"High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) at POWH Cardiac Rehab"

Earlier this year I felt severe upper back pain and quickly realised all was not well.

My wife took me to POWH Emergency and 20 minutes later I went into cardiac arrest and was defibrillated 3 times.

To wake up and have a room full of people you've never met focused on just one thing - keeping me alive - is very humbling.

We really do have an amazing public medical system in Australia.

After leaving the hospital I was followed up by multiple people, including my allocated Nurse Practitioner and was encouraged to join the Cardiac Rehab program.

Whist I was keen to do what I could to rehabilitate and reduce the possibility of recurrence, I didn't want my heart attack to define me.  I didn't want to be the 'victim' or 'the guy who had the heart attack'.

For this reason I admit I was a bit reticent to, as I told a friend, 'sit in a room with a bunch of people and discuss my heart attack and feel sorry for myself'.

But, I went anyway and, was I ever wrong.

The rehab process was so positive in every way.

The staff (& the wonderful interns) just made the whole experience about moving forward and achieving and fun!

They always took the time to know individuals and warmly greet us all and have a joke.

And they always played great music whilst we rode our bikes.

After a few weeks I move to the HIIT program.

That was super empowering.

I think the scars of a heart attack are half physical and half emotional.  (This probably applies to every major medical episode.  Fortunately, I only know this one first hand.)

HIIT made a huge difference psychologically to me and I saw this in other participants too.

The safety of being able to push my body, and heart, again, whilst having an abundance of medical supervision around me, gave me the confidence to push forward and bring my heart rate up to levels I would not have had the confidence to have taken it by myself.

Since completing rehab I've bought myself a rowing machine to continue the daily journey and try not to be a repeat customer!