Strength Training w/ Congenital Heart Disease

[David Abdemoulaie]

Has anyone trained a client with a CHD? Sully, can you chime in if you get a moment?

I have a female client who is trying to convince her boyfriend to start "working out". Naturally, I would like to steer him toward starting strength. However, he apparently has some pretty severe problems with his heart. This is largely second-hand, because I haven't talked to him directly, but here is his condition in my client's words (pasted text messages):

he was born with only 4 white blood cells

super sick as a baby, and had a condition that makes it more likely that you'll have a heart attack

he had a blockage in his heart and a heart attack when he was 3

and had triple bypass surgery as a 3 year old

he eventually had more white blood cells and his heart did better on its own, then during puberty it got SUPER strong and now it's enlarged

so he has a pacemaker that just tracks his heart and corrects anything that's out of beat, but his heart beats on its own

the left side is basically dead

he gets really tired cause his heart is large and his medications slow everything down

OH and he can't bench that much because they cut out muscle to install the pacemaker

he does archery left-handed cause he's got more muscle over there

So, in my non-medical opinion it sounds like the guy is barely alive. She tells me that he is largely sedentary, but he does bow-hunt and whatever activity that entails. This is largely hypothetical, because who knows if he actually wants any of this or believes there is any value in it at all.

Should he even come within 3' of a barbell? Is there literature on this type of thing? I read last year's SSC literature on the benefits of strength training for older adults with congestive heart failure; is that a parallel?

Thanks!

[Tom Campitelli]

Dear lord. This is out of my wheelhouse. Let's see who responds.