Recovery guide Cardiac rehabilitation
Rehabilitation after open-heart surgery
Cardiac rehabilitation is the least glamorous and most effective part of recovery. It is also the part most often skipped — usually for reasons that can be solved with one phone call.
Posthorax Australia · Reviewed 30 July 2026 · About a 4 minute read
What it actually is
A structured programme run by physiotherapists, nurses and exercise physiologists, usually starting within a few weeks of discharge and running six to twelve weeks. Sessions combine monitored exercise with education.
The supervision is the point. Doing more than you would dare on your own, with someone watching your rhythm and your response, is what rebuilds both capacity and confidence — and confidence is what most patients are actually short of.
What happens in a session
Typically a warm-up, a period of monitored aerobic work — walking, a bike, a treadmill — then cool-down and stretching. Blood pressure and heart rate are checked, and the load is adjusted to you rather than to a protocol.
Education runs alongside: medications and what they do, diet, risk factors, returning to work and driving, sexual activity, and managing anxiety. Most programmes welcome a partner or carer at the education sessions, and it is worth taking them.
Working within sternal precautions
For the first six to eight weeks the healing sternum, not your heart or your legs, sets the limits. Programmes are built around that: walking and gentle movement first, upper-body resistance work only once your surgical team clears it.
Tell the team if an exercise makes your chest feel strained, or if you notice any clicking. That changes the programme immediately — it is not something to work through.
If getting there is the problem
Transport, work hours, distance and fatigue are the usual reasons people drop out. All of them are worth raising rather than quietly disengaging: many services run home-based or telehealth programmes, and some run evening sessions. The evidence for rehabilitation is strong enough that it is worth solving the logistics for.
Questions patients ask
+How long does cardiac rehabilitation last?
Commonly six to twelve weeks of supervised sessions, usually starting within a few weeks of discharge, followed by a programme you continue independently.
+What happens at cardiac rehabilitation?
Monitored exercise — walking, cycling or treadmill work with blood pressure and heart rate checks — alongside education on medications, diet, risk factors, driving, work and managing anxiety.
+What if I cannot attend in person?
Ask about home-based or telehealth programmes, or evening sessions. Many Australian services offer them, and completing an alternative format is far better than skipping rehabilitation.
Who writes this, and what it is not
Written by Posthorax Australia, the Australian distributor of the POSTHORAX® range, for patients and families after cardiac surgery. General recovery guidance reflects standard postoperative practice; claims about the device come from the trials cited on our clinical evidence page.
We are not your treating team and this is not medical advice. Where anything here conflicts with your surgeon, GP, physiotherapist or cardiac rehabilitation service, follow them.
Reviewed 30 July 2026 · Corrections: sales@posthorax.com.au