Today is the ninth day of not adding any supplemental salt to anything I eat. But the streak of days without an episode of atrial fibrillation has ended.
Today’s plan was to do a 200 Calorie SkiErg session and 10K rowing. Heart felt a bit fluttery this morning and it might have been at least partly related to a bad night’s sleep. You can see last night’s sleep summary at the top of this page. It might not be exactly right. Total sleep may have been quite a bit less than 4 hrs 15 minutes.
I don’t know how much of a factor the late-to-bed time was in last night’s poor sleep. But I didn’t eat my last bite of food until about 9:00 pm or a bit later and whenever I go to bed less than 2 or 3 hours after eating, sleep quality suffers also.
During the first workout session heart rate felt sporadically unsteady and then became steadily more unsteady and shifted to a rate that was too high. It remained too high and kept climbing even higher though the SkiErg effort was low.
Because the heart’s misbehavior continued after the SkiErg session finished, I shortened the rowing session to 3,000 meters. Heart rate was very irregular during the 3K rowing and most of the time the heart rate display was blank with the corresponding RowPro graph at zero BPM.
Today is the eighth day of not applying any additional salt to food via salt shaker or any other means. I continue to be amazed that not a single episode of atrial fibrillation has happened since day one.
As you can see in the above chart for today’s SkiErg session, heart rate responded normally before and following each interval. Heart rate was also not triggered into any elevated rate and remained in normal range for the entire session.
Before I stopped indulging in supplemental salt, heart rate during the fluttery feeling of Afib would get too high and it got above 200 BPM several times. The highest it reached was 210 BPM during Afib while working out.
After this morning’s SkiErg session I rowed 10,000 meters at an average pace of about 2:14/500 meters. Heart rate felt normal and was in very normal range from start to finish. The heart rate graph for the rowing session doesn’t look good but it is good. The display went blank quite a few times as you can readily see on the heart rate graph, but when it reappeared on the display it was always the same or very near where it had been.
And- during the last couple hundred meters or so of the 10K I slowed way down to about 3:00/500 meters. If I’d been having Afib, heart rate would have remained up wherever it had been. But heart was on good behavior and it slowed down right along with the reduction in effort and slower rowing pace during those final couple hundred meters.
So I continue to be amazed and happy at the results of abstaining from supplemental salt.
Today’s rising time was a bit late so the total workout time was a bit short. First was a 200 Calorie SkiErg session and that was followed by 3,000 meters rowing.
Today is the seventh day in a row of abstention from the personal option of adding any additional salt to any food to be consumed. Heart behavior continues wonderfully normal. Normal is wonderful, relative to very annoying episodes of atrial fibrillation.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.
Finish screen for today’s 3K rowing session.
Report for today’s 3K rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 3K rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 3K rowing session.
My skepticism as to whether salt was a major factor in episodes of atrial fibrillation still remains. But it is getting harder to shake off doubt that salt was a major cause.
Today is the sixth day in a row of no additional salt applied to any food consumed. What had I been adding salt to, prior to September 15th? Almost anything is a fairly accurate answer. A bowl of soup or stew invariably would get more salt. Some parts of the daily salad such as the tomatoes would either have salt shaken on to them or they would be dipped in a container of salt. Like apples? I prefer the tart green apples and would slice each apple into 14 or more slices then either shake salt onto each slice or dip each slice into a container of salt. The list could go on and on.
But the current experiment is to see whether heart behavior improves if I abstain from all that delicious extra salt. The results so far are incredible.
Definition: incredible | inˈkredəb(ə)l | adjective 1 impossible to believe 2 difficult to believe; extraordinary
But as the trite saying goes, “Seeing is believing.” Since beginning the experiment I have seen none of the previous symptoms of irregular heart elevated rate. And I have felt none of the fluttery feelings that always accompanied such heart behavior.
Today’s workout started with a 200 Calorie session on the SkiErg which also served as a warm up for the rowing machine. The rowing workout was a single session of 10,000 meters with no warm down. While doing the 10,000 meters rowing session I listened to a performance one of Chopin’s compositions by using the Apple TV to play a YouTube video titled Frédéric Chopin: Piano concerto No. 1 e-minor (Olga Scheps live) . The pianist, who must have been Olga Scheps, got very involved in the music. At times she waved her arms around in the air like the branches of a tree moving in a breeze.
During all of today’s workout the heart rate display only went blank twice and both of those were during the rowing machine session. The first time heart rate display went blank was early in the rowing machine session and it happened immediately during the same moment when I burped. The second time it went blank during that rowing session was near the end, when the tempo of the Chopin piano concerto changed to become quicker as it made its finale. I hadn’t done any more burping but I picked up the rowing pace when the concerto tempo quickened and when I made that shift in pace the heart rate display briefly went blank again, for the second and last time during the rowing session. The concerto recording was about 44 minutes in duration so it finished almost a minute before the 10K rowing session but I maintained that quicker pace all the way to the 10K finish line.
The 200 Calorie SkiErg session served as both warm up and a significant part of today’s workout.
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s 10K rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing session.
Today is the fifth day in a row of refraining from adding any additional salt to anything I eat.
Today is day 5 of keeping my hands off the salt shaker or any other means of adding more salt to anything I eat. No matter how bland the flavor, I abstain from adding any more salt.
It has been another day without any fluttery, heart-throbby feelings or abnormally high heart rate. Could it be, that bland is grand where the heart is concerned? I continue to be amazed but am still keeping my skepticism at hand.
Today’s workouts started with a SkiErg session of 200 Calories and finished with a 10,000 meter rowing session. After the 10K another 1,000 meters was done as a warm down.
The heart graphs for rowing have some downward spikes and gaps to zero during the rowing but there was no accompanying fluttery feeling. Heart rate remained normal.
The heart strap signal transmitter and receiver are older technology on the rowing machine than on the SkiErg and I think the older technology is a bit more sensitive to tiny though very short deviations from perfect rhythm. One of the downward spikes happened as soon as I burped. (Burping usually causes heart rate to immediately slow by a few beats per minute, if I’m rowing at an easy pace.)
The focus remains on heart behavior in absence of any customary added salt. Today is the fourth day of that experiment which began on September 15th and it is the fourth day in a row without Afib, otherwise known as atrial fibrillation or what I frequently call “heart strangeness.”
Today’s workout was 200 Calories on the SkiErg at a bit faster pace than yesterday, followed by 1,000 meters rowing.
Chart and data for today’s 200 C SkiErg session.
Finish screen for today’s 1,000 meter rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s 1,000 meter rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 1,000 meter rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 1,000 meter rowing session.
Today is the second day without salt. The above image is the same one displayed on the Sept 15th blog post because Sept 15th is the day I stopped adding additional salt to any food.
Today is the second day without any added salt. I’m holding tightly to skepticism regarding whether the abundant salt I’ve enjoyed adding to my food has been any significant factor in the too-frequent episodes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
It has also been two days in a row without any all-night occurrences of the fluttery behavior, but far be it from me to rush to judge salt as bearing any guilt whatsoever in leading my heart astray.
Today’s workouts weren’t much. A SkiErg session of 200 Calories at an easy average pace of 2:31/500m. The last 100 Calories included five moderate 10 Calorie intervals that were each done at about 2:20/500m. Smooth going for the heart with no irregularities or abnormal heart rate. The rowing session that followed was a very tiny one due to time constraints of the day’s other scheduled activities. It was only 500 meters at a moderate pace. But unlike the 500 meter session of two days ago when heart rate was so wild that it wouldn’t even register for a heart graph, heart rate and rhythm was normal and painted a normal graph within normal range for the effort.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.
Finish screen for today’s 500 meter rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s 500 meter rowing session
Today’s heart strangeness influenced making a decision to avoid added salt for the remainder of today.
Today’s workouts were bothered again by heart irregularities. As a result, I decided to do only a SkiErg session of 200 Calories followed by a short rowing session to test whether heart rate would behave during rowing. It didn’t behave during rowing. Instead of acting like a proper heart, it flatlined. So I limited rowing to only that one brief, easy session of 500 meters.
The symptoms of heart strangeness today were the irregular, fluttery feeling and heart rate excessively high for the effort.
Something I’ve been wondering about is whether or not my fondness for salt is any part of the catalyst for heart irregularity. So after today’s minimalist workout, I decided to forego adding any salt to any of my food for the rest of the day.
The first and main workout today was 200 Calories on the SkiErg. Based on years of past experience wearing a heart strap, heart rate was much too high for the effort, by about 40% or more elevation in BPM. Though this HR graph does not show irregular heart beat, I could feel it feeling fluttery/abnormal during the workout.
The only rowing session today was a tiny, easy-pace 500 meters. Heart rate was too irregular to be displayed at any time, which results in recorded heart rate of zero.
Graphs for today’s 500 meter test session. The heart rate graph is flatlined because heart rate is logged as zero when it is too irregular for RowPro to display it.
This photo was found on a blog with the appropriate name Evidence of Things Unseen.
This morning I decided to take a one day vacation from the daily workout. It was a working vacation or perhaps it could be called a working out vacation. Instead of the recently usual 200C SkiErg and 10,000 meters rowing, I limited it to 250 Calories on the SkiErg and four very short, brief and easy rowing pieces. You can see how short, brief and easy they were from their screenshots below.
Strange as it may seem, there was no heart strangeness (aka Afib) today. Atrial fibrillation is evidence of something unseen in the region of the heart. The above photo seemed in tune with that thought and it was found on a website called Evidence of Things Unseen.
One of the valuable benefits from working out is sweating and what happens when you sweat. There was a tiny bit of sweat today but not enough to warrant taking a shower. So I acted as though I was allergic to water and skipped the shower.
But later in the day I worked outside where the temperature was about 90° Fahrenheit and there was as much sweating as if I’d rowed a respectably paced 10K. So I turned away from the water allergy and took a shower.
You are welcome, for all the exciting things which have been shared with you here.
A listing of today’s abbreviated workout session activities.
Today’s first activity was 250 Calories on the SkiErg, with almost 100% easy effort and virtually no extreme effort.
Today’s second activity was this 100 meter rowing piece.
Today’s 3rd activity was this 250 meter rowing piece.
Today’s 4th activity was this 500 meter rowing bit.
The last of today’s abbreviated workout tidbits was this 4 minute rowing piece.
Today’s workouts were hampered by irregular heart rhythm and too-high heart rate. It started yesterday evening, persisted all night and through this morning’s workout. Yesterday there was no coffee consumed at all, so coffee wasn’t the problem.
During the SkiErg session heart rate was a bit irregular and 30 to 40 BPM too high for the effort level, from beginning to end. During the rowing session heart rate became more irregular and remained too high for the effort level.
After today’s workouts I had breakfast with coffee and the heart’s behavior returned to normal. Perhaps it needs coffee.
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing.
RowPro report for today’s 10K rowing.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing.
