‘A Spark Is Lit’
Five Tips for Exercising Your Heart
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Before his heart attack, Joel worked out regularly and played softball. He knew exercise was good for the heart and learned from his healthcare team that it could help reduce the risk of a second cardiac event. “I needed some sort of a roadmap,” says Joel, who found that roadmap at Burke Rehabilitation in its Outpatient Cardiac Rehab Program. “If I just tried to do it on my own, there would be such uncertainty. Am I doing too much? Am I doing enough?”
Burke’s cardiac rehab offers many layers of input and oversight from an interdisciplinary team. Throughout the program’s 36 sessions, exercise physiologists guide and instruct patients at all levels of fitness while an onsite doctor supervises their progress in real time as they exercise. Patients wear a three-lead portable electrocardiogram (EKG) monitor and follow an individually tailored program on variety of cardiac equipment, including treadmills and exercise bicycles.
Says Joel, “Coming here, where you have people with medical expertise monitoring you while you are doing exercise and ramping up the level of challenge, it rebuilds your confidence.”
Experts believe that 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable, through measures such as a healthy diet and exercise. Physical exercise can help slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure and improve your muscles’ ability to pull oxygen from the blood—all reducing stress on the heart. Cardiac rehabilitation is recognized as the gold standard for treatment after a cardiac event, better than medication alone.
“Medication will keep alive—exercise will keep you independent," says Director of Burke’s Outpatient Cardiac Program Robert Steigerwald, MS, RCEP, CPHQ, EIM3. “Our measure of success is when a participant continues to exercise after they complete the program and live a more active life.”
National Heart Health Month gives us the perfect opportunity to turn to Robert for some strategies and expertise on putting your best foot forward for better cardiac health.
The more you do, the more you can do
It’s estimated that nearly one-third of adults do not get the recommended levels of physical activity. “Inactivity is a great driver for cardiovascular disease,” says Robert. “And the less you do, the less you are able to do—and the harder it is to start moving again. It’s a slippery slope.”
Take that first step! he encourages. Starting with even the most modest exercise can help stop that downward spiral of inactivity—and, before you know it, help you reverse course. Walking is great. Even getting in and out of a chair—which is “essentially doing a squat,” he says—can deliver benefits. “Our first goal is to stop that slide,” Robert notes. “From there, you start to build up. Once you see yourself getting stronger, there’s a mindshift. You are developing exercise as a habit.”
Light a spark
It doesn’t take long, assures Robert, for people to start seeing and feeling the rewards of exercise, whether that’s clocking a lower heart rate on the treadmill, breathing easier throughout the day, or feeling a new strength in large muscles like legs and core. “Sometimes it’s only two sessions before that spark is lit,” Robert notes.
He remembers that spark happening for a cardiac rehab patient who had never exercised before—she didn’t get out of the house much and could never climb more than six stairs. She started slowly on the treadmill, and just a few classes into the 36 sessions her heart was already working more efficiently—and she felt it. “Fast forward, and she’s now in a walking club,” says Robert, clearly taking pride in her achievement. “She’s probably at the mall right now walking with the group.”
Think about fitness as physical “savings account”
Every time you take a step, get up from a chair, or otherwise move rather than sit, think of your body “building up a savings account,” says Robert—something that can be crucial for your health in the long run. “Every time you exercise, you increase the ‘muscle fund’ and the ‘cardiovascular fund,’” he explains. “You will then have reserves to draw from if you need to, whether when you get older or if you have a health event.”
Human nature being what it is, sometimes we don’t start that “savings” until we are forced into it, such as after suffering an injury, illness or cardiac event. Burke’s Cardiac Rehabilitation, which focuses on secondary prevention, offers an all-important opportunity. “We can really flip a switch with someone and help them start that muscle and cardiovascular savings account for the future,” says Robert.
Make it meaningful
When embarking on any exercise or rehabilitation plan, it’s important to identify your goals. At Burke, each patient’s individual goals direct the plan of care, and cardiac rehabilitation is no different. Some patients want to return to an active life of skiing and tennis. Others want to be able to play with their grandchildren. Still others want to walk the aisles of the grocery store without concern. We meet people where they are—and help them get to where they want to go.
M.J. participated in cardiac rehab at Burke, after a valve replacement. Her rehabilitation focused on getting up and down stairs in her home and going out to socialize with friends. She’s found cardiac rehab so crucial to her recovery, she says, that to forego it after having a valve replacement would be “like going to the dentist and not opening your mouth.”
Don’t just build muscle—build community
A key benefit of the Burke workout sessions is the group itself, people who have walked the same path from cardiac setback to cardiac rehab. “We need community now more than ever,” says Robert. On the floor of cardiac rehab, that might mean engaging in conversation or sharing a joke to make the time—and steps—pass, or giving encouragement to inspire someone to go a little farther or a little longer.
People may be at different stages of life (we have served patients from ages 19 to 101) or different levels of fitness, from those who had never before set foot in a gym to those used to exercising daily. They may be at the outset of their rehabilitation journey or at the end of their 36 session. But when they are in the gym together, they are united by mission: taking the steps they need to reach their full potential and return to their active, productive lives.
“We’re living longer now,” says Robert. “The name of the game is having those last ten years be good years. People who exercise put themselves in a better position to live active lives for years to come.”
