Doctors advise cardiac evaluation before starting exercises at the gym
The mushrooming of fitness clubs in Bangalore has raised questions about the correct way to exercise in the gym.
In September last, Amar Navaneetham, a 43-year-old dentist, collapsed on the treadmill. Last week, Brinda Mammen (39), met with a similar fate while working out. Doctors say both these cases are rare ones caused by sudden cardiac arrests. They assert that it is important to get a cardiac evaluation done before one starts using the gym.
Family history
“This is all the more necessary if the person is aged above 35 and has a family history of heart problems. Although the person may be leading a healthy lifestyle, some underlying problems in the heart such as valvular heart disease or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickening of heart muscle, usually a hereditary condition) go undetected sometimes,” says C.N. Manjunath, Director of the State-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology.
Excess physical activity causes mismatch between the demand and supply of oxygen to the heart muscles in persons with blockages in the arteries, Dr. Manjunath explains.
“Cardiac arrests are caused by blocks in arteries. While chronic blockages have symptoms, attacks caused because of some underlying blockages come without warning.”
He advises people against starting with high-intensity exercises. “One should gradually increase the activity. Isometric exercises that are done to strengthen abs, legs and shoulders are bad for the heart if proper care is not taken. They can thicken the heart muscles and excessive thickening can lead to sudden cardiac death.”
Don't stop exercising
Rajpal Singh R.L., consultant interventional cardiologist at Fortis Hospital's Bannerghatta Road branch, says such incidents should not discourage people from exercising. “People with a family history of heart problems should get a medical review done before taking up strenuous exercises,” he says.
“A regular exercise programme provides many benefits, and it is normal to feel a little tired following the workout. But, if you overdo it without allowing your body to recover, your body can break down,” he says.
Dr. Manjunath adds, “Always stop exercising if you feel pain as it often indicates that something is wrong. Exercise should make you feel refreshed and not exhausted.”
“It is better to run on medium speed on the treadmill for a longer duration than work out at a higher speed. Workouts soon after having heavy meals should be avoided and adequate fluids should be consumed to check dehydration,” the doctor advises.
So, exercising is good, but exercising can also be bad? How about mentioning that people who have been robustly active all through their lives should have absolutely no problem with their workouts? This advice here seems to be geared to simply increase visiting fee collections for doctors who have nothing to add to what we already know.
People who want to exercise for cosmetic reasons are most likely to have remained lazy when they had nothing to complain about their appearance, and are probably most prone to these excesses. Just start eating healthy food, drinking adequate amount of water and start walking for an hour every day, and you don't even need these implements and check ups and doctors.
@Abdul
I totally agree... nothing 'special' by the specialists.
@Karthik
It is not good to hit the gym after breakfast. A good breakfast is
supposed to be the heaviest diet in the day which should contain all
of these - fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Carbohydrates take around
2 hours to get digested, proteins 3 hours while fats take 4+ hours. If
you start exercising after 1.5 hours, it would mean that the important
'proteins' do not get digested completely which is bad. So yes, avoid
exercise after breakfast. (I'm not a doctor and most of my knowledge
comes from hundreds of articles read over the internet.)
Karthik,
1. Doing the work out before breakfas is recommended as good practice though not a must. I go during lunch hour, in the evening on my way from work or at 9 PM some days. Just remember to leave sufficient gap after breakfast or a meal. Working out with empty or near empty stomach is advised.
2. In my opinion and experience, timing does not affect your objective.
For information, I am 62, started working our (mainly cardio) only 5 years ago, went from 2 to 3 miles on treadmill to 1/2 marathon recently, lean and weigh around 135 lbs (5'10") ht. However, I started developing 'belly fat a little' and tried various things to make it flat. After analysing everything (i eat right, no meat etc), I realized it is probably due to 'sitting' for long time and eating and too rice late in the evening (just before bed). My current position at work involves being seated at my desk for long time. May be you can take a look at these if you want to 'tummy reduction'.
Good luck...
during my training days in the armed forces, we used to get up at
4am,run a good 2-3 km; get fresh; had our breakfast by 6-6:30;
followed by drill practise, which again is a rigorous physical
exercise; came back by 11am;had a quick snack;followed by class till
1pm. had our lunch, had some rest. and again physical activity(games
and sports) from 04-07pm. got fresh;had dinner by 09pm and to
bed.this schedule was followed 06 days a week(sunday was resting
day) for 6 long months. and at the end of all this we emerged more
tougher and stronger.
One of the the best article about heart problem .Heart problem is much prevalent fatal disease at present; consequently the control measure suggested in the article are of great importance.Everybody may adopt the lifestyle as suggested in the article to avoid heart attack
Hi Karthik,
What has worked me for tummy reduction is working out in the morning
after drinking 2 glasses of water i.e. before breakfast (even
coffee/tea with milk & sugar discouraged), and eating 6 small meals a
day with a combination of whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat
chapati, whole oats) and lean protein (whey, egg whites, soy) every 2
to 3 hours. If you are a non-vegetarian, then you can use chicken
breast for protein.
Hopefully people will listen to the doctors rather than 'gym trainers' and 'gym masters' who are hardly qualified but command a lot of devotion. But the cardiologists asking for everyone to have a cardiac evaluation before they go to a gym is only likely to burden the cardiologists with even more work.
I usually go to the gym at around 11 AM after having my breakfast at
9:30 AM. The gym master told me to leave a gap of 1-1.5 hrs before I
come to the gym. I reach my room from office only at around 2 AM and
thus my regular 7 hour sleep is needed before I go to gym. I don't get
up and immediately go to the gym as its almost breakfast time that I
get up at 9 AM.
Can someone answer my two questions:
1. Is it fine, as the gym master says to go to gym at 11 AM after 1.5
hrs gap after a breakfast?
2. Does this timing affect my 'gym going objective' which is tummy
reduction?
3. Some people say that its not good to go to gym after breakfast
(even if we leave sufficient gap). How far is it true?
I may sound arrogant and disrespectful towards the specialists quoted in this article, but they are not saying an iota more than what a person with some commonsense will say. Over the generations, I believe, our ability to think simple (commonsense) has gone down tremendoudly, thus leading to commonsense becoming a rare and "uncommon" sense. Take care, folks !
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