Do's And Don'ts Of Exercising After Open Heart Surgery

Exercise and heart disease:

Exercise has both, direct and indirect benefits in reducing heart disease risk.

Exercise controls modifiable risk factors, lowering blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, and body weight, indirectly reducing heart disease.

Besides these, exercise has a direct effect on the functioning of the heart, and allows it to work more efficiently over a longer period of time.

With regular exercise, your heart rate at rest is reduced, but the amount of blood pumped during each beat actually increases. In simple words, your heart pumps more efficiently.

Build it up gradually:

The goal is to achieve 30-60 minutes of exercise per day, but that does not mean you need to achieve it on day one. In fact, that would be the wrong thing to do.

Post-hospital discharge, begin with 5-10 min walks, 4 times a day. Weekly, add 5-10 min increments. Once comfortable with 20 mins, switch to 2 times a day; then 30-60 min once daily.

After a heart ailment, it should take you about six weeks to reach this goal. As you achieve this, it is important to add strength training to your routine, for maximum health benefits.

Special precautions:

While exercising you need to be particularly aware of any symptoms such as angina or shortness of breath.

It’s important to remember that any discomfort in the upper part of the body, from navel to nose, which increases with exertion, should be viewed as angina, unless proven otherwise.

If you do notice angina, unusual shortness of breath or fatigue with exercise, then you need to stop exercising and seek the advice of your doctor before continuing with exercise.

Inputs from: Dr. Aashish Contractor, Director, Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital in Mumbai