first and foremost, always check with your cardiologist. Next to you, he should know your case better than any one else. And it is true, everyone is different, similar, but definitely unique. However, remember that the heart is a muscle (the most important muscle in our body)and that excercise makes muscles grow, which is fine and dandy for the rest of our muscles (they look better and get stronger, right?) except that because of the work the heart must do (pumping all that blood through our system every minute of our lives) it does not work the same. The heart gets bigger in a different way, remember it is sort of hollow inside to hold our blood and pump it throught the valves, but the “bigger” in the heart also means thicker walls, and reduced pumping capacity/ eventually an enlarged heart has more difficulty pumping (squeezing)the blood with the same force and then we get in trouble. It may be interesting to check, in addition to checking with your cardiologist, with an excercise physiologist out of curiosity, and see how they can explain this to you and if they explain it in a similar manner. Best of luck. John, my son, had his valve replacement with Ross Procedure March 5, and although he had a difficult 24 hours after surgery, everything worked for the best and he was released from the hospital today, day 5 post op! He is at home, resting, feeling better every hour, glad he read Adam’s book (and that his care team read it too!) re reading it again and getting ready to email pictures of his recovery and walking in the ICU. So far this evening his incision pain is very tolerable with the medications and he is on the minimal dose so far. Love to all, my “stitched” heart family! Mercy, mother of John.