Why is exercise important for vascular health?
It’s well-known that exercise is good for your health. It has benefits for your body, inside and out. Regular exercise benefits your vascular health by strengthening your heart and lungs, allowing them to perform at optimal levels. With a healthy heart and lungs, your body is more efficient at taking in oxygen, pumping it through your blood and delivering it to every part of your body.
After exercise, your muscles need more blood (and oxygen). They expand their network of blood vessels to take in more, which makes them more efficient at generating energy. That’s how regular exercise improves your strength and endurance throughout your whole body.
What conditions does exercise help with?
Just 30 minutes of exercise each day help prevent a wide variety of heart ailments and cardiovascular conditions, like heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease, high cholesterol and hypertension.
Exercise is also a treatment to improve your health to lessen symptoms, reverse the effects of various conditions that affect your vascular health and promote recovery after a vascular procedure.
Are there any risks with exercising after a vascular procedure?
Physical activity is proven to reduce your risks of heart conditions. But there are always risks of starting physical activity too soon or too strenuously after a vascular procedure. The more serious the procedure, the greater the risks. You may have bleeding, swelling and pain. In the worst cases, you can potentially reopen a wound, delay healing, damage weakened blood vessels or counteract the interventions put in place during your procedure.
Your vascular care team will guide you through the steps in your return to full activity and lay out any complications to watch out for along the way.
When can I start exercising again?
A return to physical activity — or a new exercise program to improve your health — are always a part of recovery after a vascular procedure. The timeline for that return varies widely. You may be able to start exercising just a few days after a procedure to treat varicose veins. It can take weeks — months, even — to begin exercising after a major bypass surgery.
Talk through the specifics of your recovery with your doctor to understand when you can return to normal activities as well as more strenuous exercise.
What types of vascular exercises should I expect to do?
If you’re familiar with cardiovascular exercise, you already understand the types of exercises that can raise your heart rate and leave you breathing heavy.
You’ll start with low-impact aerobic exercises as you ease back into activity. Walking, hiking, pedaling a stationary bike and light stretching or yoga get your blood flowing, helping to reduce post-surgical pain and the risk of clots.
You can’t step up to higher-impact exercise until you feel okay, and your doctor confirms your vascular health via follow-up imaging. Once you have permission, you can start running, cycling or lifting weights.
Your recovery plan may also call for specific exercises to increase circulation and prevent clotting in the arm, leg or other body part that required intervention. For example, you may begin with toe raises and graduate to lunges and squats after a vein surgery in your legs.