Exercising after surgery

[Kitty]

Hi all

Can anyone suggest some good forms of exercise post surgery. My rehab officer is useless. Regaining my fitness is extremely important to me so let me know what helped you

 

[ski girl]

Kitty how far post op are you? Walking is ideal for the first month then you can hop on a stationary bike (without using your arms).

 

[Bracken]

I'm not quite to 6 weeks post op yet. Up until this week I was restricted to walking only. Then this week my surgeon gave me clearance for all activities except for bench press and push-ups. Anything that will impact the sternum and chest muscles basically, he wants a full 8 weeks for that to heal. So this week I went for a 2 mile run. It was great to get the heart pumping again and sweat. But depending on how far out you are, walking may be all you can do for now.

 

[Mike1952]

Fast walking was great for me, I was walking several miles a day pretty quickly. I waited for three months post op to start light exercise on weight machines, then progressed from there. Now, I'm 8 months post op and exercising vigorously several times a week as well as building a house. I'm in better shape than before the surgery. Be patient with yourself, I had a couple of setbacks from pushing too hard too soon.

 

[dtread]

You need to be very careful not to overdo it. Particularly in the first six months to a year post-op. Strongly recommend that you wear a heart rate monitor so you can monitor your heart rate when exercising. Particularly when doing cardiovascular workouts such as jogging, bicycling, rowing machine, elliptical machine, stepper, etc. How you feel when exercising is a good indicator of your progress. Always err on the side of caution and do not overdo it! You are not out to win the Olympics and you will gain nothing and could lose a lot if you overdo it and cause a setback or other problem. A gradual increase in intensity of workout and/or duration over many weeks/months is what you want. Very gradual.

 

[tprice54]

I was running again at six weeks, although slowly. Your fitness will not come back all at once, it is
more fits and starts.

 

[RunMartin]

My views are similar to Dan. Progress needs to be steady. I found it difficult to get the correct advice on how to train at the time. My doctors and cardio nurses did not really have much experience of someone wanting to exercise (running etc). I found I would feel Ok and things were improving but on several occasions I would carry on pushing a little harder then pay for it later. I eventually joined the beginners running group at my running club which stopped me doing this. That is when the improvements happened. Also I have now erased all previous running records, i.e. as if my running career started after surgery.

Martin

 

[epstns]

I will second the notion that many cardio's and staff are not used to heart patients who want to go back to vigorous exercise - especially if the patient is middle-aged (or older). My cardio is very savvy, and he just told me to wait until he released me to get back to working out. We did discuss allowing plenty of time for the sternum and muscles to heal, but since I had some issues during recovery and couldn't start rehab until 12 weeks post-op, it really wasn't much of an issue for me.

Another thing to consider is what meds you are taking. Some meds commonly prescribed for valve patients after surgery may have a profound effect on your exercise tolerance. For me, it was the beta blocker. I was prescribed metoprolol, 100 mg/day after surgery. This stuff made me feel like I was towing a sled full of rocks all around. My cardio wanted me to stay with the large dosage for a while, to ensure that my heart healed completely and that it was working efficiently. Then after about a year, we went through two rounds of reducing the dosage. Now I'm only taking 15 mg/day, and it feels like the sled has been untied from me. I can enjoy working out again.

Of course for many of us, especially those of us who are middle-aged or older, it just takes a while to heal completely. I feel that now, at almost 2 years post-op, I have finally arrived at the point where I feel "whole" again. Don't get me wrong - I felt really good much sooner, but looking at my exercise journals, I see that it is almost like someone flipped a switch at the 24-month point and things just came back together. You've got to stay with it, but at a rate that your body will tolerate. As the others have said, don't overdo it too soon or you will pay the price in feeling worse than you need to feel.

 

[Kitty]

I'm just over 6 weeks post op. just finding it really hard to get information relevant to my age and previous fitness levels. I walk a few kilometres everyday and have asked my gp and cardiologist when I can start to push myself and both have said to increase the intensity as I feel I can just being mindful of my sternum.

 

[Rachel]

Hi Kitty,

I know what you mean when you say that fitness is important to you, it is to me too.

I agree with Dan - I think wearing a HR monitor is key during the first 6 months to one year to make sure that you're not pushing your heart too hard. I did that when I ran and hated it....I would stop and walk for a while when my HR reached around 160bpm

Now I just go for a run and really don't have any thoughts about my heart at all. Right after my surgery it seemed like I monitored myself and held myself back forever..now it's like surgery never
happened.

My advice is to go slow and err on the side of caution, you'll be back at it before you know it!

Rachel

 

[epstns]

Kitty, Monitors are not "bad" to have on board. Even now, at 2 years post-op, I use one. In fact, I used one for the 4 or 5 years before surgery as well. I don't obsess about how high my heart rate goes any more, although in those first 6 to 12 months I did. Now I realize that I can't "break" my heart, and it just will not go any faster than it can. Now I use the monitor to gauge just how hard to "push" myself. Some days I feel better than others, and if my heart rate goes up to the 150's at low effort level, I dial it back that day. Most days, given my bike/walk routine, I only get up to the low 130's, but if it goes higher I don't worry.

For me, as a pacemaker patient, the monitor serves an additional purpose. Under some circumstances, if my heart is being paced electronically but the pacer senses the need to go really fast (above the top speed setting), I am told that the pacer will start to skip beats - actually dropping to half the "required" speed. If I see this happen, I need to slow down and let things settle back to normal before proceeding. I've never seen this happen to me, but others have experienced it, so I watch.

 

[Kitty]

Can I ask why you were taking the metoprolol? I'm taking 100mg a day because my heart rate is really high (has been for ages although no one seemed to think it was a proble before surgery) and I'm just wondering of this is a common thing

 

[epstns]

I was prescribed metoprolol immediately after surgery, didn't use it before. It seems that in some cardio practices it is standard procedure to prescribe beta blockers to valve recipients. Also, I had some afib during the month after surgery, and my heart rate was erratic. I have had a pacemaker since surgery, too. The beta blocker is supposed to slow down the heart and force it to more completely pump the blood it takes in for each stroke. It definitely slows the heart, and I think the dosage needs to be adjusted for each patient to manage the balance between heart rate control and exercise/work tolerance. As we have reduced my metoprolol dosage, my heart rate has remained under control and my exercise tolerance has improved. YMMV.

 

[TheGymGuy]

Kitty, this is a copy of what I replied on another thread to Sood. Let me know if you have any questions. http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?41566-made-it&p=538448#post538448

I will cut and paste several threads here of my week-by-week updates. My general approach was to do more every single day than previous day. So, if I did .5 miles on one day, next day I would do .6 or .75 mile walk. Things like that. Basically, all I could do was walk or variations there of, so I did just that and upped distance and/or speed daily. Biggest thing to keep in mind is that it does not matter what day after surgery you are, what matters is that you are pushing yourself just a little bit past your comfort zone to get more exercise in. Our bodies embrace the extra activity and speed up the healing. Timeline below is just my timeline, it's different for everyone. By week 4 I think you should be comfortably walking at least 2 mile, and hopefully 3 in well under an hour. Great goal to work up to would be 3.7 - 4 miles in 60 minutes which is a pretty brisk walking speed. Of course, you could even do interval speed-walking to get to that time.


5 days post surgery: 2 mile walk - http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?39987-2-mile-walk-today
9 days post surgery: 4 mile walk - http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40029-Almost-a-4-mile-brisk-walk-today
4 week update with links to 1,2,3 weeks: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40146-4-week-update
5 weeks post surgery: 5 mile speed walk and jog in an hour - http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40226-Runners-and-Joggers-5-miles-today-week-5
6 weeks post surgery back to gym: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40281-GymGuy-went-back-to-gym-Week-6
8 weeks post surgery started getting back to normal routines: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40352-More-gym-goodness-8-week-update


List of exercises I deemed safe at 4 weeks or as your body allows you: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?40147-A-little-bit-of-exercising