Page 2 - Peter Munk Toronto Star

M2⎮TORONTO STAR SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 2015 ON ON1

PETER MUNK CARDIAC CENTRE

> FITNESS REHAB

GoodLife teams up with doctors for heart health

One-of-a-kind program helps
recovering cardiac patients
keep up with exercise regime

KATE RAE David Hawkins, right, talks with personal trainer Jonathon Joaquim as part of a joint venture between GoodLife and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.

SPECIAL TO THE STAR “Exercise is a great solution. “They put in the stents and the next ly trained GoodLife trainers part of pertension or high stress. It’s a way to
This sort of training is better day I was sent home,” he says. He the program. manage their lives. Exercise is a great
One snowy morning at a GoodLife than any prescription.” knew exercise was an important part solution. This sort of training is bet-
Fitness centre, David Hawkins, 62, is of his getting better, but a frozen The transition from UHN patient ter than any prescription.”
quietly lifting weights with his per- JONATHON JOAQUIM shoulder got in the way. Then he to GoodLife client is engineered to be
sonal trainer. They chat about the GOODLIFE TRAINER learned about the rehab program at as smooth as possible — from making This passionate belief that exercise
exercises: what they’re working on, UHN. sure the equipment in both facilities does more than just make us look
how it should feel. There is no goad- all-around fit guy, the onset of shoul- is the same and having the trainers good in bathing suits is what brought
ing, no bulging veins, no sweat- der pain and arm fatigue five years For Hawkins, it meant two sessions go through an orientation session GoodLife on board in the first place.
soaked triumphant grunts. ago sent him to physio, not the emer- a week, 45 minutes to an hour each, and shadowing the rehab specialists,
gency room. Puzzled physiothera- for several months, using the tread- to understanding the unique needs “I get hit up quite a bit,” says David
While many of us still think of gyms pists, unable to calm what was mill, recumbent bike and hand bike. of heart patients and looking for “Patch” Patchell-Evans, GoodLife
simply as spaces for voraciously un- thought to be a pinched nerve, sent warning signs like profuse sweating, founder and CEO. “When I was con-
doing holiday excesses, this workout Hawkins to his family doctor. An “At every session, there’s a number light-headedness and breathlessness tacted by the Peter Munk Centre, I
demonstrates what fitness should electrocardiogram (ECG) led to a of attendants — including kinesiol- that might indicate they are working told them I could only do it at nine on
be: accessible, possible and beneficial stress echo, which led to an angio- ogists and nurses. They take your the heart too hard. a Tuesday night. They said yes. And
for everyone — especially for the gram where stents were placed to resting heart rate and blood pressure when I walked in, all the key doctors
people for whom working out is liter- alleviate arterial blockages. as you begin, halfway through your “Very few of my clients want to get were there — 20 expensive chief car-
ally do or die. routine and again at the end.” jacked,” says Joaquim. “They just diac doctors. That impressed me. I
want to have a normal life. They made the emotional decision that
When Paul Oh, medical director of That’s part of his routine now with might be battling cancer or have hy- night to commit.”
the University Health Network Jonathon Joaquim, one of18 special-
(UHN) cardiovascular prevention
and rehabilitation program says to
patients, “Congratulations, you’ve
had a heart attack,” he’s not being
facetious.

“It’s a real wake-up call,” he says.
“It’s a chance to finally learn how to
live healthier.”

The problem though, is that while
this wake-up call prompts most pa-
tients to initially adhere to their doc-
tor-ordered lifestyle changes, more
than half of those patients stop exer-
cising at around the one-year post-
incident mark.

Solution? The cardiac-care experts
at Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
(PMCC) and the fitness pros at
GoodLife have teamed up to create a
first-of-its-kind program to meet the
needs of patients completing their
four- to six-month cardiac rehab.

It’s the most recent program from a
partnership that began with the
GoodLife Fitness Centre of Excel-
lence in Cardiovascular Rehabilita-
tion Medicine, a state-of-the-art re-
hab facility. Now that GoodLife is
offering a free three-month mem-
bership to all of the rehab’s gradu-
ates, they want to see just what can
happen next.

ForHawkins,abike-commuter and

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