If you’ve been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation (AFib), many exercises should be safe to continue (or start). But, it’s important to work with a healthcare professional to identify exercises that are safe for you and emergency symptoms to watch out for.
In many cases, exercising with atrial fibrillation (AFib) can help you live a stronger, healthier life. Exercise can help you maintain a healthy weight, which can have benefits for heart health. There are also other cardiovascular benefits to physical activity, including slowing your resting heart rate and lowering your blood pressure. Exercise may also help relieve anxiety and stress, which may have positive effects on quality of life.
While you may be able to exercise with no complications from AFib, it’s important that you know which symptoms mean to slow down or stop altogether.
Read on to learn about symptoms to watch out for plus exercises to try and exercises you may want to avoid.
AFib can cause you to experience chest pain when exercising. If you experience chest pain while exercising, you should stop exercising and rest. If your chest pain doesn’t subside when you take a short break or rest, call 911 or your local emergency number. You might also consider having someone drive you to the emergency room.
In addition to chest pain, other symptoms you should seek emergency treatment for include:
- shortness of breath you can’t recover from
- shooting arm pain
- confusion or disorientation
- loss of consciousness
- sudden weakness on one side of your body
- slurred speech
- difficulty thinking clearly
Call your doctor if you have any other symptoms that cause you to feel uneasy or unwell.
AFib can make exercise difficult because your heart may start to race. A racing heart can make your blood pressure drop and cause you to feel faint. In this case, strenuous exercise can be more harmful than helpful. Always stop exercising and find a safe place to sit down if you feel lightheaded.
One of the most common symptoms of AFib is tiring more easily when you exercise. Other AFib symptoms that can make exercising more difficult include:
Talk with your doctor about what you should and shouldn’t do when it comes to working out. If AFib triggers any symptoms, your doctor
Once your condition is managed and it’s safe to begin exercising, your doctor should be able to work with you to develop an exercise plan.
Considerations for people with a pacemaker
If you have a pacemaker, talk with your doctor about
Considerations for people taking blood thinners
Certain medications for AFib, such as warfarin (Coumadin), make you prone to bleed more when you get injured. If you’re taking this or another blood thinner, ask your doctor if it’s safe to take part in exercises that increase your risk of falls or physical injury.
Before taking part in any kind of exercise, make sure to stretch your muscles or do some low-impact exercise, like walking, for about 10 minutes to allow your heart to adjust to the activity. Make sure you’re hydrated before you begin increasing your level of activity, too.
Once you’ve warmed up, try exercises such as power walking, jogging, or hiking to get a good workout without overloading your heart. Riding an exercise bike or using an elliptical machine or treadmill may also be safe workouts for people with AFib.
Lifting light weights can also be a good workout. It can help you build muscle tone and strength without overloading your muscles or straining your heart. If you’ve recently had a surgical procedure, ask your doctor what you are allowed to lift. There are often strict lifting restrictions for a certain amount of time following surgery. It’s important to follow any guidelines to reduce your risk for post-operative complications.
Once your doctor has given you the OK to exercise, begin by trying short exercise periods of 5-10 minutes to make sure the exercise won’t cause you to feel lightheaded or faint. As you become comfortable with short periods of exercise, gradually add 5-10 minutes of exercise time until you feel that you’ve reached a satisfying personal fitness goal.
If you haven’t exercised in a while, you don’t want to start with intense, high-impact exercise. When you exercise with AFib, you may want to start with short intervals of low-impact exercise. Then you can gradually increase the length and intensity of your workouts.
Try to avoid activities with a higher risk of causing injury, such as skiing, rock climbing, or outdoor biking. Many blood thinner medications used to treat AFib may make you bleed more heavily when you’re injured.
If you plan to lift weights, talk to your doctor or a physical therapist about how much weight is safe for you to lift. Lifting too much can put a lot of strain on your heart. It’s also important to speak with your doctor about how much you are allowed to lift following any procedure, and for how long any lifting restrictions are in place.
You don’t have to engage in overly vigorous activity to enjoy the benefits of exercise. With AFib, it might be a better idea to keep your exercise at a moderate level at first. Keeping an eye on your heart rate can also help you maintain a safe pace during your workouts.
Many fitness and exercise trackers are available to help you monitor your heart rate. These fitness trackers are usually worn on your wrist like a watch (and usually look like watches, too). Many of them also record detailed heart rate statistics that you can view through an app on your smartphone, tablet, or home computer.
Among the most popular, well-known fitness tracker brands is Fitbit, which sells several models of fitness trackers with built-in heart rate monitors. Companies such as Apple, Whoop, and Samsung also sell fitness trackers.
According to the
Here are a few things to keep in mind when checking your heart rate:
- Your maximum heart rate is determined by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you’re 50 years old, your maximum heart rate would be 170 beats per minute (bpm).
- To exercise at a moderate level, your heart rate should be between 85 (from multiplying 170 x 0.5) and 119 (from multiplying 170 x 0.7) bpm.
If you take beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, or other medications used to slow heart rate, you may notice your heart rate doesn’t seem to increase as much as you would think, even when you’re exercising at a moderate pace. That’s a sign that these medications are doing their job.
It’s normal to feel nervous about exercise when you have AFib. But you don’t always have to supervise your own heart rate during a solo workout. Talk to your doctor about cardiac rehabilitation.
Cardiac rehabilitation just means exercising at a health facility where your heart can be monitored. Options include a hospital, an outpatient center, or your doctor’s clinic. Staff at the facility can caution you if your heart rate becomes too rapid or if you have an abnormality in blood pressure.
The staff is also specially trained to help people with heart conditions such as AFib and heart failure. They can provide tips on new exercises to consider and advice on exercise safety.
You won’t need to go to cardiac rehab forever. Instead, it can be a great resource to help you feel comfortable exercising on your own.
You may be asked to do an exercise stress test while you’re in cardiac rehabilitation. In this test, you’ll walk on a treadmill that’s adjusted for speed and incline while you’re connected to equipment that monitors your heart rate.
The exercise stress test allows your doctor to see how well your heart responds to exercise, as well as how efficiently and consistently it pumps blood into your body. This test can measure how much exercise your heart can manage before AFib symptoms occur. Knowing what level of exercise is good for your heart can help you develop an exercise routine that’s safe for your AFib.
Ask your doctor to confirm whether you can take part in regular exercise sessions. Ideally, these would be at a moderate exercise level.
Knowing the symptoms that could indicate you need to slow down or seek emergency medical attention can help you stay healthy when exercising with AFib.
Sources:
Gutierrez OJ, et al. (2021). Cardiac implantable devices during exercise: Normal function and troubleshooting.
Keteyian SJ, et al. (2019). Exercise testing and exercise rehabilitation for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Pinckard K, et al. (2019). Effects of exercise to improve cardiovascular health. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2019.00069/full
Target heart rate and estimated maximum heart rate. (2022).