In the opinion of many people, people with a bad heart should not exercise, for fear of exhausting the "heart". But in fact, "exercise prescription" is an important part of cardiac rehabilitation, and appropriate and moderate exercise is of great benefit to cardiac rehabilitation.
What is Cardiac Rehabilitation?
Cardiac rehabilitation refers to the comprehensive and whole-process rehabilitation management of elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases at all stages through the comprehensive intervention of drug prescription, exercise prescription, nutrition prescription, psychological prescription and smoking cessation prescription for patients with heart diseases after evaluation by professional cardiovascular doctors.
Cardiac rehabilitation is divided into three phases:
Phase I. rehabilitation, that is, rehabilitation during hospitalization, aims to increase patients' awareness of rehabilitation and actively carry out cardiac rehabilitation through health education and comprehensive assessment by medical staff.
Phase II rehabilitation refers to the comprehensive rehabilitation management provided by outpatient doctors for patients, involving drugs, exercise, nutrition, smoking cessation, psychology, sleep, etc.
Stage III rehabilitation refers to home rehabilitation to develop a healthy lifestyle with the help of medical staff.
Which older patients need cardiac rehabilitation?
Compared with young patients, elderly patients recover slowly and are more likely to have complications after cardiovascular disease. Therefore, cardiac rehabilitation is of great significance to elderly patients with cardiovascular diseases, and patients must carry out cardiac rehabilitation under the guidance of doctors according to the specific conditions of their conditions.
What are the exercise prescriptions for cardiac rehabilitation?
Exercise prescription is one of the important contents of cardiac rehabilitation, exercise can improve the physical fitness of elderly patients, reduce the risk of falls, promote mental health and reduce anxiety levels, in addition, exercise can also improve cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, obesity and other cardiovascular diseases. Specialized medical staff stratified patients into risk levels and individualized exercise prescriptions were developed according to low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk levels.
The formulation of cardiac exercise rehabilitation prescription should be combined with the characteristics of elderly patients with many underlying diseases, many complications and complex conditions, and the exercise methods suitable for elderly patients mainly include aerobic exercise, strength exercise, stretching training, balance and coordination exercise, and the specific ways and methods are as follows.
aerobics
Including walking, jogging, swimming, aerobics, etc., exercise time 20~40 minutes/time, exercise frequency 3~5 times/week.
Strength exercises
For example, lifting dumbbells, etc., it is recommended that the exercise frequency is 2~3 times/week, 1~3 groups/time, 10~15 movements in each group, and each training reaches moderate fatigue.
Stretching training
Gradually increase the range of motion in a slow, controlled manner, with such an intensity that there is a feeling of stretching without pain. With normal breathing, gradually increase the stretching time to 30 seconds in each area. If tolerated, increase to 90 seconds, exercise frequency 2~3 times/week.
Balance and coordination exercises
The movements range from simple to complex, from local to whole-body.
For older patients, the most important thing in exercise is participation and persistence. According to the individual situation, adjust the exercise mode, you can reduce the exercise intensity, increase the frequency of exercise, reduce the time of strength exercise, increase stretching training, and it is recommended to do it in a group, which is conducive to the persistence of exercise. Special attention should be paid to the correct breathing method during exercise: exhale when exerting force, inhale when relaxing, avoid holding breath, avoid bulging stomach and other movements.
No matter which exercise method is used, it must include three parts: warm-up period, exercise period, and relaxation period, and the relaxation period should be appropriately extended. It is advisable to take effective protective measures to reduce the risk of exercise, and it is best to do it under the guidance of a medical staff when conditions permit.
Who is not a candidate for cardiac exercise rehabilitation?
Strictly speaking, safe cardiac exercise rehabilitation should be carried out with monitoring of heart rate and blood pressure, and not all elderly patients with heart disease can undergo cardiac exercise rehabilitation, depending on the specific situation of each patient.
If one of the following conditions occurs, it is not recommended to undergo cardiac exercise rehabilitation, but to seek help from a health care provider first. Such as: malignant arrhythmia, severe aortic stenosis with chest pain, syncope, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with symptoms such as precordial pain and dizziness, fever, uncontrolled heart failure, pericarditis or myocarditis, thrombophlebitis, recent thromboembolism, abnormal locomotor system that limits exercise capacity, etc.
Elderly patients with acute chest pain, paleness, cold sweats, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, or increased blood pressure (systolic blood pressure > 200 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure > 110 mmHg), rapid heart rate (supraventricular tachycardia, symptomatic sinus tachycardia with a heart rate of more than 120 beats per minute), abnormal pain in joints or muscles, etc., should stop exercising immediately and seek medical attention if necessary.
How to carry out exercise rehabilitation for the elderly at home?
When it is difficult to implement outdoor exercise rehabilitation, patients can carry out home rehabilitation training according to the actual situation. It is generally recommended to develop a home exercise program according to your own situation under the guidance of a medical professional. Home exercise training can use treadmills, treadmills and other sports equipment, if you do not have exercise equipment, you can take Tai Chi, dumbbell training and other training. (Contributed by Yan'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine)
Editor-in-charge: Zhuo Xiling
Edit: Spirited