RESISTIVE EXERCISE TRAINING IN CARDIAC REHABILITATION - AN UPDATE

Resistive exercise training has become very popular for patients of ca rdiopulmonary rehabilitation programmes (CRPs). For decades, CRPs focu sed almost exclusively on improving cardiorespiratory endurance and mo st programmes ignored muscular fitness development. Moreover, resistan ce training was thought to be potentially hazardous for the cardiac pa tient due to the risk of cardiovascular complications from adverse hae modynamic responses, We now know that resistive exercise testing and t raining is very safe for properly screened patients, even at relativel y high workloads. Improvement in muscular strength facilitates return to daily vocational and avocational activities and is important for th e CRP participant to regain lost strength and resume work soon after a cardiac event. Circuit weight training (CWT) is helpful in this respe ct and has been shown to increase muscular strength, cardiovascular en durance, body composition, bone density and mineral content, self-conf idence, and self-efficacy in various populations. This article present s an update on current research in cardiac patients and also presents guidelines for implementing a properly supervised cardiac resistive ex ercise programme.