David was an active 42 year old man with a busy work life and two young children who has always enjoyed exercise and led an active life. In the spring of 2019, after feeling unwell one weekend he was admitted to A&E and was shocked to discover he was suffering from myocarditis. After a three month period of prescribed rest, he returned to light exercise but realised he had lost his confidence to exercise intensely for fear of falling ill again, which is common after suffering a cardiac incident.
Our action plan
Initially our focus was on creating a safe and sustainable routine for David that was not solely focused on the exercise itself, but also emphasising the importance of his lifestyle habits. To know where you’re going, you have to know where you’re starting from so we began by carrying out a full Initial Assessment of David’s health and fitness markers. Everything from his baseline clinical observations and body composition, to his functional strength and VO2 Max. This data then served as the foundation for David’s bespoke programme.
Whilst some of our principles and training methods were an adjustment from the high-intensity exercise that David had been used to, once he understood why these principles were so important, his commitment to his training and establishing better nutritional and lifestyle habits was very impressive. Excellence is modest improvements consistently done and so the results soon followed!
David’s results
David has seen outstanding improvements in his cardiovascular health since starting his programme. Based on his peak oxygen uptake in his latest test, we predict David’s maximum cardiopulmonary fitness (VO2max) at 48.9 ml/kg/min. This places him above the 75th percentile for someone of his age and gender, which is impressive.
He is now able to tolerate an exercise intensity of 13 METs (1 MET = the energy demand at rest; i.e. he is are able to work 13 times his resting metabolic rate). Evidence shows that individuals who can tolerate exercise above 13 METs have a 4.5 times lower risk of cardiovascular mortality. Most recently, following his latest MRI check-up, David has been discharged by his cardiologist.
