Anybody here tried to exercise with one of these things attached?
I have this wierd HR spike (210-230) that lasts for 2-5 minutes sometimes, particularly on the recovery phase of interval work. The cardiologist hooked up a Holter Monitor to me this morning but told me not to exercise or the leads could come off and screw up the whole test. The problem is that I don’t have a problem unless I’m working hard, 85% and up, and I know nothing is going to show up by me just being me for a day.
Done it. I think I was on a treadmill for 1.5 hr or something with one, and one of the leads did come off towards the end, but I stuck it back on. I don’t think it messed up the results too badly. My heart issues are post-exercise when my heart rate starts to drop, so what I was doing on the machine wasn’t really an issue. You may want to get some extra athletic tape and secure them with that before the workout - just to be safe.
Don’t do it! It’s part of a larger picture. The other piece of the puzzle might be a stress test at a later date. Working with the Holter in place will cause the monitor to be out of place and you will generate no data. I made that mistake once.
I got a tiny iCardia monitor which does a loop recording. When you get tachycardia, you hit a button and it captures the last 20 seconds or so and the ensuing 20 seconds. It is extremely tiny and can be worn during exercise.
http://www.icardia.com/products.html
-jens
That sounds exactly like something I have. (Though I haven’t had an occurrence in quite a while. I used to have them almost weekly.) I never did exercise with the Holter Monitor. When I wore it I never had an incident. I had a doc gave me a small monitor that I could hold to my chest and record an incident. I then could call a phone number for the doc and “playback” the recording over the phone. The playback sounded like a fax machine. Pretty cool. This small device is not something that is worn, but it’s small enough that it could be brought along when exercising.
I did hill repeats with one on to try to get the responce that had been troubling me. I did about three hills, got the funny beats and marked them with the button and went about my way. I didn’t lose any connections or anything. I am a heavy sweater and this is Florida, so I got pretty wet.
I had the same thing and thought as you did it only occured when exercising.
A review of the numbers from the monitor showed that within a 24 hour period my HR spiked to in excess of 240 on 8 occasions and I did not feel any of them.
I ended up having an ablation. You dont need to exercise to trip it out.
I wore one for 24 hours early last week. The cardiologist wanted me to do my regular workouts with it on. Just no swimming 
When they put the monitor on they put a lot of tape over the leads so they wouldn’t come off. I did a 1.5 hour session on the bike with six 60-90 second VO2Max intervals. I was soaking wet near the end but the leads stayed on okay.
The reason for my tests was a concern that my “Athletes Heart” could be masking something. My resting rate is 34 and the left ventricle is larger than normal. They did a pile of tests and found my heart is “abnormal” since it is so healthy - A “normal” heart is sedentary in our society. On the stress test I had the best score ever measured at that lab for someone in their 40’s. I think they got a kick out of me since I actually enyoyed the stress test (they usually see people who are really sick so seeing someone at the other extreme would be refreshing).
I did a 2 hour bike ride with one on 7 years ago, just before I got my pacemaker. No problems with data.
Sounds like miscommunication between you and the Dr. Or he just wants to see what your heart does during normal, non exercise activities, and will do other tests later. He specifically said NOT to exercise right? And you told him you only have a problem when you go hard, right.
Back in November I had a week long series of tests and part of the tests was to wear the Holter Monitor for 48 hours and not exercise. Once the 48 hours was up I kept it on and went for a 5 mile run with hills and stairs. Since I had to keep a diary of my activities, my doctor was cool with that. The leads stayed on fine during the run.
How long do you to wear it?
What with a regular stress test, a nuclear stress test and the Holter Monitor, I had an interesting crop circle design on my chest.
I did it on a rowing ergometer. I just put an extra sportsbra over the electrodes to hold them in place, and a vest to help support the monitor from bouncing. It worked fine.
Thanks for the responses.
I never saw the Dr. this morning, just a couple of office nurses. They didn’t put their foot down and say absolutely no exercise, just that they didn’t recommed it and not to take a shower. I asked the nurse about duct taping the leads on and she looked at me like I had 4 heads. My wife is going to love me getting in bed after doing interval work with no shower.
It has to stay on for 24 hours. I go back to return it in the morning and then see the Dr. tomorrow afternoon.
Wait til tonight when you have to sleep with it… it’s like sleeping with an octopus.
Hey, it can’t be as bad as trying to sleep with an externally fixated wrist. I don’t know what was worse, the cuts and bruises on my face from hitting myself during the night or the pain it sent down into the bone when said happened.