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58 year old healthy, active female with high coronary artery calcium
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jan 20 1:54pm | Replies (55)Comment receiving replies
I looked at this paper to try to begin to understand what might be a reasonable exercise routine for myself. I enjoy jogging and biking and I'd like to do what I can while staying protecting against plaque progression.
I am wondering if anyone understands why they would use METs to classify intensity. I would think that heart rate and blood pressure would be the important factors in CAC progression. The MET value is based on running pace, but the heart rate and blood pressure of a 70 year woman at a given pace is going to be very different that the heart rate and blood pressure of a 20 year old man. I guess the group was 50-60 year old men, but I'd guess there would be some variation in pace a "moderate intensity" by RPE or heart rate.
So what is the take away? Avoiding "very vigorous" should be safe, but what is "very vigorous" for someone that isn't a 50-60 year old man. Guess I should leave the interpretation to the professionals, but it's really hard to find someone that knows where I live. When I asked my cardiologist about training for a half-marathon, he asked me "Why would you want to do that?" And there is one cardiologist in my rural area. I have to drive two hours to go to someone else. Which I guess maybe I should. š
Replies to "I looked at this paper to try to begin to understand what might be a reasonable..."
When I asked my cardiologist about it, she recommended strength training, walking on treadmill with incline or walking up hills, and water aerobics. I guess the HIIT exercise, rowing machine, elliptical and 5 mile hikes would fall into the very vigorous category, especially when I was doing it 6 days a week. I actually feel better in general since I have reduced the time and intensity of my exercise, so I guess thatās a plus!
Intense exercise for any one sex and age would almost certainly be linked to the heart rate at maximal VO2 and just below that, which is age-dependent. So, using the 220 - Age formula, a 60 year-old woman should expect to be at her upper limit (and in the 'intense' level of activity) if her heartrate were at, or exceeded, 160 BPM, which only goddesses can maintain for any length of time. š
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Mayo Clinic has A podcast called āAging Forwardā you may like, particularly episodes from August 22 and January 9. Iād love to hear what you think. Iām am kinda partial to the one about improving cardiovascular health because my cardiologist, Stephen Kopecky is the guest. The other, optimizing health through exercise is next on my ālistenā list.
https://redcircle.com/show/1ed238fd-45a5-4f80-9a38-474784a20789