Doctor told me I can't do weight training if it's more than 20kg.
Hi! I'm a 26 year old male with TGA and pulmonary stenosis. My TGA was corrected by the Rastelli procedure.
Today I went to my yearly checkup and when the topic of physical exercise came up I told the doctor I go to the gym and run. The doctor that I get each year seems to be different since I've come to the adults ward of the hospital, so he wasn't the one I had last year.
I told him I was doing strength training in the gym and he said it's good for my quality of life to train but only with very low weights, not strong like it's popular nowadays. I asked him what he meant by low weights and he said around 20kg max per side and higher reps.
This has gotten me very worried and confused, worried because I lift way more than 20kg per side to the point that if I just squat 40kg I won't feel much even if I do 20-25 reps (I currently squat 110kg for 10 reps in 3 sets).
I'm worried by doing this my trainings will last super long and I will also loose muscle and strength, which is something that has helped me a lot in my daily life as I used to get tired super easy and nowadays I'm able to play sports and actually enjoy them.
I'm also confused because 20kg seems like an arbitrary weight, and I had already told the doctor of last year that I did strength training, HIIT, hiking and some climbing and he said nothing about it. He did say he didn't recommend HIIT and instead recommended cardio that was less harsh such as running or cycling, but that he'd rather have me do HIIT than do nothing. When I asked if weight lifting or climbing (which involves lifting your body weight) were a problem he said they weren't.
They did tell me I have my right side of the Rastelli (which is a conduit) with moderate damage, but they also said this is fine and it's actually progressing slower than what would be expected.
Does anyone here train or have been told something similar? I'm quite worried I'll loose quality of life by training with very low weights.
Thank you in advance!