1]

Wow every 4-5 yrs! I had 8 in 16 days! lol got to laugh ..it has a mind of its own

[OzJames]

everyone is different, i too have a dodgy knee but invested in a home bike with screen and do a scenic ride once a week anywhere from 10km to 15km, i do not go hard or at least wait till i'm 5km in so everything including my heart is warmed up. I do reformer pilates a couple of times a week and go for a brisk walk of around 4km with my wife first thing in the morning. I'm not sure but maybe the abrupt pulling back and forth with rowing could be your issue? I'm 67 and very mindful of what i drink and eat.

[JezzaJezza]

I have SVT and palpitations, controlled with dronedarone and bisoprolol 2.5 and as a result my heart is now beta blocked and a resting heart rate of low 40’s and max hr of circa 110. For that reason I have sadly given up my beloved Concept2 rower and instead I now do a 80-90 min (9-10km) power walk several times a week. I also intend to mix in some weight training with kettle bells.

Very difficult during these wet and cold months to get out for a decent walk so im probably going to sell the C2 and invest in a good treadmill so I can use that at home when the weather is not suitable.

I have found the best additions to my health over the past 2 years has been losing and keeping off 2.5 stone, cutting out ultra processed foods (apart from the occasional treat), drinking 2.5 litres of water a day, cutting all forms of caffeine and alcohol and finally the daily practice of 30-60 minutes of meditation 🧘.

Best wishes

Jezza

[secondtry]

Moderate and regular exercise only - my heart likes that.

[Jajarunner]

I suggest incline walking on a treadmill or using the cross trainer (elliptical) as good cardio. There seems to be something about the position on the rower which causes irritation to the heart, perhaps pressure on the vagal nerve,,?

[Drone01]

I do the same exercises as you at the gym. Whilst rowing I used to max out at around 170bpm without a problem, but have discovered that exceeding 150bpm triggers AFib (at 200 bpm) once I’ve cooled down, fortunately for less than 30 mins before reverting to NSR. Rather than continuing with a betablocker, I now ensure that I ease off the rowing if I’m approaching 150bpm and keep my heart rate below that level, albeit still in “fat burn” territory. Thus far I’ve been pretty successful at avoiding triggering any more episodes. Rather than avoid rowing, why don’t you experiment with monitoring and moderating the exercise? It certainly works for me with a chest monitor.

[Casualvisitor in reply to Drone01]

Thank you and it's great to hear you have self managed your condition.

I have been looking at strap monitor and to be honest the only one which gives a continuous error free ecg whilst excericsing is the frontier x2, but it costs a fortune.

[Drone01 in reply to Casualvisitor]

I just use a pretty cheap Kinetik strap plus watch to monitor heart rate alone. I don’t need an ecg for that. If I go into AF it’s always after I’ve finished the aerobic exercise. If I need a trace I can then use my Kardia to record it (which I did at the start but don’t bother any more!).