If you have already suffered or are suffering from a heart disease, you and your family might feel overwhelmed. Your physician has recommended that a change in lifestyle is necessary, but you do not know where to begin or how to do it? It is best to follow the advice of the consultant, the cardiologist who will recommend that you enrol in a cardiovascular recovery program, where you will receive guidance from professionals and thus the results will be quicker.

Why would you need a cardiovascular recovery program?

Because by changing your lifestyle and by improving your physical and psychological condition, you will manage to:

• Reduce cardiac symptomatology;
• Reduce the risk of future cardiac conditions;
• Improve the quality of your life;
• Reintegrate faster into the social life;
• Become healthier than before.

What does cardiovascular recovery involve and what are its benefits?

Cardiac recovery represents a professional program that takes place under medical supervision and is adjusted depending on the condition and the needs of each patient. This program has a decisive role in helping you recover after an unwanted cardiologic event and, mainly, it helps you become healthier and overcome this period in an easier manner.

If you have underwent a bypass surgery or a myocardial revascularisation surgery, it is necessary to enrol in a recovery program that is based on kinesiotherapy and consists of the following stages:

Stage 1 of recovery

The patient’s condition after aortocoronary bypass is characterised by:

• Depression of the respiratory centres through profound analgesia;
• Disruption of thermoregulation through hypothermia induced by the extracorporeal circulation;
• Increased cardiac activity; the need for O2 is doubled/tripled;
• Hemodynamic instability.

The objectives of recovery after bypass:

• Preventing microatelectasis (the lack of gas in the pulmonary alveoli that leads to respiratory restriction);
• Mobilising and eliminating potential secretions from the bronchial tree;
• Preventing the effects of prolonged decubitus.

Herein under are the methods used in kinesiotherapy recovery after myocardial revascularisation:

• Breathing exercises and slow mobilisation of the chest, arms and legs;
• Exercises using the stationary bicycle;
• Daily household activities.

Stage 2 of recovery

• Respiratory gymnastics combined with relaxation exercises;
• Easy physical activities;
• Easy strolls for 10-20 minutes.

Observations: this stage lasts for 3-4 weeks after the patient has been discharged.

Stage 3 of recovery

Objectives

• Long-term maintenance of the results achieved through the recovery program;
• Having a normal social and professional life.

Program

• Daily walking for 30-60 min.;
• Running, but only progressively and in alternation with walking;
• Avoiding sports that involve intense physical effort and a fast rhythm.