Ascending Aortic Aneurysm and Exercise

It was explained to me that the exercising where you walk, run, bike, stair step, whatever, is slowly increased and therefore that is why after exercise your BP normally goes down. The lifting where you hold your breath, grunt or groan and have to exert, then you are done is what is not good. I was lifting a heavy item when my aorta dissected in three places. It was an emergency situation. I previously had been diagnosed with a 4cm anuerysim in the arch. It was 4.5 at the time of dissection and emergency surgery. I will be 70 this year.

Thank you for sharing your experience! Every now and the ignore the guideline and lift something I shouldn't. Your experience reminds me DO NOT STRAIN.

I am 71 y.o., 6'1" and 245 lbs. and diagnosed with 4.6 cm via MRA about 2-3 years ago when I was working a high stress job. I freaked when I was diagnosed, quit the job, and did nothing for a year physically (and deteriorated) for fear of worsening my condition, and read all I could online about it and learned a lot. On exercising, my cardiologist said that I shouldn't engage in the Valsalva maneuver when exerting, i.e. doing anything that makes me grunt or hold my breath during effort. He said all aerobics are fine and I could do any exercise if adhering to the rule. So currently, since my last office visit, I started a regimen of 1/2 hour rowing, followed by a circuit of weight machine training with weights that I can handle keeping steady breathing in and out, and then 1/2 hour fast walking on treadmill. I am trying to condition my body and lose more calories. There's some contradictory information on-line regarding exercising, and much of the advice is made up, e.g. how much weight should you lift in proportion of your body weight, etc. without taking variables into account. So, in a way, I am my own guinea pig. I see my MD next week and am due soon for my annual scan. We'll see. Anyway, is anybody else engaging in more than just aerobic exercise and if so, what regimen appears safe using resistance exercise in your experience?

I am 71 y.o., 6'1" and 245 lbs. and diagnosed with 4.6 cm via MRA about 2-3 years ago when I was working a high stress job. I freaked when I was diagnosed, quit the job, and did nothing for a year physically (and deteriorated) for fear of worsening my condition, and read all I could online about it and learned a lot. On exercising, my cardiologist said that I shouldn't engage in the Valsalva maneuver when exerting, i.e. doing anything that makes me grunt or hold my breath during effort. He said all aerobics are fine and I could do any exercise if adhering to the rule. So currently, since my last office visit, I started a regimen of 1/2 hour rowing, followed by a circuit of weight machine training with weights that I can handle keeping steady breathing in and out, and then 1/2 hour fast walking on treadmill. I am trying to condition my body and lose more calories. There's some contradictory information on-line regarding exercising, and much of the advice is made up, e.g. how much weight should you lift in proportion of your body weight, etc. without taking variables into account. So, in a way, I am my own guinea pig. I see my MD next week and am due soon for my annual scan. We'll see. Anyway, is anybody else engaging in more than just aerobic exercise and if so, what regimen appears safe using resistance exercise in your experience?

Thank you. I really didn’t have symptoms from the aneurysm- it was discovered on accident really from a breast MRI, but thankfully it was. It grew from 4.8- 5.17 in just over a years time. I cut down on exercise- I did things like Piyo using my own body weigh and then resorted to 25 pounds weighted exercises at the gym which were hugely unsatisfying. But once surgery got close and I found out I had the blockage, I quit all exercise, way too nervous. I’m
Just now starting back slowly with cardiac rehab… it is long and slow but better than the alternative. Keep tabs on your sizes and just know that the guidelines have changed to 5.0 to consider surgery. I pushed to have mine done, I could not deal
With the daily anxiety. I wish you luck and good health.

Thank you. I really didn’t have symptoms from the aneurysm- it was discovered on accident really from a breast MRI, but thankfully it was. It grew from 4.8- 5.17 in just over a years time. I cut down on exercise- I did things like Piyo using my own body weigh and then resorted to 25 pounds weighted exercises at the gym which were hugely unsatisfying. But once surgery got close and I found out I had the blockage, I quit all exercise, way too nervous. I’m
Just now starting back slowly with cardiac rehab… it is long and slow but better than the alternative. Keep tabs on your sizes and just know that the guidelines have changed to 5.0 to consider surgery. I pushed to have mine done, I could not deal
With the daily anxiety. I wish you luck and good health.

I’ve been reading about the 100s approach for weight lifting and think this may be a good option. Here’s some info:
https://scarysymptoms.com/2014/09/aortic-aneurysm-safely-build-muscle/

Only weightlifting, nothing over 100lbs. He said cardio was ok when I got the diagnosis a few weeks ago, but in reading various forums since then, it seems like there should still be some sort of restrictions. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but clearly cardio is going to raise BP, right?