Exercise is a very personal thing. Some of our members have an established gym and fitness regime that they continue with modification depending on their episodes of A-Fib. My specialist recommends vigorous walking to give the heart a workout. If you don't have any exercise yet and you are battling weight issues, perhaps walking or stationary bike riding is best. Getting your diet right is also a great forward step too Doing your own cooking so that you know what you are eating is helpful.

I come from Australia and although there is a tendency to eat out more than in the past, our culture is home cooking and many home vegetable gardens.

Starting some exercise is important and finding something that you are likely to keep doing with some enjoyment. Best wishes, Ruth

I am just getting back to some well needed exercises. I had ankle surgery in January and an ablation in March. It is amazing how fast weight comes on when your not active.

I have been given the go-ahead to do anything. I take a yoga class 2/week and try hard to make both. This week I have an appointment with a personal trainer to begin all over again to do cardio as well as toning and to start, knowing I have been away from it for a while.

I had been doing both before all this happened and went to the fitness club as time allowed and I was not in afib. Unless the exercise brings on an episode (and you won't know until you do it) you should be able to live your life between episodes.

Take care, Joan

I walk 2 miles a day and since I started I lost 8 lbs. I also go to the gym 6 days a week and do the cardio-vascular machines. My Dr. told me to get my heart rate up every day so that all works out good for me.

72 year old guy - 8/2009 kidney cancer (and gave up the left kidney) and discovering/developing Afib at the same time. wound up with a pacemaker this past January and complications with fluid build up in the lungs and the heart sac. not fun time. but, I have always worked out and played tennis and swam and biked. of course dialed that back while recovering from each episode yet I believe my conditioning and activity allowed me to rebound each time. currently back to full activity schedule - I just retired this week and look forward to many more years.
everyone is different and of course your caregiver(s) need to guide you. I am convinced that using illness to as an excuse to do nothing will hasten deterioration. let your docs and your body set the pace. if you can, get a piece of exercise equipment in your home - a treadmill, elliptical stepper or bike - and set a daily routine. walking is the easiest and least expensive way to keep healthy. swim or walk/run if you have access to a pool. create your own motivation and the routines become as much a part getting going as putting on your socks. there - I have never posted as much feel good stuff as this. make my day...
be well, Rich

I think you said in one of your posts you liked to work out 4 times per week. I'm 48 and worked out at least 3-4 times a week at the health club including lifting (light weight high rep), biking, and running. I was diagnosed in Feb and thought this was the end of my work out life. To tell you the truth the amount of exercise you will be doing is directly proportional to the degree of confidence you allow the afib to take from you. It stopped me cold for at least a month. With me work out frequency is now the same and is directly proportional to how well controlled the afib is and how much I fear falling in it, and both of those seem to correlate with how long, how much you know, and how well you have accepted the condition. This site will help you with all of that. I heard it takes at least a year for many.....

Being a vagal afibber I'm not to worried during the day, some vagals work out at night when they go into afib to drop out faster (that's hardcore), so since I was stabilized on my meds and I've been afib free for a little over a month I have gone back to body pump, been on my racing bike (not going the speed I like but going) and even jogged 2.5 miles two days again for the first time in 3 months (coaches jog speed). Granted I now do everything at 80% and am limited by the slower heart rate at times. There are some very physically active people on this site, and what I do pales in comparison to them. I hope some of them chime in to help you because they know so much more than I... Overall, I am hoping to one day again do a sprint triathlon and my charitable 100 mile century bicycle ride for the MACC fund (this year would have been my milestone 20th 100 mile consecutive), but probably not this year and maybe I'll never reach that goal, at least not on meds.

My cardio said, more so than ever, it is important to keep the rest of your heart structurally healthy and it is even more important to walk and do anything you can to be in the best heart shape possible (i.e. supplements, weight loss, etc.). I do more fast walking now in the last months than I have in my life. I hope I can keep that up. Probably no 5Ks either this year, but I know people who play basketball weekly with afib and a cured ablatee that does everything he used to at age 44. I hope this gives you the hope that you will someday sweat again as soon as they get you under control. It takes some time. I've found the biggest battle is being tired from the drugs when you first start out but it goes away as you get moving. The beta blockers really tackled me physically and emotionally. Got to tell you it is kind of weird seeing a jogging heart rate in the 90s that would normally, at that pace, have been in the 120 to 140s. Good luck and wishing you hope........ We all need hope......

I know I might be an outlier, but I am exercising per normal. After my cardio version I have better recoveries. So for me that means spin bike one day, lifting the next, a long hike or snowshoe on the weekends. I am headed out to Mt Rainier tomorrow - probably about a 6 hour hike/snowshoe. My spin bike is intense - much more than normal people who are much younger than me. I think you can do anything you have done in the past.

I started back exercising about 1 month ago. When I was first diagnosed back in Feb, I didn't do any type exercise for the 2 months that I was in afib. Currently, I do a fast pace walk, 2 miles 4 -5 days a week with some weights after. Not at all what I was doing before being dx with afib, but its a start. Best wishes to you!

hi thanks,
may be i am still confused about the whole thing ,it has been only a week .that i was diagonesed and still i am not sure what does it really mean to be in afib .
i am doing some walking at home but have lost the will to do anything else .
i thank again for this group
ray

Ray,

When a person is in afib their heart rate is irregular. When I was in afib I would check my pulse everyday for the whole 2 months or so that I was in afib. You can tell by your pulse. Luckily I converted (chemically) back in normal sinus rhythm with Multaq.
I have a appt with another EP at the Mayo Clinic. Going for a second opinion regarding having the ablation done. Hope this helps!!

Best wishes!

ablation is not 100%, I still take Multaq and
warfin

Exercise has been a real challenge for me. I am not the athletic type in the best case and since a fib it has been more difficult. Exercise is a trigger for me. When I was first diagnosed and had a treadmill stress test I went int a fib during the stress test. It has made me very afraid to get my heart rate up very much, and I was taking 200mg of toprol which made exercise feel like I was pushing through muck.
I have been on flecainide for almost 2 weeks and so far no a fib. I was also told to decrease the toprol to 100mg a day and I feel like I have more energy. So...I am going to start walking again. Well, it's raining today....maybe tomorrow

I know I'm younger than most of you on here, but staying active is difficult for me as well. I'm sixteen and have had paramoxal Afib since i was 5 as a complication of viral myocarditis. I also have asthma, Common Variable Immunodeficiency Disease (CVID) and hypoglycemia. Exercise is a challenge for me, but has been getting easier. I'm on 80mg Betapace 2x a day and 80mg Toprol and it works really well. Anyway for exercise I have been in lyrical ballet on and off since i was 8 and I'm on the dance team/color guard at school I ride horseback twice a week and practice yoga at least 3 times a week. If I'm up to doing nothing else, I at least try to go for a walk. It doing always work, and sometimes all i can do all day is lay around (one of my symptoms of CVID is chronic fatigue). But i try to work out as much as I can

Bonnie,

question...your profile says you have a catheter ablation scheduled...but your post says ablation is not 100%...You chose to go ahead with scheduling the ablation. Just wanted to know why you are going ahead with it?

Bonnie,

Have you have had the ablation done already? If so, you are still having afib episodes?