This was a sick group.

These kids haven’t exercised much. They’ve been told by coaches, doctors, parents and teachers, ‘Oh, you can’t exercise. Cardiac rehabilitation is not a component of most pediatric cardiology programs.

With the approval of a pediatric cardiologist, and after careful exercise testing, exercise is generally safe and tolerable for children with congenital heart defects.

A lot of the kids were timid in the beginning, but they were really moving by the end. Being with other kids with heart disease who had never exercised helped melt away a lot of...