Exercise While Having Arrhythmia

Hi all.

If my OMRON detected irregular heartbeats and it keeps appearing, my pulse is around 60-70 btw (usually 50s), is it OK to take a brisk walk today? I feel asymptomatic right now, but wondering what the overall take is on exercise while waiting for heart to go back to normal rhythm?

Many thanks,
Lee

Some folks have found that exercise can return them to NSR. It initially worked that way for me, 17 1/2 years ago, but then that feature disappeared.

I'll try brisk walk then! Thanks!

Absolutely okay. If you can tolerate exercise then by all means go for it.

I took long hikes in steep terrain and bike rides of 20-75 mile rides almost daily for several years while experiencing afib and flutter. I even did a 50-mile bike ride three days after an ablation with the EP's blessing.

As for what George mentioned, I went through a two-year period of experiencing multiple episodes of atrial flutter per week that hit extremely high rates (250 bpm). I found that many times I could terminate them with intense exercise. If I was outside, I would find a steep hill and walk or jog up it briskly. If I was at home or work, I would jog up and down stairways. I discovered this by accident but it worked semi-reliably for a two-year period.

I agree with George and Carey as I lived with intermittent bouts of afib during exercise. Just be aware of how you feel and don't push yourself if you don't feel well.

I like Ken who has replied below, was unable to exercise during an afib event. A majority of my episodes were triggered by exercise, which as an athlete was not optimal. The couple times I did try to push through an event did not end well and I would not recommend it.

As a side note I did notice that once an afib event subsided, the chances of subsequent events was extremely low. During that time I would self convert to NSR fairly quickly. However, as my afib progressed the chances of subsequent events increased and it took longer to convert back to NSR requiring the PIP approach.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2022 10:34PM by rocketritch.

When I was in my over 200 bouts of afib, I did not work out. With the reduced blood flow, I would go into oxygen debt pretty fast if doing anything significant. Since my afib occurred a couple times a month and on average for a few to several hours, I didn't find a need to workout while in afib. Normal activity and walking weren't an issue. It appears that the impact of afib on oxygenation varies from individual to individual. I have always been in excellent physical condition. During my afib years, I ran lots of 5K races among many other things. My choice had nothing to do with safety, just commons sense.

I had vagal Afib, so exercise always stopped my Afib episodes, and over the 10 year period that I had them...(with the last few years having them every day, often twice/day), I probably stopped over 1000 episodes of Afib with a brisk walk. I would feel the pulse in my neck, and after a bit of walking hard like that, voila! Back in NSR.

On an interesting note, when I had my first ablation with Dr. Natale, in addition to isolating my LAA, he commented that two of my pulmonary veins had self ablated! Not even sure how that happened, but I'm guessing because I had Afib so often and over a 10 year period....

so fascinating, tobherd. That your pulmonary veins had 'ablated' or somehow grown scar tissue to stop the electric misfiring. sounds like you've had a 2nd ablation from Natale and how long have you been free from AF episodes? may I ask your age?
thanks, RR

Yes, you can totally convert a vagal AF episode with exercise. I did it many times. Running or biking. It almost becomes comical at some point. You’re fighting with your own heart. “Oh, yeah? Well take this!”

My Omron's (I had 4 of them) would sometimes display the IR HR icon just with PAC's (still in NSR). As for Exercise, Yes I agree with the others to go ahead, especially since your HR is that low.