Normal activites

How much does your afib influence your normal activities, such as yard work, exercise, sex, driving, housework, etc?
At first, I just sat around waiting for it to go away, but now I ignore it. I swam laps this morning in full afib. I do, however, note significant shortness of breath.

I always just ignored it and went about whatever it was I was doing. I'm an avid cyclist and more than once I found myself in afib 20 miles from home in an area with no cell signal. So what choice is there? Those rides home were slow, especially on the hills, but there was really nothing else I could do.

I go fairly close to my about my normal activities. The thing is I monitor my HR, to make sure it is not to high or low, so I have my rate control meds with me at all times, and also try to keep a pulse oximeter with me to measure my HR.

I am a little bit less tolerant of heat while in AFIB, so I take that into consideration.

I am like Carey, I go ahead and exercise, in fact If I go on a long hike of 6-7 miles, this helps me to convert back to NSR.

I did what I could. When my heart was happy, I ran and cycled, sometimes hard. January of 2022 I was literally running up hillside steps on an ocean bluff near where we live, a total rise of about 300 feet and maybe 330 steps in total, split with some uphill path between them. Then would come a week or month when things didn't go well and I was back to a shell of myself. No rhyme or reason I could make any sense of. My heart ran the show.

When I was in afib, I did everything normal except workout. Just not enough O2 and got out of breath quickly. Ablated twice and no afib now.

I think a lot comes down to a mix of common sense and individualized risk assessment. For example, a cardiac healthy 40 or 50 year old, may be able to carry on a lot more than say a 70 year old with underlying cardiac issues. That said, I wouldn't say it's univeraally safe, or lets say wise, to continue vigorous exercise even if you are young and healthy.

I'm more in the older group with cardiac issues, so the most strenuous activity I did during an AF episode was to get off the bed or couch and go to the bathroom at least until I got my rate under control.

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2026 01:49PM by mjamesone.