[Ambulatory medical training therapy in coronary heart disease]

Physical exercise plays a central role within cardiac rehabilitation. Most often, endurance exercises are restricted only to inpatient rehabilitation regimes. According to the guidelines of sports medicine, endurance training is only effective if it is performed regularly and systematically. With regards to safety and best control, bicycle ergometer is the training device of choice for the cardiac patient. Prescription and organisation of endurance training sessions in cardiac rehabilitation are discussed. Beside the well accepted changes of risk-factors by regular endurance training, studies of pooled data showed a significant reduction of mortality of patients in the rehabilitation groups. The lack of data regarding training time and intensity within the single studies was remarkable.