Hi there - thanks for the hard work and great content over the years.
I’m a 32 year old male who had a cardiac event a few weeks back (happy to provide details of the event if needed, but I think they are orthogonal to the thrust of my question) and had an ICD placed.
I came across this old topic where Austin mentions experience training individuals with an ICD, but emphasized that there were no evidenced based guidelines at the time to inform the question.
Have any guidelines been released or new evidence published in the literature since that old thread in 2018?
The only analysis I could find was a letter titled “Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Lead Survival in Athletic Patients” that seemed to indicate that lifting > 104 hours per year lead to a higher risk of ICD lead failure. However, I don’t have the statistical knowledge to interpret the hazard ratio and confidence interval cited in the study.
Thanks!
1 Like
Hey Spotter!
Welcome to the forum. Sounds like you’ve been through it recently. Happy to hear you received the care you need.
As you correctly point out, there are no real exercise guidelines for those with an ICD placed.
Consensus recommends waiting ~ 6 weeks after placement to get a stress test and then return to exercise (provided no arrhythmias).
After that, there are some sports restrictions relation to trauma risk (e.g. contact sports), but there’s almost nothing mentioned regarding resistance training restrictions.
These are all “ICD-only” considerations, whereas the reason for placement may be a contraindication to resistance training and/or exercise in general. Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy would be one of those indications, for example.
Unfortunately, we’re a bit limited by what we can do here on the forum regarding advice and guidance. In addition to sussing this out with your care team, we’d be happy to do a consultation with you if you like. You can contact us via support@barbellmedicine.com
2 Likes
Hi Jordan,
Thanks for confirming and the extra details.
I do indeed have a follow up with my care team here in a few weeks (around the 6 week out mark). I’ll plan to reach out for a consult with y’all once that’s done as I think I’ll have more complete information at that time.
Thanks again!
1 Like