My brother recently had a quadruple bypass at 63. He's recovering pretty well, with no complications, and will start rehabilitation next month. He's not a cyclist, and doesn't have any regular exercise that I know of.
I'd like to get him a heart rate monitor and a book on exercise to read while he's recuperating, and I thought this forum would be a good source of advice. If I can turn him on to cycling, then even better.
My initial thought is to get Smart Exercise by Covert Bailey and a Polar HRM (A3 or FS3), and some of the Pollar literature.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ tg/detail/-/0395661145?v=glance - 94k -
http://www.polarusa.com/Products/fse...p?cat=consumer
I have a Polar S150 and I love it, but my brother is a technophobe, so a complicated HRM is out. I don't know what kind of flexibility he'll have; I presume he'll be able to manage a chest strap, or does that go right across some incisions? Do the wrist-mounted HRMs work OK?
I really like the Covert Bailey book, because it explained things at my level of detail, and drilled into me the benefit of exercise in general. I also like Joel Thiels's Cycling Past Fifty, because he promotes the idea that the severe decline of performance with age is statistical and does not necessarily apply to an individual. ("There's hope.") He also relies heavily on HRM's and training zones.
Recommendations?