Bodybuilding after heart bypass surgery

[BBohata]

Oops! I didn't see when this thread was started. I presume OP is already recovered and going strong. I hope all goes well for the other posters!

[dansouthard31]

I knew better than to gain weight. I have a MS in Physical Education, I was heavily training in Shotokan Karate and have trained at length with Koyama, I was a 19 Delta Platoon Sergeant, and I was a college and H S coach. On November 13 I had a Heart Attack (while in the ER getting an EKG, luck) I had a Ventricular Fib and my nurses dragged me to the gurney, stripped me, shaved everything necessary. The Cardiologist got on the intercom and said Coach S will not survive a plane trip to Tucson, I need volunteers to set the cath lab now. He went to the Cath lab and my nurses and a fireman with the defib pushed me to it. I suddenly stopped living, I was in the next world for 20 seconds then a huge explosion hit the inside of my head as I was defibed. It worked enough that the Doc figured I had at least 15 minutes to live. He did the fastest Catheter and Angioplasty on the widow maker artery. Success so he took his time to find exactly what the damage was. I needed a quad bypass.

What shape was I in? I had realized how dumb I was to get with my H S buddies who were alive and search for the best Hamburger in Arizona. So over the past year I had dropped 50 lbs (284 to 230) So this attack was a complete shock.

My son is a trainer for a MLB Team and he's probably on this site He spent the next month with me and I was getting back in shape. Suddenly my Gall Bladder blew up and I had gangrene. I was taken back to a hospital and a group of at least 5 Doctors kept me alive by keeping me on opium and giving me many tests during the first week, they had to wait for the Plavix to leave my body and they had to see exactly 20 gallstones were. (I don't do anything half way) The second week I had 4 DaVinci treatments in 6 days. All successful.
But by this time my body had collapsed, the veins in both arms were done, I could take no more pain, so the out a PICC in and it changed my world. I had two weeks of rehab (I had to be taught how to walk again) So I went from wheelchair to walker to being able to walk for 6 minutes
After that I did six weeks of Cardio Rehab at an Army clinic. Lots of treadmill, lots of stationary bike and lots of reps with light weights. I passed when I could walk a mile in 19 minutes.
Now I'm doing the next step water aerobics with a good PT in an Army pool. She said I'm ready for the next step but we are both worried about my sternum.
I didn't mean to be so windy but this was a hell of an experience.
I want to lift but I don't want to die in front of young people. :-) So, where should I start?
Whew.

[GPinNC]

I ran across this post while doing a search on recovery times. After reading these I thought I would toss out my story.

I have a history of peripheral artery disease and had angioplasy and a stent in the left femoral artery in 2/12. I soon got a membership at the gym to build walking and distance to at least a mile where as before the best I could do was about .2 miles. While I did that and it improved I got the fever to work on muscle building. I still had issues getting much past a mile walking due to the calves fatiguing and unable to break that barrier.

Two years later, development has been very noticeable and quite remarkable..at least I think so lol. I've many medical issues, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes. Two months ago I noticed the signs that other issues were cardiac. Given that I recovered from the chest discomfort within 30 seconds after ceasing labor, I pretty much figured the blockage was about 75-80 percent and fixable with angioplasty and stents. Once on the table I was told later that I advised them during the cath that I was having chest pain. When it was all said and done, 4 main coronary arteries were between 95-99 percent blocked and a quad cabg was needed.

I am firmly convinced that my gym time for those two years helped me compensate a lot and rendered me at a point I was symptom free but it also probably saved me and sped up my recovery. Things I read here imply it will be about 6 months before I am healed from being "cracked" but that I can do 10 pounds in my routines. Honestly, I think a large part of it is trial and error. If able to do say 10 pounds for 10 reps no issue..go to 12.5 then 15 pounds. I would say its utilization of common sense.

Right now I am half way through my 5th week.

R

[dansouthard31]

GP You have an interesting story. Both of us had quads.
There is a site Inspire.com that deals with strictly medical issues. That said I'm at 5 months and still cannot lift more than 25 lbs, but my Docs want me to get started lifting. So I've decided to continue lifting reps but will increase weight up to 25 lbs slowly. I pushed a scraped in the pool today and sit when I feel tired. In a few minutes I'm going to hit the stationary bike for 15 minutes and the elliptical for 10 minutes. then will do 10 lifts, 3 sets of 12. Wednesday I plan to go up 2 lbs. Going slow is hard but since you're younger than me I think you will get back to normal in a year or so. I'm a basically in shape 72.

[joegomez5150]

good luck with it! you will know when u are ready

[IronNWire]

This is an awesome thread - one of the only ones like it.

I'm posting because I'm older (57), I've had CABG (two years ago), and I've recovered. I had an NSTEMI leading to CABG in June 2013. Ten weeks later I was told I could now lift more than 10 pounds but that my sternum wouldn't be fully healed another four months. I looked for advice on what to do during weeks 11-26 post-CABG.

I found the advice I needed from Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital.
Their advice:
(1) minimize the risk of sternal dehiscence by keeping arms close to body. in other words, don't make a long lever out of my arms. Flyes would be bad. Overhead press is ok. Back squat would be bad. Safety Bar squat is ok.
(2) keep the load on my heart at a safe level. Rate Pressure Product (RPP) is systolic blood pressure x heart rate. I was told to keep RPP under 36000.

I found the right equipment and a load of encouragement at my gym.
Exercise Selection:
(1) Safety bar squat (3 sets of 5 reps)
(2) Barbell overhead press (3 sets of 5 reps)
(3) Glute Ham raise (3 sets of whatever felt right)
I measured my RPP using a heart monitor watch on one wrist and a blood pressure monitor on the other. My RPP never got above 32000.

During weeks 11-26 I slowly increased the weight on the bar. By week 26 (end of December 2013) my overhead press and squat were back to pre-CABG levels. For the next two months I was a bit tentative with bench pressing and deadlifting but soon found that I could do both as good as before.

In April 2014 I competed in a powerlifting meet ten months post-CABG. I didn't die.

Hopefully some will find this useful. Take care.

[VoodooAlt]

This is an awesome thread - one of the only ones like it.

I'm posting because I'm older (57), I've had CABG (two years ago), and I've recovered. I had an NSTEMI leading to CABG in June 2013. Ten weeks later I was told I could now lift more than 10 pounds but that my sternum wouldn't be fully healed another four months. I looked for advice on what to do during weeks 11-26 post-CABG.

I found the advice I needed from Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital.
Their advice:
(1) minimize the risk of sternal dehiscence by keeping arms close to body. in other words, don't make a long lever out of my arms. Flyes would be bad. Overhead press is ok. Back squat would be bad. Safety Bar squat is ok.
(2) keep the load on my heart at a safe level. Rate Pressure Product (RPP) is systolic blood pressure x heart rate. I was told to keep RPP under 36000.

I found the right equipment and a load of encouragement at my gym.
Exercise Selection:
(1) Safety bar squat (3 sets of 5 reps)
(2) Barbell overhead press (3 sets of 5 reps)
(3) Glute Ham raise (3 sets of whatever felt right)
I measured my RPP using a heart monitor watch on one wrist and a blood pressure monitor on the other. My RPP never got above 32000.

During weeks 11-26 I slowly increased the weight on the bar. By week 26 (end of December 2013) my overhead press and squat were back to pre-CABG levels. For the next two months I was a bit tentative with bench pressing and deadlifting but soon found that I could do both as good as before.

In April 2014 I competed in a powerlifting meet ten months post-CABG. I didn't die.

Hopefully some will find this useful. Take care.

Good for you, advances in med technology is truly impressive! When I think back to my dad's artificial aortic valve operation in '76 its really staggering the changes. His was a long recovery with and uncertain outcome, they frankly were not sure how long he would live. It was brand new technology then (I think they first ever was done in the 60s) but now the success and recovery rate is amazing. Well amazing with some dedication to rehab that is.


Best of success to you!

[benjigor]

Well here I am almost 6 years after my last post. Still lifting and staying in shape. My titanium valve is still clicking like a Timex. I'm still very thankful every morning I wake up to a new day!

Hi Stuart, interesting to read your post. I too, love weight training and fitness. In xmas 2014 was hospitalised with infective endocarditis. After 4 months of unsuccessful antibiotics, finally accepted a second heart procedure to replace the valve. Looking forward to getting back into weight training.
P.S The weight loss/muscle loss factor sucks.

[bondizi]

Didn't have bypass surgery, but did get my chest cracked open for aortic rupture and dissection in January 2015. Had no idea about the condition, and it happened on a flight of all places. Luckily, I survived that and was taken for emergency open heart surgery when we landed. Found out I had an ascending aortic aneurysm of 6.5cm which had burst, and also dissected the aorta all the way down to the femoral bifurcation. Nasty stuff. They managed to patch me up with grafts and stents (those X-rays look horrific!), and I was able to recover gradually. At first, I couldn't even walk for than a minute, after coming home (was in ICU for 3 weeks). I would be winded in under 30 feet, and felt like crap. But both my cardiologist and vascular surgeon recommended getting back to fitness as soon as possible, with what I could tolerate. First it was walking, walking walking.... boring as hell, but an effort nonetheless. After about a month I was able to do do a mile without resting. Built it up to walking 5-6 miles daily after around 6-8 weeks. At this point my chest seemed to heal itself structurally. By that I mean suddenly one day there was no pinging or tweaky feeling in the chest when twisting or turning my body. It just felt like the sternum had come together like it needed to. After this I started upper body stretches and light weights (5-10lbs), at about month 2. Just very slow and easy reps to condition the chest, shoulders and back, because in my case, they had cut a few nerves in the chest/back area to open up the ribcage, and the whole area was numb for the longest time (about 4-5 months). They had also cut into the left femoral artery for the stunting, and cut a few nerves there as well. My left thigh is still slightly numb, 10 months after the surgery, but not enough to be a hinderance. Still haven't started real weights, think I might wait a couple months more before I do that. I have started playing squash again, which is great HIIT activity. I lost 35 lbs and have maintained that, but I was a rather large 295lbs (6'3") before and am planning to get down to 220.

I think the main concern after open heart surgery when lifting weights, is the strain and rep-to-failure issue. My care team has advised that, when I'm ready to lift real weight, not to lift an amount that causes strain (i.e. that which you can barely lift), and not to rep-to-failure (both these activities cause a spike in blood pressure, which is to be avoided). This is advice for when initially getting back to real weights. In my case, I had very high blood pressure which they think caused the aneurysm, in combination with a congenitally thin aortic wall. So even though my BP is well controlled now, I have to adopt these measures initially when I begin lifting heavy weights.

[bondizi]

I know for a fact they used sternal wires on me, they show up on every xray I do. I always love getting the xrays when the xray tech knows nothing about me....all I hear is "HOLY S$!T".... they see the mechanical valve, the sternal wires, a 6 inch threaded rod up the center of my spine, 3 pedicle screws and 3 facet screws. The next question is always, "how old are you?"

Haha, exactly. My aortic rupture/dissection was at 42, and 3D imaging and CT angiograms afterwards look pretty horrendous with the grafting and stenting showing up.

[glennlifts]

Reading all of your posts has helped me feel very lucky and blessed and not alone in my heart disease. I hope all of you get better as I feel like I have a oxygen tank in my chest blowing a ton of oxygen ever time I breath now.
My best raw bench was 390 when I was in my 20s and I worked up to 353 when I was almost 50. I am now 50 and was doing reps with 300 and 316 on Monday and had 4 bypass open heart surgery on that Friday after going to a physical on Tuesday and failing most of the heart tests. I had 4 blocked up arteries as my heart grew two small arteries to keep from dying.
I am 11 weeks out from my surgery and feel great. I have been doing bicep curls since after week 4 when my surgeon told me I could lift up to 25 pounds so I just did the curl bar.
I have not lost any strength in my arms as I did 110 reps of the 25 pound bar bell easily. At nine weeks I was doing leg extensions with the stack 200 pounds for 15 reps easily.
I walk on the treadmill and do the elliptical for 30 plus minutes two or three times a week. I feel weak some days and I just rest.
Before I went in for surgery I trusted God and said to myself if this is my time to die then it is . But I did ask God if I could just be able to walk around and take care of my two kids and wife then that would be all I wanted but he gave me everything back and it is hard to believe.
But I will not bench press till I know if I can start at six months or I can wait till a year if that is what is normal ? Does anyone know ? Thanks

[sowilson]

This is a discussion for you to have with your Cardiologist and possibly the PT's in Cardiac Rehab.

[JosephDubya]

so how'd this end up going for you?

[LoadFree]

I just signed up for this BB site but I have been following for about 2 years, after I was told I had db type 2 in late 2013. I Lost 70 lbs over the next year by cardio and a dumbbell workout routine and kicked the meds in April 2015. I had aortic valve replacement last July, and since I was in pretty good shape (64yr old), I recovered well. My cardiologist told me not to start the scull crushers until 4 months, to let my sternum get stronger. I'm just now getting back into the dumbbells (all at home). Looking forward to when I can start my pullups again, but I don't quite trust my sternum yet. Pre-surgery I was 190 lbs with 15% bf.

The Lord, and my kids, have been with me through this. Each day is a blessing, and this thread encouraging.