Bob Harper, one year after his heart attack: 'everything about my life is different now'

When he woke up in the hospital two days later, the beloved Biggest Loser trainer was shocked to learn that he'd experienced a severe heart attack.

The heart attack prompted Harper to switch up his workouts, adopt the Mediterranean diet, and start taking Brilinta, a medication that lowers his chances of having another heart attack. He's also partnered with AstraZeneca on a "Survivors Have Heart" campaign and published a new book, The Super Carb Diet.

"Everything about my life is just different now," Harper says, reflecting on the year since the near-fatal incident.

"I'm more relaxed. I'm a lot easier to be around, I hope," he continues. "I've always been a very type A person — I've been very driven; I've been very focused and regimented with my workouts and diet — and now I've let loose the reins. I don't feel like I need to be in control as much as I thought I needed to in the past."

In a phone call with Men's Health, Harper opened up about his new life as a heart attack survivor. Dr. Warren Wexelman, a cardiologist on the faculty of the NYU Langone School of Medicine and Medical Center and the President of the American Heart Association in Brooklyn, was also on the line to provide some heart-healthy tips for guys. Our conversation has been edited for clarity.

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Men's Health: Bob, you said one of the hardest things about recovering from your heart attack was learning to trust your heart again. What did that mean for you?

Bob Harper: If you think about it, your heart's been beating in your chest ever since you were a little bitty baby — that's the one constant in your life — and all of a sudden on February 12 of last year, mine stopped. That relationship that I'm building with my heart comes into play when I go to the gym now — especially in the beginning when I started working out again, thinking, 'Am I going to have another heart attack? Is this going to happen to me again?' And you just have to just build that relationship again. It's like with any other relationship — it takes nurturing and time and patience.

Where are you with your heart now? What’s that relationship like today?

My relationship with my heart has gotten a lot better. I recently was in the gym, and I normally have my heart rate monitor, and I’ll always be very aware of where my heart rate is, and I didn't even check my heart rate. I never even really talked to anybody out it and I just kind of thought to myself, 'Well, look at me, I’m just trusting my heart again. I didn’t even need to look at my monitor."

What do your workouts look like these days?

They're different than they used to be, as far as intensity. I've been doing CrossFit for a long time, and I still love CrossFit, I still want to do CrossFit, but I don't do it at the intensity that I used to do it. I don't do that high-intensity, shorter time domain anaerobic activity as much as I've been doing aerobic mid-level longer time domain — just building the strength in my heart again.

Dr. Wexelman, why is that better in terms of heart health?

Dr. Warren Wexelman: The best exercise to do for your heart is cardio-based, working your large muscle groups to get your heart and lungs working efficiently together so they don't have to work as hard. That's the real way to train your heart and keep your body in great shape. Some people go out and do tremendous amounts of weightlifting or high-intensity exercise that really doesn't pay off for them. It may look great, and they may certainly be able to have physical strength, but to keep your heart and lungs healthy, aerobic cardio-type exercise is really the way to go.

One of the things about Bob's story that's so compelling is if he wasn't the man that he was prior to his heart attack and been in that great physical condition, he would have never survived what happened. It was a devastating blow — his heartbeat became very erratic in what we call sudden cardiac death — and most people never survive it. The key to his survival ... was [that] he was in such good shape, and what he’s done with his background of activity. So the recommendation from cardiologists like myself is 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic exercise 4 to 6 days a week, if you can do it.

When it comes to heart health, what's the number one mistake you see guys making at the gym?

BH: I guess I just want to tell people to never underestimate the benefits of aerobic activity. I think I've gone into such a world where everything needs to be done so quickly, and everything's gotta be working at the highest level, and it's gotta be the hardest workout ever, no pain no gain. You know what? Maybe you don't need so much pain, and you can still get some gain.

WW: I think men have a tendency to do a lot more weight training. What that does to you — when you lift heavy weight your blood pressure goes up quickly, and when you put it down it goes down very fast. That is not good for you.

BH: I love Olympic lifting. Olympic lifting is something I've been doing for a long time, and that is just short bursts, large muscle groups. I still like doing that — I just don't do it with the heavy weight that I used to do, and I’m definitely incorporating more of that aerobic training.

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Bob, as a trainer, what do you say to guys who hate cardio? (We know you're out there, cardio haters.)

I think they probably haven’t found the right cardio exercises to do. I would recommend they try boxing — boxing would be a good cardio-type activity that still wouldn’t be that mundane. I can’t imagine — I'm in New York and I drive past these gyms and I see people on the elliptical? Like, how are they doing that?

What does the future look like for you?

What's next for me is getting the message out about heart health. It's an important part of my brand now, to be able to help a whole different group of people, the heart attack survivors.

We need to know: Is there any more reality TV in your future?

That's an interesting question. There are some things that I'm working on, so when it finally happens, you'll be the first to know.