[Benefits of exertion in normal subjects and patients with coronary disease]

For over thirty years, many epidemiological studies have demonstrated that physical exercise, practiced regularly, makes it possible to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease significantly. Exercise helps to modify most risk factors: improvement in the levels of serum lipids, a decrease in resting blood pressure and submaximal effort, improvement in carbohydrate metabolism, discontinuation of smoking, decreased platelet aggregation, decreased circulating catecholamines, etc. Other scientific findings tend to demonstrate that exercise may also reduce the incidence of post-infarction coronary accidents (secondary prevention). The amount of exercise necessary to obtain these beneficial effects consists of 3 to 4 training sessions per week, 30 to 40 minutes for each. The intensity of exercise the patient undergoes during each session should vary between 65 and 90% of his maximum heart rate.