Hi, I'm a 57 year old male swimmer with atrial fibrillation taking rhythmol twice a day. (I'm in sinus rhythm most of the time.) I also do a 2,800 yard workout four times a week and aspire to NQT for the 50 and 100 freestyle.
I can't seem to get straight answers from my cardiologist. He says that it is fine to swim, but deeper questions are beyond him.
For example...
Is it OK to really press myself in my workouts?
(I'm out of breath at the end of some of my sets, but who isn't?)
Should I be thinking of long even swims rather than sprint swims?
(I do mile and two mile open water swims, but they're not very exciting for me.)
I'm fighting for breath sometimes during my sets. Is this just a matter of conditioning, or is there a direct link to the a fib?
I have the low side of normal blood pressure. Is there any relationship between blood pressure and whether people are better constituted to be sprinters vs. distance swimmers?
Any information from M.D.s and/or others who have heart conditions would be appreciated.
See you at nationals!
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Former Member
This thread hits close to home. I take meds for atrial fib, first diagnosed back in '95. Dialing in the proper dosages took weeks, I felt like a zombie. Finally had to be cardioverted and then felt like a million bucks! The cardiologist, (a former diver at Cal Berkeley whose son Caleb Rowe, just completed a great swimming career at Berkeley) said I'd feel great because my heart had been beating at very elevated counts for months ---talk about a long workout --- and now my resting pulse was in the high fifties. I was very into racing outrigger canoes at the time and got all psyched up for a big race a few months later, the adrenaline rush was too much---overode the meds and damn near killed me. Dr. Rowe said no more racing. Tried RF ablation, didn't work. A couple years later my wife, a very activer paddler, died suddenly of ventricular fib.
So now I'm 60 and have been swimming with our local masters team for a little over a year, at the most twice a week, about 2500 yards per workout. My goal has been to just do the workout. But lately my times have started coming down, I'm not very fast, but the improvement has been steady and encouraging. The competitive fire never quite went out. I find myself reading the times from Masters meets, wondering what I could do with a little more training? Some of you guys are amazingly fast for your age! I see some familiar names from the old days --- maybe I could make some qualifying times? go to some meets? But to be quite honest, it's a little scary.
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Former Member
This thread hits close to home. I take meds for atrial fib, first diagnosed back in '95. Dialing in the proper dosages took weeks, I felt like a zombie. Finally had to be cardioverted and then felt like a million bucks! The cardiologist, (a former diver at Cal Berkeley whose son Caleb Rowe, just completed a great swimming career at Berkeley) said I'd feel great because my heart had been beating at very elevated counts for months ---talk about a long workout --- and now my resting pulse was in the high fifties. I was very into racing outrigger canoes at the time and got all psyched up for a big race a few months later, the adrenaline rush was too much---overode the meds and damn near killed me. Dr. Rowe said no more racing. Tried RF ablation, didn't work. A couple years later my wife, a very activer paddler, died suddenly of ventricular fib.
So now I'm 60 and have been swimming with our local masters team for a little over a year, at the most twice a week, about 2500 yards per workout. My goal has been to just do the workout. But lately my times have started coming down, I'm not very fast, but the improvement has been steady and encouraging. The competitive fire never quite went out. I find myself reading the times from Masters meets, wondering what I could do with a little more training? Some of you guys are amazingly fast for your age! I see some familiar names from the old days --- maybe I could make some qualifying times? go to some meets? But to be quite honest, it's a little scary.
