Exercise guide
Exercise is one of the best things you can do after a heart attack, a stent or bypass surgery, or with heart failure, and cardiac rehabilitation is the place to start. In 107 trials, rehab cut heart attacks in the following year by about a quarter and hospital admissions by about a third, and improved quality of life; in heart failure, it cut hospital stays. Yet fewer than half of the people who could go start it.
The basics are the same for most heart conditions: build up gradually, work at a level where you can still talk, warm up and cool down for longer than usual, and never hold your breath when you lift. If your cardiac team has told you something different, follow them.
This guide covers what rehab involves and how to ask for it, the first weeks at home, how hard to exercise (including on beta blockers), strength training, stents and bypass surgery, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and the warning signs that mean stop.
Cardiac rehabilitation is a programme of exercise, education and support. NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) says everyone should be offered it after a heart attack, whatever their age, starting within 10 days of leaving hospital, and that everyone with heart failure should be offered an exercise-based programme. If you haven't been offered it, ask your GP or cardiologist.
In 107 trials with nearly 27,000 people with coronary heart disease, rehab cut heart attacks over the next year by about a quarter and hospital admissions by about a third, and improved quality of life. In heart failure, it reduced hospital admissions. Even so, in England in 2024 only 44.5% of people started rehab after a heart attack, and 16.4% of people with heart failure.
Start with getting up, washing and dressing, walking around the house and marching on the spot for a minute, then take short walks, building towards 20 to 30 minutes a day to the point of slight breathlessness. Avoid heavy lifting for about a week after a planned stent. After bypass surgery, the NHS says not to do any heavy lifting for 3 months.
Aim to feel warm and breathe a little harder while still talking comfortably: 11 to 14 on the 6 to 20 Borg scale of effort. Beta blockers slow the heart, so heart rate formulas don't fit; go by how it feels. Warm up for at least 15 minutes and cool down for at least 10.
Use light to moderate weights for 8 to 10 repetitions, 2 to 3 times a week, breathing out on the effort and never holding your breath. Check with your doctor or rehab team first. With heart failure, avoid heavy weights, full press-ups and planks.
Stop for chest pain, palpitations, dizziness or light-headedness, and get urgent advice if it doesn't settle quickly with rest or your glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) spray. Call 999 for chest pain that feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck or jaw, for severe difficulty breathing, or if someone passes out and isn't responding normally.
Coronary heart disease is a narrowing of the heart's arteries by a build-up of fatty material. It can cause angina: a pain or tightness, usually in your chest, that is often brought on by exercise, stress, emotion or cold weather and stops with rest or angina medicine. A heart attack happens when the blood flow to your heart is blocked, usually by a blood clot.
A stent opens a narrowed artery from the inside (coronary angioplasty); after a planned procedure, most people go home the same day or the next. Bypass surgery uses a blood vessel from elsewhere in the body to carry blood around a blockage, usually through a cut down the breastbone.
Heart failure is when your heart cannot pump blood around your body properly. It does not mean your heart has stopped working. Breathlessness and tiredness are the main symptoms, and they can vary from day to day and week to week.
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Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular heartbeat. It can cause palpitations and tiredness and make it harder to exercise, though some people have no symptoms. An ICD sits under the skin near the collarbone, watches the heart's rhythm, and can pace the heart or give it a shock to stop a dangerous rhythm.
In the UK, more than 8 million people live with heart and circulatory disease, about as many women as men. About 2.3 million have coronary heart disease, more than 1 million have heart failure, and about 1.7 million have been diagnosed with AF. More than 7 in 10 people now survive a heart attack.
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Cardiac rehab is an individual programme of exercise, education and support. It starts with an assessment, then a core programme of exercise sessions, information and emotional support, and ends with a final assessment and a plan for the long term. The British Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation (BACPR) sets out what it covers: changing health habits, physical activity, healthy eating and stopping smoking, psychological health, medicines and other medical care, and long-term support. It can be in person, remote (online, by app, by phone or with a manual) or a mix of the two.
A 2026 Cochrane review of 107 trials (26,886 people with coronary heart disease, mostly followed for 6 to 12 months) found that rehab cut heart attacks by about a quarter (high-certainty evidence) and hospital admissions by about a third, and gave meaningful gains in quality of life. It probably reduced deaths from any cause slightly. The previous version of the review, with 85 trials, found the same pattern, and fewer deaths from heart disease in the longer term.
In a 2024 Cochrane review of 60 trials (8,728 people with heart failure), rehab probably reduced hospital admissions for any cause (15.9% against 23.8%) and improved quality of life by a meaningful amount. It made no clear difference to deaths in the first year (low-certainty evidence). In the largest trial, HF-ACTION (2,331 people), the drop in deaths or hospital stays was small and borderline, and people exercised less as time went on. A UK home programme, REACH-HF, improved quality of life over a year in 216 people.
Across 24 trials (3,046 people), home-based rehab, including digital programmes, gave similar results to centre-based classes for fitness, quality of life and deaths up to 12 months, though the certainty of the evidence is low. NICE says you should be offered a choice of setting. In England in 2024, 81.7% of people finished group programmes and 75.9% finished home-based ones.
In a French registry of 25,420 rehab patients, there was 1 serious heart event for every 49,565 hours of exercise training, and no deaths. In 4,846 Norwegian people with coronary heart disease, there was 1 cardiac arrest per 129,456 hours of moderate exercise and 1 per 23,182 hours of high-intensity exercise, with no heart attacks.
The American Heart Association calls resistance training safe and effective for people with heart disease; signs of a shortage of blood to the heart and abnormal rhythms are less common during it than during aerobic exercise. In coronary heart disease (34 trials, 1,940 people), resistance training built strength and improved fitness about as much as aerobic training, and combining the two did better than aerobic training alone. In heart failure, it improved strength, fitness and walking distance without harming heart function.
In a UK trial of 382 people with coronary heart disease in rehab, short bursts of hard exercise (ten 1-minute bursts, twice a week for 8 weeks) improved fitness more than steady moderate exercise, with one serious adverse event that may have been related. BACPR's exercise professionals now support this high-intensity interval training (HIIT) for suitable people with stable coronary heart disease, within rehab. It rests on one large trial, so the evidence is still emerging.
In a 2024 Cochrane review of 20 trials (2,039 people), exercise-based rehab probably reduced AF coming back, by about 30% (4 trials, 378 people), and eased symptoms; its effect on deaths and serious problems is uncertain. In the ACTIVE-AF trial of 120 people, 40% of those given 6 months of exercise were free of AF a year later, against 20% of those without it.
A 2025 review reports that the 2024 European Society of Cardiology guideline gives a tailored exercise programme for AF its strongest recommendation (class I). We couldn't read the guideline itself, so we give it as the review reports it.
In England in 2024, only 44.5% of people started rehab after a heart attack, and 16.4% with heart failure. Across 26 studies (297,719 people), women were about a third less likely to enrol than men (38.5% against 45.0%), and women made up only 17% of the people in the coronary rehab trials. Uptake of rehab for AF is described as remarkably low: 0 to 5%.
After rehab, women had lower fitness and quality of life than men on average, but similar rates of death, heart attack and readmission (22 mostly observational studies). Nothing in the evidence we read suggests that women and men should exercise differently after a heart event. NICE asks services to offer single-sex classes where there is demand.
Everyone after a heart attack, whatever their age, and everyone with heart failure. People are also referred after heart procedures such as a stent, and BACPR adds people with an ICD, stable angina, congenital heart disease or a heart transplant. A condition that could get worse with exercise is treated first, and the exercise part is adapted.
NICE says the programme should start within 10 days of leaving hospital after a heart attack. BACPR's standard is to start within 2 weeks of leaving hospital or being diagnosed, with an assessment within 10 working days of referral. In practice, waiting time is the standard that services most often miss.
Rehab can be in hospital, at a community centre or at home, and in person, online, by phone, through an app or a mix. Home and centre programmes give similar results, so choose the one you'll finish. Whichever you choose, a face-to-face check of your fitness should come before your exercise is planned, and the home exercise videos from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) are for people who have had a rehab assessment.
After your assessment, sessions have a long warm-up, a conditioning part that mixes cardio with light strength work, and a cool-down, alongside information sessions and emotional support. The exercise is moderate, 11 to 14 on the Borg scale, with aerobic exercise on 3 days a week.
Ask your GP, cardiologist or heart failure nurse to refer you. NICE asks services to remind people about rehab and to offer it again to people who didn't take it up. The BHF has a cardiac rehab finder and a Heart Helpline on 0808 802 1234.
When you're stable, can exercise at a moderate level and can judge your own effort, you can move on to long-term exercise, such as a community class. Aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, spread through the week with rest days. Start low and slow: sessions can be as short as 5 or 10 minutes.
The BHF's advice is to build up gradually. Even if you don't feel like it, getting up, washing and dressing is a positive first step. Then light jobs around the house, walking around the house, or standing up from your chair and marching on the spot for a minute.
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NICE advises building up step by step to being active for 20 to 30 minutes a day, to the point of slight breathlessness, starting at a level that feels comfortable. For people with low fitness, the UK's cardiac physiotherapy standards suggest 5 to 10-minute bouts at an easy level, building to 30 minutes a day.
Our editorial starting point, if your hospital hasn't given you a plan: in the first week at home, 2 to 3 short walks a day of 5 to 10 minutes, at an easy pace where you can talk easily. In week 2, add a few minutes to each walk every day or two if you feel well. By weeks 3 to 4, aim for 20 to 30 minutes a day, on the flat at first. Your hospital's or rehab team's advice comes first.
After a planned stent, avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activity for about a week, or until the wound has healed. Recovery takes longer after an emergency stent for a heart attack, and cardiac rehab will help you build up.
You'll usually sit in a chair after a day, walk after 3 days and use stairs after 5 or 6. The NHS says to start being active, such as going for walks, as soon as you feel well enough, and not to do any heavy lifting for 3 months. Most people are back to most normal activities after about 6 weeks, and full recovery takes 2 to 3 months.
Advice on using your arms while your breastbone heals differs between hospitals, and in trials, less strict limits didn't lead to more wound or breastbone problems. Follow your surgeon's and rehab team's advice on pushing, pulling and lifting with your arms.
After an uncomplicated heart attack, most people can have sex again after about 4 weeks, when they feel comfortable. NICE says it is no more likely to trigger a heart attack than in someone who has never had one.
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Anxiety and low mood are common after a heart attack. Talk to your GP or rehab team: rehab includes emotional support, and our guides to exercise for anxiety and depression have more.
You're at the right level if you feel warm, are breathing a little more heavily than normal, and can still talk comfortably. It might not take much movement to get there, and it doesn't matter if someone else can do more. In heart patients, the point where talking stops being comfortable matches a real change in breathing, and in 50 people after a stent or bypass surgery it put 88% in their ideal training zone. Our zone 2 guide explains the test step by step.
The Borg scale rates effort from 6 (no effort at all) to 20 (the hardest you could manage). Rehab works at 11 to 14: start near 11 if you're unfit and work up towards 14. In our words, from the scale's descriptions: 11 is light and easy to talk; 13 is somewhat hard, breathing harder but still able to talk in sentences; 15 is hard, and talking is difficult. Rate your effort while you exercise, not afterwards; it takes 3 or 4 sessions to learn.
Beta blockers slow your heart. In a small study of 10 healthy men, heart rate was clearly lower on a beta blocker at the same effort, while the effort felt the same, and in heart patients on beta blockers, standard heart rate formulas put many people outside the right zone. With AF, the pulse is irregular, so heart rate can't measure your effort either. Go by how it feels, or use a training heart rate your rehab team works out from an exercise test; heart rate monitors aren't always accurate.
With a heart condition, the BHF advises a warm-up of at least 15 minutes and a cool-down of at least 10, and older adults may need 15 to 20 minutes. A gradual warm-up may raise the point at which angina comes on. Drops in blood pressure, a shortage of blood to the heart muscle and abnormal rhythms can happen in the first 30 minutes after stopping, so slow down gradually, keep your feet moving, and don't lie down straight after exercise.
Rehab programmes use aerobic exercise such as walking or cycling on 3 days a week, for 20 to 60 minutes plus the warm-up and cool-down, and strength work on 2 to 3 days. Once 20 minutes feels comfortable, the effort goes up gradually towards 14 on the Borg scale. In the long term, aim for 150 minutes of moderate activity a week.
Short bursts of hard exercise are now an option in UK rehab for suitable people with stable coronary heart disease. Do them within rehab or with your cardiac team's agreement; our HIIT guide covers the safety evidence.
For most people, yes, when it's done carefully. The American Heart Association calls resistance training safe and effective for people with heart disease, and even very light weights, about a fifth of the most you could lift once, improved strength after a heart attack.
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Rehab programmes use 2 to 3 sessions a week, 48 hours apart: 1 set of 8 to 10 repetitions to start, building to 3 sets, with at least a minute's rest between sets. Weights start at 30 to 40% of the most you could lift once for the arms and 50 to 60% for the legs, and go up when you can do more than 10 repetitions.
In plain terms (our suggestion): choose a weight you could lift at least 15 times, and stop at 8 to 10, with plenty left in reserve.
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Breathe out on the effort and never hold your breath. Move slowly and with control. Bands, light dumbbells, tins or water bottles all work. Rehab classes do strength work after the cardio and part of the cool-down.
The BHF says to check with your doctor before you start strength training, which may not suit some people with heart conditions. With heart failure, avoid heavy weights, holding your breath, and using your whole body as a weight, such as press-ups or planks. With a pacemaker or ICD, ask before upper-body strength training, as repeated arm movements can damage the leads.
Rehab avoids long holds such as planks and the wall sit, which invite breath-holding. Our high blood pressure guide covers wall sits; with coronary heart disease, ask your cardiac team before you do them.
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People with heart failure used to be told to rest; now keeping active is known to improve symptoms and quality of life. Speak to your doctor first, then aim for moderate exercise, where you're out of breath but can hold a conversation, plus light strength work. Little and often works: 5 to 10-minute sessions are fine. Take care in the pool, where you can work harder than you realise.
Skip exercise on days you feel unwell or more tired or breathless than normal. Weigh yourself regularly: sudden weight gain needs an urgent GP appointment or a call to NHS 111. Heart failure can't be reversed with exercise, but exercise improves symptoms.
The BHF says it's unlikely that exercise will make your AF worse. The NHS suggests at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, like walking, cycling or gardening, but not exercising too much or too hard, which can trigger AF. If your AF comes and goes, exercise when you're not in AF; if it's persistent, exercise when your heart rate is controlled, you're stable on treatment and you feel well. On blood thinners, avoid contact sports.
Most people with an ICD or pacemaker can exercise. Your doctor will set any limits, which often means moderate exercise such as walking and gardening, and avoiding contact sports such as rugby. Always check with your cardiac team before starting a new or harder activity, and consider rehab first. Trials of rehab for people with an ICD are few and low quality, so your team's advice comes first.
Beta blockers slow your heartbeat and may make you feel more tired or less energetic. Use the talk test or the Borg scale rather than heart rate. If a beta blocker makes you dizzy, the NHS says not to drive, ride a bike or use machinery until the dizziness stops. Talk to your doctor if you want to change your exercise routine, and don't change your dose yourself.
Carry your GTN spray or tablets. To prevent angina when you exercise, you can take 1 tablet or 1 to 2 sprays under your tongue before you start; it works in 1 to 3 minutes. Sit down to take it and stand up slowly. Ask your doctor or pharmacist how to use it around exercise.
Exercise works alongside your medicines, not instead of them. The NHS warns that stopping blood-thinning medicines early after a stent greatly increases your risk of a heart attack.
Walk or cycle on at least 3 days a week at a level where you can still talk (11 to 14 on the Borg scale), starting with 5 to 10 minutes. March or step at home on bad-weather days, and use the seated march on low-energy days.
2 to 3 times a week: 1 set of 8 to 10 slow repetitions with a light weight, building to 3 sets, breathing out on the effort (UK cardiac rehab standards). After heart surgery through the breastbone, leave out the arm moves until your surgeon or rehab team says they're fine.
3D demoSit to stand from a chairBeginner · A bench or box
3D demoSeated knee extension (chair)Beginner · A bench or box + Something with weight
3D demoSlow calf raiseBeginner · A wall
3D demoBand rowBeginner · A band + An anchor point
3D demoWall push-upBeginner · A wall
3D demoSeated dumbbell curlBeginner · A dumbbell + A bench or box
3D demoSeated dumbbell lateral raiseBeginner · A dumbbell + A bench or boxMix the mobility move and short stretches with marching in a 15-minute warm-up, and hold each stretch for 30 seconds in the cool-down. Finish with slow breathing, sitting rather than lying down.
The cardiac rehab-style session is for after your rehab assessment, with your team's agreement. Whichever workout you follow, warm up for at least 15 minutes and cool down for at least 10. The chair workout suits low-energy days and heart failure.
A 45-minute home session built like a UK cardiac rehab class: a 15-minute warm-up, 20 minutes of cardio mixed with light strength, and a 10-minute cool-down.
45 minBeginner14 movesA wall, A bench or boxA steady 30 to 45 minute cardio session at talk-but-not-sing pace: walk, cycle, row or cross-train, counting toward weekly activity guidelines.
40 minBeginner3 movesCardio machine, A wallA 25-minute standing cardio circuit with no jumping: marching, step jacks, sit-to-stands, punches, step-ups and wall push-ups, with a seated option for most moves.
25 minBeginner9 movesA bench or box, A stepA 20-minute seated workout for older adults who cannot stand for long: marching, leg and arm strength, posture, and sit-to-stands that lead back to standing.
20 minBeginner11 movesA bench or box, Something with weightA 10-minute routine for straight after a meal: an easy walk, a few simple standing moves from blood sugar trials, then a short walk to finish.
10 minBeginner6 movesCardio machine, A bench or boxCall 999 (911 in the US) if:
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Don't drive yourself to A&E. Sit and rest on the floor with your knees bent and your back supported. Take a 300 mg aspirin if you have one and aren't allergic to aspirin, and use your GTN if you have angina. If someone stops responding and stops breathing, start CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).
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Stop what you're doing and rest. Use your GTN as prescribed, and take another dose after 5 minutes if the first doesn't help. If you still have symptoms 5 minutes after the second dose, call 999. If you don't have your GTN with you, rest, stay calm and call 999.
Call 999 or go to A&E if palpitations don't go away, or come with chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling faint or fainting. With a fast or irregular heartbeat, the NHS also lists sweating, feeling or being sick, dizziness, a severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, blurred vision, and confusion or difficulty speaking as reasons to call 999. If palpitations have stopped, ask for an urgent GP appointment or call NHS 111.
Call 999 for bleeding from the wound that doesn't stop after 10 minutes of pressure, severe chest pain that doesn't ease (try your angina medicine first), or if the leg or arm used for the procedure becomes discoloured, cold or numb.
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Stop if you get chest pain, palpitations, dizziness or light-headedness. If it doesn't go away quickly with rest, or with your GTN if you use it, get urgent medical advice.
Stop, sit down and don't exercise again that day if you feel dizzy, get chest pain or your heartbeat becomes very irregular, and tell your rehab team before your next session. With heart failure, also stop for extreme shortness of breath.
Slow down and make your movements smaller if your breathing feels uncomfortable, you feel very tired, you're sweating a lot, or the effort is higher than your team suggested. If that doesn't settle it, walk slowly on the spot, then sit down.
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Before harder exercise, such as interval training, heavy lifting, competitive sport, or sports with sudden bursts of effort such as squash.
That was the old advice. The BHF says people with heart failure used to be told to rest, but keeping active is now known to improve symptoms and quality of life. NICE wants rehab to start within 10 days of leaving hospital after a heart attack, and rehab cuts heart attacks and hospital admissions.
NICE says rehab is for everyone after a heart attack, whatever their age, and for everyone with heart failure. Women have similar rates of death, heart attack and readmission to men after rehab, but are less likely to enrol.
The BHF says doing some activity can be safer and better for your health than doing nothing. In supervised rehab, serious heart events are rare: 1 for every 49,565 hours of exercise in a registry of 25,420 patients. Build up gradually and stop for the warning signs above.
Formulas don't fit people on beta blockers, whose heart rate runs lower at the same effort, or people with AF, whose pulse is irregular, and heart rate monitors aren't always accurate. Use the talk test or the Borg scale, or a training heart rate your rehab team sets from an exercise test.
The American Heart Association calls resistance training safe and effective for people with heart disease, and in coronary heart disease, adding it to aerobic training did better than aerobic training alone. The conditions: light to moderate weights, 8 to 10 repetitions, no breath-holding, your team's agreement, and no heavy weights, full press-ups or planks with heart failure.
Short bursts of hard exercise improved fitness more than steady moderate exercise in 382 people with stable coronary heart disease in UK rehab, and BACPR's exercise professionals now support it for suitable people. Build up to it within rehab or with your team's agreement.
The BHF says heart failure can't be cured and isn't reversible with exercise, though exercise improves symptoms. Exercise works alongside your medicines: keep taking them, because stopping blood-thinning medicines early after a stent greatly increases the risk of a heart attack.
The BHF says this is unlikely, and exercise-based rehab reduced AF coming back and eased symptoms in trials. What is linked with AF is very large amounts of endurance or mixed sport: in pooled observational studies, athletes had about two and a half times the odds of AF, which is why the NHS advises against exercising too much or too hard.
The NHS says no heavy lifting for 3 months, but walking starts within days and most people are back to most normal activities after about 6 weeks. In trials, less strict arm limits didn't lead to more breastbone or wound problems, but advice differs between hospitals: follow your surgeon's.
Start moving straight away: get up, wash, dress and walk around the house in the first days at home, then take short walks that build up over a few weeks. Cardiac rehab should start within 10 days of leaving hospital, and the team will tell you how much to do. Avoid heavy lifting and hard exercise until they say otherwise; after a planned stent, that is usually about a week.
Walking is the best place to start, building towards 20 to 30 minutes a day to the point of slight breathlessness. Cycling and light strength exercises follow in cardiac rehab, at a level where you're breathing harder but can still talk. Whatever you do, warm up for at least 15 minutes and cool down for at least 10.
Cardiac rehabilitation is a programme of exercise, education and support after a heart attack, heart surgery or a stent, or with heart failure. It starts with an assessment and can be a group class, a home programme with online or written support, or a mix. NICE recommends it for everyone after a heart attack, whatever their age, and for everyone with heart failure.
Yes. In 107 trials with nearly 27,000 people with coronary heart disease, rehab cut heart attacks over the following year by about a quarter and hospital admissions by about a third, improved quality of life, and probably reduced deaths a little. In heart failure, it reduced hospital admissions and improved quality of life. Yet fewer than half of eligible people in England start it after a heart attack, so ask for a referral.
Yes. Home programmes, including online and app-based ones, worked about as well as hospital classes in trials, and NICE says you should be offered a choice. You'll still have an assessment first, which should include a face-to-face check of your fitness before your exercise is planned. Our cardiac rehab-style home workout is for after that assessment.
Aim for moderate effort: you feel warm and are breathing a little harder, but can still talk comfortably. On the 6 to 20 Borg scale, that's 11 to 14. It might not take much movement to get there, and that's fine: what matters is how it feels to you.
There isn't a reliable formula. Beta blockers slow your heart, so targets based on 220 minus your age put many people in the wrong zone. Go by how it feels, using the talk test or the Borg scale, or use a training heart rate your rehab team works out from an exercise test.
For most people, yes, once your team agrees. Strength training is safe and builds strength and fitness in people with heart disease; rehab teams use light to moderate weights for 8 to 10 repetitions, 2 to 3 times a week, breathing out on the effort and never holding the breath. With heart failure, avoid heavy weights, full press-ups and planks.
After a planned stent, you can usually walk straight away, but avoid heavy lifting and strenuous activity for about a week, or until the wound has healed. After an emergency stent for a heart attack, recovery takes longer. Cardiac rehab will help you build up safely.
Walking starts within a few days of the operation and carries on at home as soon as you feel well enough; most people are back to most normal activities after about 6 weeks, and full recovery takes 2 to 3 months. The NHS says not to do any heavy lifting for 3 months. Advice on using your arms while your breastbone heals varies between hospitals, so follow your surgeon's and rehab team's advice.
Usually, yes. The British Heart Foundation says it's unlikely that exercise will make AF worse, and exercise-based rehab reduced how often AF came back in trials. Aim for 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, judge your effort by how you feel rather than your pulse, and don't exercise too much or too hard, which the NHS says can trigger AF.
Stop if you get chest pain, palpitations, dizziness or light-headedness, and get urgent advice if it doesn't settle quickly with rest or your GTN. Call 999 for chest pain that feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck or jaw, for severe difficulty breathing, or if someone passes out. With angina, take a second GTN dose after 5 minutes, and call 999 if the pain is still there 5 minutes after that.
Exercise education, not a diagnosis or treatment plan, and clinical review of these guides is pending. Stop and get advice for chest pain, unusual breathlessness, dizziness or fainting, or new pain, and check with your doctor or midwife first if they have told you to limit activity. Health disclaimer.
