Right from those first groggy moments out of anesthesia, walking has been the main fitness activity to go with my recovery.
In the first days after surgery, it was a few tentative steps hanging to to the physiotherapist. Then it was a turn down the hallway with a physiotherapist at the ready in case my balance was off. Then it was a stroll around the unit with F. Then two laps. Then a flight of stairs and a couple of laps every few hours.
When I was discharged it was first just 10 minutes out on the sidewalk in front of our house. Then 15, 20, 30, and then up to 45 minutes. Now I've progressed to around an hour and about 5 kilometers every day or two.
Mostly I'm aiming to walk at a good pace, swinging my arms quite a bit (though not quite with military drill precision or height), making sure my heart rate gets up and I work up a bit of a sweat. This has been great heart exercise. I feel my stamina improving. My breathing is deeper and stronger. My legs have been sore at times but after a slow day or two I recover and can push a bit further.
One weird thing has been a numb feeling and a sharp tingling sensation at times in my left pectoral. Dr. M. explained that they took the vein for my by-pass from this area and so, of course, there was some nerve damage from the harvesting. Now some of those nerves are growing and reconnecting and reactivating and the result is the tingling. A fellow in my exercise class has a similar feeling in his leg (where they removed a vein to do his bypasses) which he describes as a burning. It's a bit uncomfortable at times and a little annoying but certainly not debilitating.
Speaking of exercise class, this is the main source of information and motivation for my recovery fitness program. The class is part of the Building Healthy Lifestyles program of Alberta Health Services. This is the physical activity part of the Cardiac Rehab program I wrote about earlier. After the initial information sessions, a one-on-one session with a cardiac nurse, and an evaluation session to determine my base level of fitness, I'm now into hour-long classes two times a week.
I never was the jock type and I've never done a group fitness activity ever before, but I'm finding that I really enjoy these classes, and even look forward to them. We meet at the Soccer Center. We do some warm up laps around the indoor playing field, under the watchful eyes of some Cardiac Recovery Nurses, one of whom is our leader. She (and one he; they all take turns giving us direction) keeps time for us and tells us what to do with our arms as we walk: punch straight in front, roll our forearms as if we were hitting a small punching bag, make small circles with our arms straight out to the sides, make big circles, move our arms as if doing a forward crawl, do the backstroke, flap our arms up and down like a bird. It's quite amazing how much of a sweat you can get just by working against gravity. After the warm up laps we do about twenty minutes at a higher level cardio work out where we get our heart rates up. Then we cool down and do some low impact strengthening exercises and some stretches. We track our heart rates and the nurses help make sure we do the exercises in the proper way and have good information about how they're helping our recovery.
And I'm feeling fitter and stronger. Not Charles Atlas, by any means. But certainly much better than I've felt in a long while.
So these classes are twice a week. On other days I usually walk around the park and lake just a block away from our house. And most recently I've taken to using walking poles from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (or, I guess, more properly, trekking poles). The weather has been really great so it's been great to be outside. The poles are adjustable to the right height and they add a good extra bit of a work out to the upper body.
One weird thing has been a numb feeling and a sharp tingling sensation at times in my left pectoral. Dr. M. explained that they took the vein for my by-pass from this area and so, of course, there was some nerve damage from the harvesting. Now some of those nerves are growing and reconnecting and reactivating and the result is the tingling. A fellow in my exercise class has a similar feeling in his leg (where they removed a vein to do his bypasses) which he describes as a burning. It's a bit uncomfortable at times and a little annoying but certainly not debilitating.
Speaking of exercise class, this is the main source of information and motivation for my recovery fitness program. The class is part of the Building Healthy Lifestyles program of Alberta Health Services. This is the physical activity part of the Cardiac Rehab program I wrote about earlier. After the initial information sessions, a one-on-one session with a cardiac nurse, and an evaluation session to determine my base level of fitness, I'm now into hour-long classes two times a week.
I never was the jock type and I've never done a group fitness activity ever before, but I'm finding that I really enjoy these classes, and even look forward to them. We meet at the Soccer Center. We do some warm up laps around the indoor playing field, under the watchful eyes of some Cardiac Recovery Nurses, one of whom is our leader. She (and one he; they all take turns giving us direction) keeps time for us and tells us what to do with our arms as we walk: punch straight in front, roll our forearms as if we were hitting a small punching bag, make small circles with our arms straight out to the sides, make big circles, move our arms as if doing a forward crawl, do the backstroke, flap our arms up and down like a bird. It's quite amazing how much of a sweat you can get just by working against gravity. After the warm up laps we do about twenty minutes at a higher level cardio work out where we get our heart rates up. Then we cool down and do some low impact strengthening exercises and some stretches. We track our heart rates and the nurses help make sure we do the exercises in the proper way and have good information about how they're helping our recovery.
And I'm feeling fitter and stronger. Not Charles Atlas, by any means. But certainly much better than I've felt in a long while.
So these classes are twice a week. On other days I usually walk around the park and lake just a block away from our house. And most recently I've taken to using walking poles from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (or, I guess, more properly, trekking poles). The weather has been really great so it's been great to be outside. The poles are adjustable to the right height and they add a good extra bit of a work out to the upper body.
So now I look like a fitness geek, even if I'm not Charles Atlas.
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