Anyone else doing HIIT?
I am 4 months into recovery from HA and stent, I have been following the cardio rehab exercise programme and have been doing level 5 for a while. My general fitness level is very good and blood pressure is normal.
I want to up the level of workout but I’m unsure if HIIT is safe for patients with CHD.
Advice anyone please??
Thankyou and be safe
Hi Changeling! My very personal view is that in current circumstances we just have to take responsibility for our health, as we do on line exercise at home.
I had great supervision and guidance when I physically went to rehab classes, but now we are doing it alone.
It’s up to us how much we do and at what intensity level
I’ve got much better at warming up and down properly, and learning what gives me angina, and how to manage it when I do.
Now, if I get it wrong, it’s my own fault!
Good luck upping your exercise.
You must seek qualified medical guidance that's specific to your individual circumstances. All I can say is that the advice I received (following a heart bypass operation) is that during exercise I should aim to keep my heart rate within both an upper and a lower boundary.
For me at least, full on HIIT exercise, takes me above that upper boundary.
Good luck!
As Chappychap says "seek qualified medical guidance that's specific to your individual circumstances".
And to show how much it is such an individual thing, my cardiologist told me (12mths post SCA & bypass), to ignore my Heart Rate & to go by how I feel.
Hi, my understanding from rehab was to keep to moderate exercise. I have avoided HIIT because it is takes you way beyond moderate. Perhaps that’s not the same for everyone, I thought it was but maybe the advice has changed in the last few years.
I think as already said, everyone is different.
There are so many factors that one size doesn’t fit all, but as a guide the re-hab team err on the side of caution and use the one size approach.
I was actually told by re-hab team to keep my max HR below 130, which I did. As my fitness improved I felt it was holding me back, I told cardiologist and he said as long as I feel ok, keep pushing, I now get HR up to high 160’s when cycling/running.
Bottom line imo is ASK THE EXPERT “your” cardiologist.
Thanks Gaz_chops, that’s kind of where I am with it. I have changed my entire lifestyle and feel fit as a fiddle. The rehab level 5 felt difficult 6 weeks ago but I’m now finding it far too easy so tried a HIIT exercise and felt really good doing it. My doctor had already said, if I feel ok I can push it so I think I just need to listen to my body. 👍🏻👍🏻
The other element here is how your body reacts to your medication. I exercise pretty hard, but since going onto blockers I find it almost impossible to exceed 150bpm.
The point is that if you chase a particular pulse rate you might find yourself in trouble if it's a number that your new medicated body simply can't achieve!
That’s why once you get back to a certain level of fitness and with Doc’s approval, it’s better to use RPE and not worry about HR.
That’s good to know. It’s given me a few more questions to ask my cardiologist.
My GP thought I was mad when I told her I was doing circuit training and tabata,so she rang my cardiologist.He said as long as I feel ok go for it.You only live once Mr Bond.Enjoy it.
Before lockdown I used to go to a cardiac rehab class based on circuit training. The leader devised a programme of gym based work for me as well. It is based on pushing yourself for say 1 minute on the treadmill and then dropping it down for the next 2 minutes. So a kind of HIIT but much depends on how high you go with the high bit. If you keep it within your limits then it seems to me it's quite a good way of working at an intensity I wouldn't be able to sustain over a continuous period.
I am afraid I am ignorant of what HIIT is. Please enlighten me?
I had aortic valve replacement and single cabg , then after treatment with a certain antibiotic for a post op infection, was the unlucky one in ten thousand, to suffer a torn Achilles’ tendon, so I have not been able to do any rehab!
Guys Hospital are offering a tendon transplant after lockdown, but as I’m elderly can I risk it?
Anyway so pleased to hear you are doing so well, but don’t overdo it. A healthy mended heart is better than risking further problems.
Best wishes.
From Wikipedia:
High-intensity interval training (HIIT), is a form of interval training, a cardiovascular exercise strategy alternating short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with less intense recovery periods, until too exhausted to continue.
Hi. I had a bypass in Feb and after waiting 12 weeks for my chest to heal I decided to trust how my body felt and started heavy bag boxing training again along with exercise bike and and walking. If my body has a moan I will tone it down a little but so far I have felt great getting back into training.
I don’t have you’re exact problem. I had a pacemaker for heart block 1&2. I do HIIT and the good thing about it is that you can take it at you’re own pace but if you’re worried I would contact your cardiac team and ask.
Hello, I had AVR and hemiarch aortic root graft in December 2019. This is just a personal viewpoint as I don’t know your full circumstances. I would say that you need to increase your base level of fitness first before considering doing any HIIT type workouts. You are clearly doing well if you are managing the level 5 cardiac rehab sessions. However there is a world of difference between cardiac rehab and even an easy HIIT session. My preferred route would be to build up your strength and stamina by initially simply walking and/or cycling in addition to your cardiac rehab sessions, ideally throw some light weight type sessions in as as well. Then I would gently increase the difficulty of the exercise, for example add more hills and distance to your exercising, more reps or weight to your strength sessions. The cardiac rehab team place great merit in exercising in your recommended heart rate zones. This is for good reason. I would guess that at your stage of recovery attempting HIIT sessions now would most certainly send your heart rate above recommended levels. I am no expert, but I feel you need more time to build up that base level of fitness. Remember there is no rush. If you focus more on building strength and stamina I feel this would give you a good base foundation for tackling more intense activity later on.
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Exercise is not as good as we thought
Focus on the heart!
