Most heart disease patients can help lower their risk of future heart problems if they make changes to improve their health. Building a healthier future is a partnership between you and the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals who can help you change your health habits. You can play an active role in making these changes. Taking an active role in your care will help you enjoy a healthier future. Know your goals, make changes in your health habits and take your medicines correctly. You can reduce future problems if you react quickly to new or worsening symptoms. People of all ages can benefit from cardiac rehab. The lifestyle changes made during rehab have few risks. These changes can improve your overall health and prevent future heart problems and even death. Exercise training as part of cardiac rehab might not be safe for all patients. For example, if you have very high blood pressure or severe heart disease, you might not be ready for exercise. However, you can still benefit from other parts of the cardiac rehab programs. You may start a cardiac rehab program while you are still in the hospital after having treatment for a heart attack or other heart problem, soon after leaving the hospital, or at any other time to help prevent future heart problems, improve the quality of your life, and make you healthier. Your doctor will give you an exercise prescription that gives you and your cardiac rehab team guidelines for the frequency, duration, and intensity of exercise. The prescription will be based on your medical condition and your fitness level. How fast you recover depends on your age, your health, and whether you have other health conditions that may slow your recovery. A younger person without other health problems may improve more quickly than an older person who is in poor health. Depending on your condition and how you respond to rehab, you may stay in a particular phase or move back and forth among the various phases. There is no set length of time that you must stay in a specific phase. There are typically four phases involved in cardiac rehabilitation programs which will be moved through at your own pace. It is essential that you move through these phases at your own pace as if you try to rush things and complete phases before you’re ready, you could put yourself in danger of having an attack or damaging your system. A responsible and professional doctor will alert you on how long to stay in a phase and they will monitor your progress and development, it is them who should allow you to move on or stay where you currently are with the phases not you. You must be honest and open with your cardiac rehabilitation NJ doctor and programs, this way you will be able to get the most effective and beneficial results from them rather than trying to kid yourself and pushing yourself through pain barriers which you think will help when in fact, it won’t help it will endanger your life.