Weight Lifting & Swimming

Hi im Stu and I'm a 29 year old kiwi living in Australia. I have had a limited history of vasovagal syncope - triggered only by a fear of needles. In Nov last year, I was having minor surgery back home in NZ and had two vs episodes where my heart stopped twice for 10secs each time. I had an ECG and they discovered Bifascicular block - RBBB & left posterior hemi block. I was recommended by my cardiologist their to have a pacemaker as a 'back up' should there be a time in the future that I get symptoms as a result of my BF block.

Just over 6 weeks ago I went back to NZ to have a Medtronic Dual lead pacemaker implanted - the rate response & rate drop algorithm function have been turned off and it is just set that if my heart drops below 30 it will kick in (I have quite a low resting heart rate given that I am quite fit).

I am back in Australia and have been very careful not to lift my arm above my shoulder or lift anything heavy over the last 6 weeks - as instructed by my NZ cardiologist. I went in and had my checkup yesterday here in Australia and all was good - no leads have moved.

I have a huge passion for the gym and recently before the pacemaker implant, I was right into lifting weights. I'm very keen to get back into it and asked yesterday what restrictions there would be - the cardiologist here said anything below the shoulder is fine but no lifting weights above the shoulder. This is different to what my cardiologist in NZ said - he felt that I could return to my normal gym routine (with a small level of caution)

As you can appreciate, Im now left wondering what I can and cannot do... My biggest concern is lead fracture or dislodgement and im interested to hear from other people in my situation who have returned to lifting weights without restrictions and its been ok? Also, is freestyle swimming ok?

Sorry for the long winded message but would really appreciate the help.

1 Comments

restrictions

by Tracey_E - 2013-03-22 09:03:28

Ask ten doctors, get ten different lists of restrictions! Swimming is fine. Weights, opinions vary. Some drs are very conservative simply because they don't know any better. Most of their patients are sedentary and they don't have experience with young, athletic patients so they say no without thinking it through.

Some drs say to avoid lifting heavy or above the shoulder because of your placement. If it's too close to the collarbone you can risk pinching the leads either from the bar itself or the collarbone. That is a legitimate concern. However, if your device is lower than that (and most are), then you should be ok to lift whatever you want, just don't clean the bar and let it sit on your device/leads.

I would start by very specifically asking your dr WHY he doesn't want you to lift. There are so few of us that there aren't any studies, no long term evidence either way. Unless he has a reason to hold back, it's up to you what you feel comfortable with.

For myself, I would rather take a small risk and live life to the fullest than sit on the sidelines for fear something might happen. But that's just me! My dr is pretty liberal and encourages me to forget the pm and get on with my life. He doesn't have many young patients but he's a runner and my St Judes rep covers a large region and has quite a few active patients, none of whom have had problems from being active. My official instructions are don't do anything stupid, stop if it hurts. I had no idea until I found this board that everyone isn't told that! I run, row, use barbells and kettlebells, do push ups and pull ups. I've been paced since 1994, have never held back, and have never had a problem.

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