Exercise prescription for the heart

It is universally known the link between physical inactivity and coronary heart disease. It is estimated that over 30% of coronary heart disease worldwide is due to physical inactivity. This evidence draws attention to the importance of exercise in primary prevention of heart disease and in secondary prevention measures, such as cardiac rehabilitation. International guidelines started to include exercise training beside pharmacological therapies, developing a specific type of training modality tailored for each subpopulation of cardiovascular patients and their risk factors. Many different types of exercise protocols, arranged for intensity, method, type, application, control and setting, exist and cardiopulmonary exercise test represents the gold standard for the assessment of functional evaluation in exercise prescription. In clinical practice, it is not always feasible to group patients into a specific category, due to the variety of their co-morbidities and risk factors: in secondary prevention, exercise intensity must yet be safe but also tailored to achieve the outcome goal of rehabilitation. The purpose of this report is to introduce the innovation of recent notions published in the scientific literature, trying to insert them into clinical practice giving a simple, but yet effective, instrument to the health care professionals.