Often, in pursuit of a beautiful athletic figure, we forget that our body is a very fragile and complex system. Having tested it once and made sure that it held up, we continue in the same spirit - not only physical, but also mental stress, overeating, excessive alcohol consumption, extreme sports... Be careful! By forcing your internal organs to work hard, you shorten your life expectancy! Today we will talk about while playing sports.
What suffers the most?
Of course, the most painful effect of uncontrolled excessive and incorrectly performed sports activities is on the heart. Let's take a look at what happens to our most important muscle when we exercise.
A healthy heart can withstand any load and at first there will be no problems even if it is overloaded. But if it is not given rest, the heart will get more and more tired, which leads to serious illnesses, and in the worst case, to sudden death. With systematic training, the heart muscle gradually adapts to new loads, due to which its capabilities increase. With unsystematic training (“today I want it, tomorrow I don’t want it,” “yesterday I didn’t train, today I need to do more exercises,” etc.) and frequent overloads of adaptation of the heart muscle does not occur.
Previously, heart adaptation was determined by its increase in size, decrease in the number of heartbeats and decrease in blood pressure. However, today, a quarter of athletes with a pulse below 40 beats per minute experience disturbances in the rhythm of the heart muscle, disturbances in its conductivity and a decrease in cardiac performance.
If you play sports and your heart rate is below 55 beats per minute, we recommend that you undergo a medical examination by a cardiologist! We strongly recommend that you consult a doctor for those who experience not only a decrease in heart rate during or after training, but also weakness and dizziness!
Also, regularly measure and monitor how you feel after your workout.
Correct reaction
Moderate loads on the heart, alternating with full periods of rest, strengthen the muscle and make it stronger and more resilient. Strengthening the heart muscle occurs due to the fact that the amount of blood pumped by the heart changes from 4 liters per minute to 20 liters.
A healthy heart, with proper load, works more fully, the elasticity of blood vessels increases, and the amount of cholesterol in the blood decreases.
Permissible load
Physical activity must be dosed depending on his state of health and weight. According to doctors' calculations, the daily minimum of physical activity includes morning exercises for 10-15 minutes, 1 hour of walking (30 minutes before work and 30 minutes after work), as well as a half-hour walk before bed. It is useful to engage in cycling, skating and skiing, swimming, running. Of course, if you only ride a bike a few times a year, you shouldn’t start with a long, long walk outside the city.
If the sports minimum to keep your body in good shape is not enough for you, 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes per week of high-intensity training will be enough without harm to the heart.
Do not forget that the loads must be alternated. Even if you currently cope with heavy strength training 3-5 times a week, after a while your heart will be worn out beyond recognition. Therefore, dilute several consecutive strength training sessions with cardio exercise, and vice versa.
Who to contact
If you are just planning to start training to maintain your overall body tone or are obese and want to engage in regular physical activity, consult a doctor to identify any complications in your body that you may not notice, including checking your heart - this will help adjust your training regimen. In the future, if you work out in a fitness center, create a program suitable for you
Typically, people who are overweight and lead a sedentary lifestyle are at risk for cardiovascular disease. But for some training athletes who want to get results too quickly, the gym can do more harm than good.
Diet
The first thing you need to remember: any diet is a harmonious balance of nutrients. What does it mean? When losing weight, you don't need to completely give up carbohydrates and fats. When gaining weight, you should not forget about fiber, plenty of water and vegetable oils. A balanced diet, and not just cutting calories, distinguishes a healthy athlete from a person who is harming his health.
The first thing dietary restrictions should begin with is reducing the consumption of trans fats. It is them, and not, say, beneficial lipids that are found in nuts, olives, flax or sunflower seeds.
Why are trans fats so bad? They increase the level of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which transport “bad” cholesterol into the bloodstream, leading to an increased risk of developing atherosclerosis. The second good reason to avoid foods with trans fats: consuming the latter significantly increases the risk of developing diabetes.
The other extreme is the trendy high-protein, high-fat diet. If your body traditionally uses fats as fuel and you digest fatty foods better than carbohydrates, there is no problem. Otherwise, too much fat in the diet (over 50% of daily calories), even if healthy, leads to decreased nitric oxide production, which in turn leads to problems with blood pressure.
Balance your diet based on age, physical activity, body weight and goals.
On average, an athlete's diet should consist of 35–40% proteins with a complete amino acid profile, 25–30% healthy fats, and 30–40% complex carbohydrates. However, the given values vary in each individual case.
Physical activity
It would seem that physical activity cannot harm the heart, but, on the contrary, will only turn it into a powerful blood pump. This is true, but with some caveats. According to research from the American College of Sports Medicine, to maintain a healthy heart, a person needs to spend 150 minutes a week doing moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes a week doing high-intensity training.
Those who play sports professionally automatically fall into the risk zone: if you train for more than one hour three times a week, you need to set aside a separate day, completely devoting it to cardio exercises.
The journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings cites a study, the authors of which claim that overuse of intense training has a detrimental effect on heart health. This is why doing CrossFit every day or doing weightlifting exercises at a high heart rate all the time is more harmful than beneficial.
Loads must be alternated. Even if 3-5 heavy strength training sessions per week or regularly running ultramarathons seems effective now, after a few years of working at this pace, the body's reserves will come to an end.
Mix up several consecutive strength training sessions with cardio, and vice versa. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to try new disciplines throughout the year or in the off-season if you are a competitive athlete.
Going to the doctor
Don't be afraid of doctors. Cardiologists are not dentists with 1980s-style drills. Get tested, do cardiograms, check your blood for hemoglobin and hormone levels - nothing is more important than preventing cardiovascular diseases. Fortunately, most of them can be prevented in time, and a well-designed course of physical exercises will allow you to live a full life even with congenital pathologies such as mitral valve prolapse.
Set your normal blood pressure (the once ubiquitous “cosmonaut pressure” of 120 over 80 may be the absolute norm for some or a sign of early hypertension for others), then measure it every day, not forgetting to monitor your pulse. Take such control measurements in a course of one to two weeks every three to four months in order to better study your body and understand how the state of your cardiovascular system has changed over a specified period of time.
Keep track of what appears on your plate, how you feel after physical activity, and what the blood pressure monitor and heart rate monitor say about your condition. Preventing a disease is always easier than treating it.
Doctors of various sciences have long conducted numerous studies on strength athletes, bodybuilders, weightlifters, as well as track and field athletes who engage in swimming, running, tennis, etc. All studies have proven that over time, the heart of a professional athlete begins to physically differ from ordinary people who either do not engage in sports at all or act as amateurs.
Professional sports, in which people overcome enormous loads for the sake of records and awards, are clearly recognized by scientists as unfavorable and dangerous for the body. In the history of sports, there are cases when athletes died in front of everyone during a competition. And only later it became clear that the cause of death was a heart disease, which had not manifested itself in any way before.
This is why medicine is against professional sports. Doctors assure that relatively little exercise is needed for recovery, which should not be more than 30 percent of the maximum.
Heart response to strength work
The heart muscle of athletes involved in different sports reacts differently during training. Doctors have identified two conditions:
First: In weightlifters, bodybuilders and powerlifters who experience low-dynamic, anaerobic and static exercise, the heart changes over time. His contractility decreases and the left ventricle enlarges. This is due to the fact that under such loads it is more difficult for the heart to push blood through, which is why blood stagnates in the left ventricle, causing it to enlarge.
Second: Athletes have hypertrophy and dilatation of the left ventricular wall. This leads to a decrease in the number of heart contractions, when there are not even 60 beats per minute. Externally, the disease manifests itself as bradycardia
Is it possible to avoid heart changes?
Pathological changes can be avoided, however you will have to reconsider your entire sports life, and understand that the main thing in sports is not records, but health improvement and getting rid of excess fat deposits.
- 1. Firstly, it is necessary to abandon too intense exercises, lifting heavy weights, and excessively static exercises
- 2. Secondly, according to doctors’ recommendations, strength work should be reduced to forty minutes
- 3. Thirdly, learn to combine light and heavy training. Visit the gym no more than twice a week, exchanging it for healthy running or healthy water aerobics
- 4. Fourth, in the gym, combine strength work with jogging, a punching bag, torsion of a gymnastic hoop and exercises in the cardio zone, where special attention should be paid to treadmills
- 5. Fifthly, if you decide to quit playing sports, then you need to do this carefully and gradually over six months, and you need to change strength work to light aerobic exercises
Treating the heart with moderate physical activity
You will be surprised if you find out that people with heart disease in some cases, doctors prescribe moderate physical activity, which should take place in special centers under the supervision of professionals with medical education. These are smooth and slow activities that may include swimming in a pool, specific breathing exercises, and walking at an average or slow pace.
Of course, such activities are “baby talk” for trained people. However, patients who previously led a sedentary-lying lifestyle, such regular exercise will lead to noticeable performance of the body. In addition, it has been proven that cyclic loads have a good effect on blood pressure, improve fat metabolism, lead to weight correction and increased blood flow. All this is possible thanks to light, regular and slow aerobic exercise.
This is how it turns out that physical exercise can have different effects on our body, which once again proves the need to observe moderation in everything.
There is a concern that bodybuilding or gaining a lot of muscle mass negatively affects the heart. I am a certified personal trainer and part-time bodybuilder. My cholesterol levels and blood pressure are within normal limits. Skeptics insist that the harmful effects of bodybuilding on the heart with excess muscle mass will make themselves felt in the future.
I would like to understand how these people came up with the idea that bodybuilding is bad for the heart, because they have not done any research to support this myth. Steroid use, which is common among bodybuilders, can have negative effects on the heart. However, this article only applies to natural bodybuilders and other athletes who build muscle entirely naturally.
Is there research showing that lifting weights is good for your heart? Yes, I have!
A report in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that lifting weights improves heart muscle health. Research conducted by author Barry Franklin, Ph.D., states: “We now have a clearer understanding that weight-lifting training can significantly reduce some factors that influence the risk of heart disease, including lipid and cholesterol levels, blood pressure, obesity and glucose metabolism."
You might be thinking, “Okay, this all applies to lifting weights. But what about bodybuilding and building big muscles?” The minutes of the American Heart Association's Scientific Council meeting, where weight lifting was discussed, recommended the following: one set of exercises of 8-15 repetitions, including 8-10 different standard exercises, 2-3 times a week.
They will train much more than indicated above, especially with regard to the number of approaches. However, if the recommendations of the ACA protocol are followed at the most intense level, then a person (if he is genetically predisposed and follows a maintenance diet) can become quite muscular. If a person chooses to lift weights, which makes doing 8-15 reps of the exercises quite difficult, then he is not intending to develop the muscle as if he were going to do it by choosing resistance exercises, which makes doing 8-15 reps almost impossible.
In addition, rest time between sets of exercises, which is not specified in the ASA report, plays an important role in muscle development. No matter how diligently a person adheres to this protocol, he will not become ridiculously large, although he may become quite muscular enough to be skeptical that all that muscle is harming his heart.
Other studies show that weight-lifting training helps lower resting blood pressure (Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association). Lead author Dr. George A. Kelly suggests: "Even if this reduction in blood pressure is small, it may reduce an individual's risk of heart disease and angina."
Although these studies do not analyze bodybuilding regimens, anyone can conclude that a few steps of strength training on the way to the world of bodybuilding will not lead to heart damage. And why on earth should they lead to this?
One person on a bodybuilding forum said that he heard from someone that having too much muscle increases body mass, and that this extra weight eventually leads to a deformed heart... the heart muscle is stretched due to excess weight, whether it is muscle mass or fat mass . According to this theory, taller people have a greater risk of developing heart disease because tall people are generally heavier than short people.
Of course, being tall is not a risk factor for heart disease! Body obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease. Franklin said, "The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate, and the more calories you can burn every day." Competitive bodybuilders, and those who are competitive bodybuilders at heart, have a low percentage of body fat relative to their total body weight.
This makes all the details of their muscle structure more visible, even in the weakest bodybuilders, creating the illusion of a large number of muscles. Low body fat (in the "athletic" range) does not lead to heart problems. Franklin adds that for typical healthy adults at low risk of heart disease, lifting weights is safe.
Who Shouldn't Do Regular Weight Lifting?
Franklin believes that people with unstable angina, uncontrolled arrhythmia and uncontrolled blood pressure. However, those who criticize bodybuilding or excessive muscle mass believe that these activities are harmful to the heart of healthy people or can become unhealthy over time.
According to the American Heart Association, the following risks for the development of heart disease include obesity, smoking, hypertension, high levels of “bad” cholesterol, hyperlipidemia (exceeding the level of fat in the blood), diabetes, constant mental stress, excessive consumption of fatty foods, hereditary predisposition and... . lack of physical activity.
Other risks for developing heart disease include a body mass index over 25, persistently elevated blood sugar (prediabetes), insomnia, sleeping 6 hours or less at night or 9 hours or more, and sleep apnea (sudden stoppage of breathing during sleep). Does a bodybuilder or person with large muscle mass fit these criteria?
Large muscle mass does not lead to any of these risk conditions.
Men and women who work hard to increase muscle mass are very conscious about eating healthy. Although they do consider cheating with their food intake, the bulk of their diet remains healthy, so all their food is highly refined, with significant restrictions on white sugar, white flour products, saturated fats, trans fats and other ingredients harmful to health.
Regarding the idea that the heart is deformed by body weight when there is a lot of muscle mass, understand that the heart of such a person is well conditioned as a result of bodybuilding, as well as the heart exercises that accompany the entire bodybuilding lifestyle.
Bodybuilding and a healthy heart- Video
