Your Cardiac Rehabilitation Specialist Nurse thinks that you are ready to start our Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Programme. We know that people who attend exercise sessions do better in the longer term, and have less heart related problems than those that don’t.
Will I need to do anything before the sessions?
Before you can join the groups, you will have a single ‘6 minute walk test’ with the cardiac rehabilitation Physiotherapist at Breathing Space, which your Nurse will book for you. This helps us to understand your current level of fitness.
This appointment may last up to an hour, but you will only be walking on the corridor for a few minutes. Please wear normal clothing. If prescribed GTN spray / tablets or asthma inhalers, please bring them with you.
You will be asked to wear a face mask unless exempt. If you have a blood pressure monitor, please bring this with you to the appointment.
You will be sent a questionnaire about symptoms through the post. Please complete this on the day of your appointment and bring it with you.
When you arrive at Breathing Space please let reception know you are here for a cardiac exercise assessment and take a seat in the waiting area. The cardiac Physiotherapist will collect you at the time of your appointment.
If you successfully complete the 6 minute walk test, you will be booked in to start the Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Sessions at the next available date.
When are the sessions held?
We offer 3 supervised exercise sessions a week, one face to face at Breathing Space on Wednesdays (choice of times) and two online (Monday and Friday afternoons). We encourage you to attend as many of these as possible each week, with a suggestion of attending a minimum of 2 sessions each week. We can help you with accessing the online sessions.
Face to face cardiac exercise sessions at Breathing Space
You may attend 8 exercise sessions in the gym on a Wednesday at Breathing Space. The sessions are run by the cardiac rehabilitation Physiotherapist and Nurse. You will have your own personal area in which to exercise, containing a bike/treadmill, step and some light weights. The cardiac Physiotherapist will advise you on what exercise to do each week.
Online cardiac exercise sessions
You may also attend online cardiac exercise sessions for 8 weeks on a Monday and a Friday afternoon. These are live sessions run by the cardiac rehabilitation Physiotherapist. You join in with these sessions from your own home. All you need is an internet connection and a device to access the sessions such as an iPad/tablet, laptop or smartphone. Please ask the cardiac Physiotherapist at your 6-minute walk test if you need any help to access these sessions.
British Heart Foundation (BHF) pre-recorded cardiac exercise sessions
Once you have started attending the face to face and/or live online exercise sessions, if you would like, we can also give you details of how to access pre-recorded BHF cardiac exercise sessions on the Cardiac Rehab app (if you have it on your smartphone), on the BHF website or on DVD (available to loan).
What will happen during the sessions?
During the exercise sessions we will monitor your level of effort using a combination of your heart rate and you telling us how hard you are working. How hard you are working is measured using the ‘Borg scale’, which will be explained to you at your cardiac exercise assessment.
We will monitor your blood pressure and heart rate before, during and after the exercise sessions to see how your body responds. You can use a blood pressure machine in the sessions and enter your results in a booklet that we can give you, or you can enter them on the Cardiac Rehab app if you have it.
If you do not have a device (e.g. smartphone) or blood pressure machine, we can arrange these for you as part of our Active +me Cardiac Rehabilitation app, which you may already be using.
If you are diabetic and on insulin and/or gliclazide your blood glucose level will be checked before starting the exercise sessions.
If you have other health conditions that may affect you being able to exercise, this will be taken into account and the exercise programme adjusted for you.
What is available after the exercise programme is complete?
After completing 8 weeks of the Rotherham cardiac rehabilitation exercise programme, there are further cardiac exercise sessions at Rotherham and Maltby leisure centres which you can be referred to.
If you have any questions about the cardiac exercise programme, please contact our Cardiac Rehabilitation Physiotherapist on 01709 423257.
Rotherham cardiac rehabilitation exercise programme - patient information leaflet
Version: 1.0
Date of next review: April 2025
© The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust