Post Heart Attack Exercise One Step at a Time

Part of the post heart attack anxiety series

By the time I finished cardiac rehab, something had shifted. I'd walked out of the hospital afraid of my own heartbeat, and I walked out of rehab believing my heart could actually handle activity again. That belief turned out to be the real starting point, more than any workout plan.

For most of my life before the heart attack I'd been going to the gym, a mix of weights and cardio. Right before it happened though, I'd shifted mostly to the stationary bike, because I'd had knee surgery a couple months earlier and needed something lower impact while it healed.

Either way, I wanted to just pick my old routine back up where I left off almost like I had to prove something to myself, to make sure nothing like a heart attack ever happened again. But I had to keep telling myself that wasn't the assignment yet. The assignment was building slowly on the confidence rehab had given me, not testing it against my old standards on day one. Because the point was also building something sustainable. Killing myself in one big work out session was a sure fire way to talk myself out of the next work out.

So I did it in stages. Lighter weights, shorter cardio, way below what someone at my age could probably handle and I let myself add intensity back gradually instead of jumping straight into my old routine. Every session I finished without anything scary happening was more proof, the same kind rehab had already started giving me. My body could handle this.

If you weren't working out much before all this, or you're starting from close to zero, you don't need a gym membership or any equipment at all. A ten minute walk after each meal is a great place to begin. It's short enough that it doesn't feel like a project, and it gets you moving consistently instead of dreading one big session. It's not just about building the habit either. Walking right after you eat, especially after lunch, actually helps your body work through some of the calories from that meal instead of just letting them sit. Take the stairs. Park further away.  It's a genuinely good starting point if you're building up from zero. And then start consistent exercise.

This isn't really about the specific workout. It's about building on whatever confidence you've already got and adding a little more each week. We've talked about this in other posts too, and it keeps coming back around because it's true. It's the small, sustainable, consistent stuff that actually adds up over time. That's what starts to settle that background anxiety, way more than any one big effort ever does.

Get started so that you can figure out what pace makes sense for where you are. But whatever you choose, start smaller than you think you need to. And always add on. Even if it’s an extra minute to the walk each and every day. The small stuff adds up faster than people expect.

Because you only get one heart. ‘Til next time, Stephen.