Resistance Training With Cardiac Issues – BionicOldGuy

My last strength workout went really well, I was able to go pretty hard without pushing my heart rate excessively. But afterwards it occurred to me that monitoring heart rate might not be enough. Strength training can cause a temporary spike in blood pressure which is probably not a good idea. I figured there must be a lot of research on this, because there are a lot of older people with cardiac limitations besides mine which is relatively rare (including heart-attack survivors, angina sufferers, and those with valve regurgitation). And they are still encouraged to do strength training to prevent sarcopenia. So I asked Gemini deep research about it and it produced this fascinating report. It points out that a resistance training session, properly performed, is beneficial to the heart because while it temporarily raises blood pressure, there is “a phenomenon known as post-exercise hypotension, where blood pressure remains below pre-exercise resting levels for several hours”.

It turns out that in addition to heart rate I should monitor the amount I am lifting in comparison to my 1 rep max (RM), which is the amount of resistance I can use on a particular exercise when straining to the maximum. Both the American Heart association and American College of Sports Medicine agree that cardiac patients should not exceed 60% of 1 RM. If you don’t know your 1 RM for an exercise, a good rule of thumb is you should be able to do more than about 12 reps. This should be hard but not cause you to strain. Also, one set of each exercise, twice a week on non-consecutive days is recommended. A list of “Warning Signs to Terminate an Exercise Session” (chest tightness, shortness of breath, light-headedness, etc.)

I was doing upper body and leg resistance sessions on different days, so 2 workouts of each requires 4 days and you can’t avoid back to back. With my new reduced training it is easy to fit both upper body and legs in one session, so I’ve modified my schedule to do each on Wednesday and Saturday:

My first Wednesday workout from this schedule felt great. I did not have any of the heart-related warning symptoms.

I still trust trained professionals over AI, even if the latter has used an impressive series of references. So I double-checked all of this with my cardiologist and he agrees with the measures I am taking and is not concerned. So we’ll follow up in a year unless my status changes.