Case Study: Healthy Heart Check

A case study on one of our many male clients who wants to get fit and remain healthy.

Luke is a 33yo ex-smoker (gave up two months ago) who used to run a bit and play football and cricket before being stuck behind a desk like many of us. He wants to get fit again and has recently started jogging 5 to 6 km three times per week.

Luke is a strapping 190 cm tall and weighs 100 kg. His Percentage Body Fat is ~26% and his BMI is 27.7, which is in the overweight category. We noticed his posture was good but his core stability needed a bit of improvement. His feet were pronated which affected his knees. He was also a bit tight in his neural dynamics.

His Fitness Test results showed a good VO2max: 43.3 mlO2 (oxygen) /kg body weight/minute. This result is good for a trained runner of about 45 years of age. So Luke has a bit of catching up to do.

Luke’s Resting Heart Rate (HR) was good at 57 beats per minute (bpm). His Anaerobic Threshold HR: was 152 bpm @ 12 km/hour. This means that he starts to get Lactic Acid levels up at that heart rate. His Max HR was 181 bpm (or 96% of predicted – 220 less his age) with Max Workload of 12 kph and 10 % uphill gradient on the treadmill.

His HR dropped to 132 bpm two minutes after rest.

Luke’s Exercise ECG showed normal coronary artery (to heart muscle) blood flow with maximum level of exertion and so no coronary artery narrowing or blockages.

His lung test examination was normal: Respiratory function: Pre & post exercise lung tests were within normal limits and no sign of asthma or exercise induced asthma.

Luke's Total Cholesterol was 3.2 which is excellent. The HDL (good) cholesterol level was 1.03 – this is just adequate. LDL (bad) cholesterol level was 1.80 which also excellent. Triglycerides were normal.

Target levels are:
Cholesterol <4 mmol/L;
Triglyceride <2 mmol/L
HDL cholesterol >1 mmol/L;
LDL cholesterol < 2 mmol/L

I gave Luke a neural dynamics stretching program and abdominal exercises to improve his core stability. He also visited our podiatrist to check if he needs to correct his foot pronation with orthoses or shoe inserts (Podiatrist said I had “great feet” – Ed.).  

So what else does Luke need?

He needs to increase his commitment to exercise and that will increase his fitness level, help him lose weight and body fat, improve his good (HDL) cholesterol levels, and make him look and feel like the Greek god he could be! A good program would be a brisk walk/jog getting his heart rate to between 130 and 145 for about 45 minutes per day. Three times a week he can also push himself a bit and run at 5-minute/km pace for 20 minutes to get his heart rate up to over 152 beats/ minute. He should watch his diet and keep off foods too high in saturated fat and sugar and stay off the smokes.

 Dr George Janko (left) and Exercise Physiologist Chris Alexander (right) supervise Luke's Healthy Heart Check.