Q. I’m 58 years old and have had several stents implanted to open some severely blocked coronary arteries. I used to love to lift weights, but stopped after getting the stents. My blood pressure is good, and I take all the usual medications. I want to resume my weightlifting but worry that it could shake free a clot and cause a heart attack. Is that possible?
A. I don’t think you need to worry about clots coming loose when you work out. The Plavix and aspirin you are taking help prevent blood clots from forming in your coronary arteries and within your stents. If you developed a blood clot inside one of your stents, it would block blood flow through the stented artery and cause chest pain or shortness of breath when you exercised, not come loose.
Physicians used to be reluctant to let their heart patients lift weights because of concern that surges in blood pressure during lifting might strain the heart and rupture atherosclerotic plaques. They urged patients with heart disease or a high risk for it to pursue aerobic exercises, such as brisk walking and running, in which they burned a lot of calories and raised their heart rates over a longer period of time.
Talk over your desire to lift weights with your physician.
Thomas Lee, M.D., editor in chief, Harvard Heart Letter
