Bob Odenkirk said he survived a near-fatal heart attack thanks to aggressive CPR and working out 'a lot'

• Bob Odenkirk told Howard Stern that his training for the film "Nobody" and CPR saved his life.
• Odenkirk collapsed on the "Better Call Saul" set in July 2021 from a "heart-related incident."

Bob Odenkirk said that working out for his 2021 film "Nobody" and CPR saved his life after he had what the actor called a "heart incident" on the set of the drama "Better Call Saul."

Odenkirk collapsed on the set of "Better Call Saul" in July 2021 and was hospitalized, with his representatives later confirming to Insider that the actor was in "stable condition" after experiencing a "heart-related incident." The actor said on Sirius XM's "The Howard Stern Show" on Monday that his training for the action movie, released in March of that year, may have made the CPR performed on him more effective.

"One of the things that saved me was I learned how to work out," Odenkirk told Stern. "Because I was in good shape, you kind of enlarge some of the other veins around your heart if you work out a lot, and I had done that, and as a result, I was told more blood was able then to go to my heart during CPR, because these veins were just a little bit bigger from a lot of working out."

Odenkirk also said that he would have dead if his costars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian hadn't immediately called for someone to administer CPR. Odenkirk told Today on Tuesday that the "Better Call Saul" health officer on set, Rosa Estrada, performed CPR on him.

After 12 minutes, the actor said on "The Howard Stern Show," Estrada had another person continue CPR on him while she retrieved an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) — a device that delivers an electric shock in order to restore a normal heart rhythm — from her car. He then had to be shocked by the AED three times before the rhythm was restored, he told The New York Times.

Odenkirk said that he thought his fitness level at the time of the incident may have also contributed to his recovery.

"Recovery-wise, I recovered much faster than I think a normal person who wasn't exercising so much would, because my body was already in good shape," he told Stern.