High Intensity Exercises at Home Benefit Cardiac Patients: Study

High Intensity Exercises at Home Benefit Cardiac Patients: Study

A study uncovers the benefits of home-based high intensity exercises for cardiac patients claiming the these workouts help these people stay healthy.

For people who've suffered a heart attack, recovery period varies depending on the type of attack, age and other illness. Rehab after a cardiac event helps patients get back to normal life. The cardiac rehab is not only an exercise program, but also an informative session that helps the victims to lead a normal life.  This study was conducted by researcher Inger Lise Aamot, Ph.D, from the Cardiac Exercise Research Group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim.

Researchers had earlier examined different types of exercise as a part of rehab. This included high intensity interval training that was seen as an efficient form of rehab. But, these studies, which focused on these high intensity exercises, were conducted in exercise labs where the intensity of the workout as well as the patient were under constant monitoring.

This is the first study that claims that patients can get the same benefits from exercising at home. To prove the hypothesis, Inger examined the possibility of interval training program in a home based cardiac rehab as well as in a clinical background.

A randomized trial was conducted in two Norwegian hospitals. The study involved 90 patients with a history of heart disease. Participants were randomly assigned to take up a group exercise, home based training or a treadmill exercise. Using a heart rate monitors, patients regulated their exercise intensity. They undertook interval training about twice a week.

Researchers noticed that the participants who were assigned to the treadmill exercise showed an improvement in the fitness (measured by the maximum uptake of oxygen) when compared to those who worked at home.

After one year, the maximum uptake of oxygen was again re-measured and the researcher noticed a significant increase in the uptake than what was recorded 12 weeks before taking the training program.

Apart from this, the researcher noticed that the people who were trained at home for the first 12 weeks displayed a stronger tendency to carry physical activity with higher frequency when compared to those who were trained at hospital.

The researcher concludes saying, "interval training for cardiac rehabilitation can be implemented efficiently both in the clinic or at home, but that home exercise seems to contribute most positively to a long-term physically active lifestyle."