Does higher-intensity aerobic exercise improve physiological adaptations and outcomes in patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure attending cardiac rehabilitation?
Higher-intensity aerobic exercise, including interval training, may optimize physiological adaptations and improve cardiorespiratory fitness in patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure undergoing cardiac rehabilitation.
peak)] is a strong predictor of mortality in patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure, exercise prescription that optimizes improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness and exercise capacity is a critical consideration for the efficacy of CR programming. This review will examine the evidence for prescribing higher-intensity aerobic exercise in CR, including the role of high-intensity interval training. This discussion will highlight the beneficial physiological adaptations to pulmonary, cardiac, vascular, and skeletal muscle systems associated with moderate-vigorous exercise training in patients with coronary heart disease and heart failure. Moreover, this review will propose how varying interval exercise protocols (such as short-duration or long-duration interval training) and exercise progression models may influence central and peripheral physiological adaptations. Importantly, a key focus of this review is to provide clinically-relevant recommendations and strategies to optimize prescription of exercise intensity while maximizing safety in patients attending CR programs.
Taylor et al. (2021) studied this question.