06/26/2025
It’s June 23rd, 2025 and I am celebrating my 16th year heart transplant anniversary with my client Rouslan. I can say that I feel amazing, healthy and strong. As for my client and friend Rouslan, he’s 2 years out from having his new heart transplanted and June 25th, 2025 it’s his 3rd year anniversary. He feels healthy and strong. I have been training Rouslan for about nine months now and it’s been an awesome journey. Our training sessions are twice a week on FaceTime, Rouslan lives in New Jersey. I train other heart transplants individuals like myself and Rouslan.
When I was cleared to resume my fitness activities and workout by my cardiologist, I didn’t have a clue how to start it was so scary. I had severe anxiety when my new heart would pick up pace, this triggered me to slow down and stop my workouts. The trauma that I had experienced with my old heart is that I would pass out whenever my heart rate would pace faster, thank goodness I had a pacemaker implanted in me to shock me back to life. I had to learn how to trust my new heart, a year of therapy helped a lot. I understand what my heart transplant clients have gone through. The common question we get is does your heart responds to workouts differently or the same as your old heart. The answer is NO, it’s different how a heart transplant recipient heart responds to fast paste activities.
Denervation: During transplantation surgery, the heart’s nerve inputs are cut (denervated). This means the transplanted heart relies on hormones from the adrenal glands to increase heart rate during exercise, rather than the direct signals from the autonomic nervous system.
Blunted Response: This dependence on hormonal stimulation leads to a slower increase in heart rate at the start of exercise, a lower peak heart rate during exercise, and a slower decline in heart rate after exercise compared to a healthy heart.
There you have it! ❤️