Physical Training after Myocardial Infarction Metabolic Effects during Short and Prolonged Exercise before and after Physical Training in Male Patients after Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

Sixty-three post-infarct patients were selected and admitted to hospital 3 months after the onset of their first myocardial infarction. Initial examinations were performed including exercise tests on a bicycle ergometer. At rest and during exercise determinations were made of arterial plasma free fatty acids (FFA), blood glucose, and lactate, and also oxygen uptake and urinary excretion of catecholamines. In one-third of the patients plasma FFA turnover was measured at rest and during exercise. After the initial investigations the patients were randomly divided into a training (34 patients) and a reference (29 patients) group. During the following 3 months the first group of patients were physically trained (indoors, three sessions a week, individual training). Six months after the onset of the infarction all patients were readmitted to hospital for a second investigation program, identical with the initial one. The effects achieved in the training group, compared to the reference group, were a 20 per cent increase in physical work capacity, less pronounced increase in blood lactate concentration during a given intensity of short exercise, less increase in plasma FFA concentrations during, and in the recovery phase after prolonged exercise. These effects were more pronounced in those patients who at onset of training had no angina pectoris, compared to those who had. The present data show a rather good increase in physical work capacity after training in these post-infarct patients, with accompanying changes both in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism.

Key Words:

• Metabolic effects
• myocardial infarction
• physical training
• prolonged exercise