Newbie to all this and need a bit of guidance please?

[CarlGreen]

Hi All, I had a heart attack on 9th June (2020) and had to have 3 stents fitted in one of my arteries. I was a fairly active person prior to the attack (I did a 40km bike ride on the 8th June and 109 miles on my bike the week before!)

My diet wasn't the greatest in the world, and I did smoke for best part of 40 years, and I did enjoy a beer or three on a Friday night! (But enough of why I think it happened!)

I have not had an assessment yet and have a telephone call with the cardiac team arranged for the 23rd of this month (July).

Until then, how much exercise should I be doing? I am only doing walking (And If I had to guess, I would say it is at a Borg scale of perceived effort of @ 10 - Quite easy, sometimes popping in to perhaps a 12 (Slightly harder and getting warmish) and covering between 3 and 10km per day (About 2 to 6 miles (probably nearer 4 on average)). Is this too much?

I don't feel any discomfort or adverse effects, but conversely I don't want to be overdoing it!

I realise a lot of folks will say you have to listen to your body and make decisions on what it tells you, but I ignored my body for the best part of 56 years and have kinda lost the ability of hearing what its telling me!

I want to be active enough for my heart to gain a benefit, but I don't want to be doing anything that will be detrimental to it either.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know it will not replace proper medical advice, but if anyone has gone through the same sort of predicament, I would really like to hear your suggestions.

Thanks

Carl

[Andyman]

After mine I was told to start walking immediately. I did and walked more and more each day. I was told to walk as fast as breathing hard but can carry a conversation. In the end I walked so fast I started running but that was a year down the road. 8byeats on I walk, run, cycle and gym. What I never wanted to do though was prove I was the old me again though. The old me nearly killed me. Just my experience. We are all different.

[Woodensider]

Hi there, I was in a similar position to you allbeit about 4 months in front. As the first reply says a Heart rate monitor is a really good guide, but, get one with a chest strap like all athletes use, they are far more accurate than the watch/wrist type ones. I did get a phone call from rehab after about 8 weeks, the lady told me to keep my HR below 100 for now. I've been cycling a lot & now back at work in quite a physical job. I had a phone call from the specialist this week & he effectively discharged me. As far as excercise goes he said do what you like but keep my max HR down to the recommended level.

=220-58(my age)=162. Then a max of 80% of 162=130.

[NotAllWhoWonder]

Hi and welcome! You're what we call a "hearty" now!

My advice: do nothing strenuous until you've been through the entire rehab program. Your heart has been through more than I think you realise. Not just the heart attack, but the invasive stenting process.

Like my cardiac nurses told me, if you broke your leg, they'd stick it in a cast for 6 weeks and tell you to kick back and relax while it heals. You'd not have much choice in the matter, really. But because your heart needs to keep working (or you die, basically) that's never going to be an option. So you have to take things VERY SLOWLY until your heart builds up its strength again.

Your heart literally started dying due to a lack of blood/oxygen - that's what a heart attack is. Please give it the time it needs to recover. Take it easy! And NO BIKE!

Once you've completed the cardiac rehab after 8 weeks you will definitely feel the difference in your body, but most importantly, your heart. And you'll be back on your bike in no time at all.

(P.S: stop smoking immediately if you haven't already - everyone is going to tell you that a lot from now on. Smoking was probably the main contributor to my heart attacks)

[CarlGreen in reply to NotAllWhoWonder]

Funny, but I had been a hardened smoker for over 40 yars, I started smoking when it was good for you! I had tried many times to give up, patches, hypnotherapy, cold turkey, you name it I had tried it.

But all it took was a heart attack and I cannot even contemplate smoking ever again!

[NotAllWhoWonder in reply to CarlGreen]

Same! Smoked for 26 years, failed multiple quits. Nothing like the threat of death to make you realise the best time to quit is NOW.

[EmmyLaury12]

Hi Carl,

Sounds like you’ve had a rough time

and it is a shock when you are so fit before the HA.

I was fit too before my HA . Went to the gym , personal trainer , didn’t smoke but had the odd beer and had an ok diet .

My HA was in April

This year and because of lockdown not had an awful a lot of advice and musssd out on the rehab at the hospital which would have been good as they are experts and advice amount of excercise etc. They have told me they will contact me when classes start again so hopefully this will be the case for you too .

I had one stent put in for a blocked coronary rt artery . I’m getting there but feel it’s small steps to recovery .

Hope you get on on ok wishing you well I’m sure you’ll recover soon with your fitness history .

[lonepilgrim]

Hey Carl. Sorry to hear about your heart attack, but congrats on your recovery so far and for giving up smoking.

I am in a similar(ish) position to you. I had a heart attack in 2018. I had a normal BMI, pretty active hiker, cyclist and runner, decent diet, not a big drinker - I never smoked though. Just crappy genetics and a big dollop of stress for me. I am 46 now.

Like you I have struggled with the rehab side of things as most of it seems aimed at older/more unfit people with unhealthy lifestyles. The advice to listen to your body goes against every instinct I have, as how will I ever get better at anything without pushing myself out of my comfort zone?

I've spoken to cardiac rehab nurses, and other health health professionals and they don't really give me anything other than the standard 'off the shelf' advice.

In the end I just slowly increased my exercise, both in terms of distance and intensity, to the level I feel comfortable with. I now run 100 - 150km per month, do 3-4 bodyweight sessions per week and pilates most days. I ran the Great North Run in 2019 a year after my heart attack.

I bought an Apple Watch series 4 and that helped massively to help allay my fears (and those of family members). I check my resting heart rate each morning and I can perform an ECG if I want (though I do this rarely). It's also got the fall feature so if I collapse out in the wild somewhere it will call the emergency services and/or message family members.

I've also been speaking to a cardiac psychologist to help me deal with the uncertainty I've been feeling because I can't get definitive answers. Hopefully that will help me going forward.

Like you, the hardest thing I wrestle with is knowing whether I am helping or hurting my heart with the exercise I'm doing. I'm not sure if I will ever get a proper answer.

Good luck in your own journey!