Risks of Exercise
The risk of cardiovascular complications appears to increase transiently during strenuous physical activity compared with the risk at other times. This seems particularly true among persons with heart disease who are habitually sedentary. Contemporary estimates of major cardiovascular complications in exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation programs range from 1/100,000 to 1/300,000 patient exercise hours. Thus, exercise rehabilitation has been shown to be safe with serious events being rare. Moreover, the overall risk of a cardiac event appears to be reduced in persons who are regular exercisers.