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(39 votes) Published: Jun 22, 2000 12:00 a.m. In 1 Favorites Lists Viewed 524 times
Take heart, you can – and probably should – continue hiking, even if you have been slowed down by heart disease. I did. Just exercise your brain first.
While recovering from a heart attack, followed with bypass heart surgery several years back, I feared knitting would have to substitute for my lifelong love of hiking. Thankfully, with the guidance of my cardiologist, the only limitation I now recognize is the cautionary wisdom that finally came with age: go slow, take pictures, and smell the wild roses. Plus, the first step out on the trail better come after the many, many steps of a conditioning program.
Hopefully, this is obvious to you. I had to learn the hard way.
When you are active, hiking, backpacking and riding a bicycle five miles to work each day, you do not worry much about having a heart attack – even if your dad died of one at age 51. Mine struck at 35. I was lucky, though. I was in the hospital before major damage occurred and fortunately, bypass surgery was well-established and successful even back then.
Now at 58, I have hiked or walked thousands of miles since my wakeup call. I have no limiting constraints. I will hike, bike, backpack or whitewater anywhere that interests me. But I have to live with one reality: my father’s side of the family is cursed with a poor ability to handle cholesterol. We have strong hearts but lousy plumbing.
Do not assume you are immune. If you have any of the classic symptoms or family history, check it out. If you can, consult a cardiologist who will take time to advise you and answer all your questions. ’We don’t want any surprises,’ said cardiologist Nicholas Capos Jr. ’I strongly recommend a simple test before beginning.’ He administers a treadmill EKG and checks for unusual or rapid heart rate or a ’terrible’ drop in blood pressure.
For those of us dealing with a history of heart disease, Capos has observed that most are eager to renew our activities; only one out of 10 is reluctant. As he said, the majority of us ’are anxious to turn a new leaf.’ Many of us join health clubs, but Northern California’s mountains and coastlines are definitely more stimulating than the repetitious grind of a treadmill. The views are incomparable. Monthly fees are lower too.
Returning to hiking after a heart attack or bypass surgery is as threatening to your mind as it is to your heart. Remember the trepidation of making love the first time after release from the hospital? The rewards were worth it then, just as they are when you hike once again into the mountains. But help is not as close.
Lack of confidence in your ability to return to outdoor activities, especially hiking, can be a heavy load to carry. If serious problems develop, you will be a long way from a hospital. Still, it is ridiculous, even dumb, to think you can leave those thoughts at home. Learn to pack light, instead.
Always carry with you that kernel of fear which stays alert and warns you before you push too hard. Leave the rest by renewing confidence through a conditioning program. Make sure you get advice for your particular situation from your physician first. Then get started. Slowly.
As Robin Wright Mallery, a registered nurse and coordinator of the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Cardiac Rehabilitation Center, observed, we ’should always believe we can do what we used to, but we have to learn to do it at a different pace.’
Rehabilitation centers offer clinically monitored programs designed individually to restore, or even increase, cardiac conditioning. Part of the program teaches heart patients to monitor overall perceived exertion levels, or as Mallery puts it, ’listen to our bodies.’ She cautions that ’listening is intuitive,’ and that some patients ’have trouble listening.’ And, yes, her example was men. People ’who have always worked like dogs – took pride in their aches and pains – sometimes find it difficult to listen and pay attention to their bodies now,’ she said. ’Probably medications have changed their capacity and how their body reacts. Folks have to relearn.’
Many medicines allowing us to return to our favorite activities also change our cardiac metabolism – slowing our whole body down. Learn to enjoy the slower pace. The fun is in the hiking to your destination, not just enjoying the lake or the mountaintop at the end. Photography is not only a great way to bring home the memories, but also another reason to pause and enjoy the sights. Fussing with a set of close-up lenses to take the perfect picture of a flower is as refreshing to the heart as it is to the eyes.
Conditioning is critical. A 12-week program, three times weekly, as provided at rehabilitation centers, is the perfect way to regain your vitality and confidence after recovering from your hospital stay. Comparing our pulse readings with professional staff monitoring blood pressure and EKG rhythm continuously during exercising helps us recognize any changed signals reflecting changed capacity.
For those of us living with heart disease, and at some point many of us will, Capos provides guidelines for a fitness and lifestyle routine that will help us return to hiking – and living well. He emphasizes three things. The first and most basic one applies to us all: a low-fat and high-fiber diet. Thinking light is not only a good guideline for what we carry in our packsack, but also applies to all that extra weight we are packing around our waists or our posteriors.
Second on Capos’ list is also one you know: exercise. The key is doing it. Before heading up the trail, get into a body-conditioning program. He emphasizes floor exercises, something we hikers sometimes ignore. ’Strengthen your abdominal muscles with stretching exercises, and then strengthen your joints starting with smaller weights,’ Capos advises. We need more than a strong heart to get us to where we are going.
Capos’ third recommendation is to go slow. He cautions us to practice on the small hills first, and for short periods that increase as we get stronger. Tackle that first hill for only one minute, but every day for a week, and without stopping. For me it was my steep driveway. Stick to it, and scale up to two minutes, and then three. Soon you will be ready for your first mountain.
I will never forget when I faced my initial backpacking trip after my heart attack. The first hill looked forbiddingly steep because I could not shake worrying about being ready. My heart pounded so loudly I thought my friends would hear. For 15 minutes I could not tell if my heart was reacting to the steep hill or my fears. Soon, but one step at a time, my rhythm and confidence leveled out. The three-day trip remains one of my lifetime favorites.
My last lesson of that memorable hike was the discovery of how comforting hiking with friends could be. Weeks afterward, I learned my two buddies had carried a fold-up stretcher and a heavy two-way radio in their packsacks – just in case
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