The main objective of this study was to determine the change in mean six-minute walking test (6MWT) distance in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) at 12 months after a cardiac rehabilitation (CR) program compared to the end of the CR program. We also explored the decile shifts and the typical (median) individual change for 6MWT distance (12 months vs end of the CR program), physical activity (IPAQ-SF MET-min/week: 12 months vs 6 months post-program) and motivation for physical activity (EMAPS scores: 12 months vs end of the CR program), as well as barriers to physical activity perceived at 12 months. Eighty-three patients (77 men; median (25th – 75th percentile) age: 59 (53 – 64) yr; 27.6 ± 4.0 kg/m2) were recruited at the end of a CR program. We found that, for an average patient, 6MWT distance was trivially increased at 12 months (+12.56 m; dav = 0.16; P = 0.005). However, the decile shifts analysis did not confirm that the positive shift of the distribution of the performances over time was uniform. In contrast, we did not observe any significant change in physical activity (between 6 and 12 months) when considering both the group of patients as a whole and the typical individual change. The results regarding the EMAPS scores were mixed, with significant and non-uniform shifts of the deciles towards scores depicting degrees of autonomous and controlled motivations as well as amotivation that would be more in favor of physical activity, but with no significant typical individual changes except for introjected regulation. Unfavourable weather, the lack of time, the fact to be tired, and the fear of injury were the most commonly reported barriers to physical activity at 12 months post-program (respectively with the following percentages [95% CI]: 35.1% [24.5%; 46.8%], 29.9% [20.0%; 41.4%], 19.5% [11.3%; 30.1%] and 18.2% [10.3%; 28.6%] of the participants).