Doctors sang the benefits of cardio training for the heart. Strength training, in their opinion, is almost useless in this regard. Moreover, doctors recommend that people with heart disease not lift heavy objects. If this recommendation is true, then the fitness craze could cause irreparable harm to the health of thousands of people. In fact, at first heart disease does not manifest itself in any way. Doctors talk about the latent, hidden phase of the disease. But what if the severity aggravates the disease and transfers it to the “acute form”? In addition, many are genetically predisposed to heart disease. Such diseases may not manifest themselves if a provoking factor does not intervene in a person’s life. For example, straining during strength training .
To answer all these difficult questions, American scientists examined 44,000 men. Scientists have found that those men who run for an hour or more per week have a 42% lower risk of coronary heart disease, and among men who engage only in strength training, it is reduced by 23%. Along the way, another important advantage was discovered strength training. It accelerated metabolism at rest, which significantly reduced cholesterol levels in the body. In another study, scientists reliably proved that strength training lowers blood pressure. After 2 months of strength training in healthy young men, the average daily blood pressure decreased from 130/69 to 121/61. A real sensation was the recognition of strength training as a treatment for heart failure.
Let us remember that this disease is accompanied by a decrease in the force of contraction of the heart muscle. The blood flow becomes so weak that the patient faces loss of consciousness and death. Strength exercises “impose” on the heart a rhythm of powerful and deep contractions.
It should be noted that in all cases we are talking about moderate power loads. Extreme strength training is bad for the heart.
Anger and heart disease
According to the results of studies by American scientists, nervous irritation is more dangerous for the heart than smoking, drinking and overweight. Increased nervousness has always been associated with heart disease, but scientists believed that there was no direct connection between the two. It's just that those who live in poverty are more nervous. They suffer more from heart disease because they eat poorly and sleep poorly. And these are the main factors that provoke heart disease.
Latest Research showed that increased irritability directly causes heart disease. Scientists are at a loss about the internal mechanism of this connection. In any case, it is clear that in the interests of health you should avoid anything that makes you nervous and worried.
The human heart is a kind of pump that pumps liquid through “pipes” - vessels. The cardiovascular system provides every cell with oxygen and nutrients essential for the normal functioning of the human body. That is why every athlete must understand the natural dependence:
- a large body requires a lot of blood;
- a large amount of blood contributes to more intense work of the heart;
- The more often the heart contracts and pumps large amounts of blood, the faster it wears out.
This dependence is an important aspect for bodybuilders - 10 kg of excess muscle mass requires 3 liters of oxygen per minute, the lack of which can lead to increased blood pressure and rapid heartbeat. To avoid this, main muscle The human body also needs training.
What is hypertension
The force of blood movement against the walls of blood vessels is called pressure. High blood pressure means additional tension in the arteries and the risk of developing vascular diseases. For a bodybuilder, as for any person, it is equally bad when the pressure is high or low. The norm for an athlete is 120/80 with deviations of 10 mm.
Many factors lead to the occurrence of hypertension - sedentary work, metabolic disorders in the body, bad habits, genetic predisposition. Athletes with intense exercise should especially closely monitor their blood pressure, where the number of heart beats per minute is very important.
Hypertension and bodybuilding
Professional bodybuilding and high blood pressure can become friends with proper organization of classes, nutrition, and rest. Surely, few people know that the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger had heart disease. Thanks to training, he strengthened the muscle motor, providing the body with oxygen and nutrients.
Bodybuilding and pressure are neighboring concepts. The secret of such intimacy lies in the production of the hormone adrenaline, which is released into the blood during lifting of heavy weights.
The negative impact of bodybuilding on the heart can be reduced by learning to control adrenaline by calming the central nervous system.
Secrets of effective strength training without harm to the heart
Proper nutrition not only contributes to productive training. But it also reduces the risk of many diseases. Boiled chicken, rich in the amino acid L-tryptophan, will help calm the central nervous system after an intense workout. Professionals recommend using a special fitness bar as a post-workout meal - dark chocolate and nuts will reduce adrenaline, calm the heartbeat and lower blood pressure;
good sleep is an irreplaceable source of energy and calm. Physiological state The body is normalized with a quality night's rest. It is especially important for an athlete to get adequate rest every night;
A hot shower after training is an excellent way to relieve tension and reduce adrenaline levels.
What to avoid if you have hypertension
Bodybuilding with hypertension is possible, but you should avoid doing some exercises:
- leg press;
- bench press, especially at a downward angle;
- barbell squats;
- deadlift
It is recommended to work with medium weights, reduce the number of approaches, and increase the speed of lifting the charge. Bodybuilding and the heart will become allies only if proper nutrition and cardio classes. After strength exercises 15 minutes of slow walking on a treadmill will calm you down and bring your blood pressure levels back to normal.
Contraindications to strength training
Bodybuilding is a difficult sport. Contraindications to power loads with weights prevent the performance of a set of exercises at a professional level:
- hemorrhoids - you should stop exercising until complete recovery;
- spinal hernia - from strength training it’s worth giving up altogether;
- intracranial pressure - strength training is resumed after healing. Loads are adjusted by a doctor;
- prostatitis - correction to the training program is necessary;
- osteochondrosis - training can be carried out in full force.
With a well-designed program and an established sports regime, bodybuilding will help cope with many diseases and increase the body’s resistance to adverse environmental influences.
Usually at risk cardiovascular diseases people with overweight leading a sedentary lifestyle. But for some training athletes who want to get results too quickly, gym may 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, large quantities water and vegetable oils. A balanced diet, rather than simply cutting calories, distinguishes healthy athlete from a person 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 trending high protein diet with a high fat content. 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% daily calorie content), even if beneficial, lead to a decrease in the production of nitric oxide, which, in turn, leads to problems with blood pressure.
Balance your diet based on age, physical activity, body weight and goals.
On average, the diet of athletes 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 whose authors claim that abuse intensive training has a detrimental effect on the condition of the heart. 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 physical exercise 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 to better study your body and understand how your condition has changed. cardiovascular system for the specified period of time.
Keep track of what appears on your plate and how you feel afterwards. physical activity and what the tonometer and heart rate monitor indicators say about your condition. Preventing a disease is always easier than treating it.
"Mass or the truth about nutrition, supplements and chemistry in bodybuilding."
The health problem in bodybuilding is very acute. Abundant calorie nutrition to build muscle mass, massive intake sports supplements, abuse of prohibited “chemicals” - all these factors clearly do not contribute to improving health. But when you want to have big ones beautiful muscles, health is the last thing you think about and you remember about it when you start to lose it.
In this chapter, I will talk about the main health problems faced in bodybuilding - liver and heart problems. In conclusion, I will tell you in detail how to end the “chemistry” for those who have made this decision, but do not know how to quit correctly.
Matters of the heart
Heart disease has claimed more lives than all the wars on Earth combined, and heart disease is still the world's No. 1 killer. Indefatigable bodybuilding activities, and indeed any by force sports are additional factor risk that worsens heart problems. To minimize this risk, read this section on the heart and learn how to keep it healthy and functioning.
Heart is the most important internal organ human body. It performs a very serious function - it is a motor that drives blood throughout the body. The contractions follow one another completely automatically and almost independently of brain signals. Healthy Heart , warmed up to body temperature and filled with blood, will begin to pump it regardless of what is happening around. The heart pumps through itself everything that is in the body, which is why almost all diseases are heart diseases. But, unfortunately, they remember the heart only when it starts to hurt.
Anatomy of the heart
Anatomically, the heart is a muscular organ. Its size is small, approximately the size of a clenched fist. The heart works throughout a person's life. We can say that the heart is a muscular pump that ensures the continuous movement of blood through the vessels. The blood vessels and heart together make up the cardiovascular system of the human body. It consists of the systemic and pulmonary circulation. From the left sections it first moves through the aorta, then through large and small arteries, arterioles and capillaries. In the capillaries, oxygen and other substances necessary for the body enter the organs and tissues, and from there carbon dioxide and metabolic products are removed. After this, the blood turns from arterial to venous and again begins to move towards the heart.
Inside, the heart is divided by partitions into four chambers. The two atria are divided by the interatrial septum into the left and right atria. The left and right ventricles of the heart are separated by the interventricular septum. Normally, the left and right parts of the heart are completely separate. The atria and ventricles have different functions. The atria store blood that flows into the heart. When the volume of this blood is sufficient, it is pushed into the ventricles. And the ventricles push blood in the artery, along which it moves throughout the body. The ventricles have to do more difficult work, so muscle layer they are much thicker than in the atria. The atria and ventricles on each side of the heart are connected by the atrioventricular orifice. Blood through the heart moves only in one direction. In the systemic circle of blood circulation from the left side of the heart (left atrium and left ventricle) to the right, and in the small circle from the right to the left. The correct direction is ensured by the valve apparatus of the heart: tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral and aortic valves.
Why does it hurt?
The heart begins to hurt when its own cells lack oxygen. This is called coronary heart disease. There may be a lack of oxygen for several reasons:
Atherosclerosis. LDL (low-density lipoprotein, or simply bad cholesterol) is deposited on the walls of the arteries and partially blocks the blood flow. If this happened in arteries of the heart, the cells fed by this artery will feel sick.
Thrombosis. An artery can be blocked by a blood clot (thrombus) - with all the ensuing unpleasant consequences. Damage to blood vessels gives the clot an additional chance to latch onto your heart.
When your heart can't breathe, it begins to send signals to your body. And it does this with the help of chemistry: the substance bradykinin accumulates in the cells. Thanks to him, the body senses something is wrong and rushes to the aid of its main artery. At this time, the owner of the body feels a strong pressing pain in the middle of the chest, which sometimes radiates to the left hand, shoulder blade or chin. Such pain signals that the heart is still somehow coping with the situation. But this is for now...
Heart diseases
The heart, like any human organ, is susceptible to various diseases. However, if you consider that the heart is the engine of the body, all its diseases are extremely dangerous.
Myocardial infarction. One of the most famous and dangerous disorders is myocardial infarction. It consists of the death of a section of the heart muscle due to blockage of one of the vessels on it by a blood clot. As a result of malnutrition muscle tissue at the site of the infarction it gradually degenerates, dies and is replaced connective tissue, which subsequently turns into a scar. Blockage can occur due to narrowing of the vessel walls.
The immediate cause of myocardial infarction may be severe nervous excitement, physical overexertion, nicotine poisoning, heavy food, alcohol abuse and others. All these reasons make your heart work harder, which has a negative impact on your health. The main symptom of myocardial infarction is an acute, sharp pain in the heart (“dagger strike”), characterized by a long duration. IN severe cases the heart may hurt for 2-3 days. Treatment should begin with creating conditions of complete physical and mental peace. The best treatment would be in a hospital setting. Therefore, if a heart attack occurs outside the home, regardless of the patient’s condition, after providing him with first emergency aid, he should be taken to the hospital. Nutrition should be minimal in the first days and consist of easily digestible foods. Afterwards you can increase the amount of food. After one and a half months, you can be allowed to get up and walk. As a preventive measure, a person who has had a heart attack should be protected from physical and nervous stress and should be prohibited from consuming nicotine and alcohol.
Angina pectoris. Angina pectoris (or “angina pectoris”) is also quite common. It consists of an attack of strong pain in the heart resulting from spasm of the coronary arteries. The cause of an attack may be severe anxiety, fear, physical stress, tobacco or alcohol abuse.
Tachycardia. Unfortunately, today a disease such as tachycardia is common. It consists of periodic sharp attacks of heartbeat, during which the number of heart beats reaches 200-250 per minute, although the rhythm of contractions remains correct. The attacks are usually fleeting, although in rare cases they can last for 1-2 days. This usually occurs after or during mental stress or physical fatigue. An attack can occur even in a healthy person, suddenly, with a feeling of pain in the heart area or a strong heartbeat. The jugular veins swell, the skin turns pale. During such an attack, a person may develop acute heart failure, which usually disappears after the end of the tachycardia. However, several such attacks increase the risk of a heart attack.
Arterial hypertension. Hypertension, an increase in blood pressure, is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases. It is important to remember that arterial hypertension is not only an independent disease, but also one of the factors of coronary heart disease. The insidiousness of the disease is that it can occur unnoticed by the patient himself. A person experiences headaches, irritability, dizziness, memory deteriorates, and performance decreases. Having rested, he temporarily ceases to feel these symptoms and, mistaking them for manifestations of ordinary fatigue, does not see a doctor for years. Over time, hypertension progresses. Headaches and dizziness, mood swings become constant. Significant deterioration in memory and intelligence, and weakness in the limbs are possible.
Hypertension affects people at the most working age, is characterized by a long and persistent course, the development of severe complications (myocardial infarction, cerebral stroke, heart and kidney failure), and is accompanied by a decrease in working capacity up to disability. Like any chronic disease, hypertension can be corrected only with constant and competent therapy, and also requires the patient to make conscious lifestyle changes. Only the combination of these two factors allows maintaining optimal blood pressure, which means maintaining good health and performance for many years.
Hypertension develops 6 times more often in those who eat poorly, abuse fatty and salty foods, alcohol, and are overweight. Stressful situations also play a significant role. To stabilize your blood pressure, you need to bring your weight back to normal, start leading active life, give up bad habits, eat rationally and minimize stress.
Our heart is not designed to support 130 kg of musclesAmerican pro Don Youngblood, winner of the 2002 Masters Olympia tournament, had a dream - he wanted to gain more than three hundred pounds (136 kg) of muscle. In 2005, his heart could not stand it - at the time of his death, Don was fifty-one years old...
The appearance of this short article was a reaction to the news of Ed Van Amsterdam's death from a heart attack, albeit belated. Ed was a funny guy and joker whom I was lucky enough to know personally. He was also a fanatical bodybuilder, who was forbidden by doctors to engage in his favorite sport. physical activity due to heart problems. Ed did not give a damn about these prohibitions and died at the age of forty - in fact, very young.
Art Atwood died at 38, Matt DuVall at 40, Frank Hildebrandt at 45, Nasser El Sonbati at 47. The cause of death in all cases was the same - a heart attack (according to other sources, El Sonbati died of kidney failure - approx. BiChS). Heart problems resulted in disabilities for Chris Deem and Mike Matarazzo - both were under forty years old at the time of heart surgery. Many heavyweight bodybuilders are plagued by sleep apnea syndrome, which is also the result of a huge load on the heart.
The phrase in the title of this article was published by professional bodybuilder Fuad Abyad on his Facebook page. But any doctor will tell you this. It cannot be said that anabolic steroid coupled with growth hormone and insulin has absolutely nothing to do with it, but they have only an indirect effect on heart problems, since they allow you to build muscle mass. Big muscles are not physiological in themselves because, requiring a huge amount of oxygen, they force the heart to work not even on the edge, but beyond the edge.
I wonder what adipose tissue it does not need such an amount of oxygen, which means - paradoxically - it creates less stress on the heart. True, if fat is “layered” on top of huge muscle mass - and many competing bodybuilders try to gain as much as possible between competitions, including from fat - then the risk of cardiovascular diseases only increases.
In Formula 1 in the 70s and 80s, deaths on the tracks were not so rare. But after the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger on the same weekend in 1994, the FIA took a series of completely unprecedented measures to improve racing safety. From May 1, 1994 to this day, not a single Formula 1 pilot has died. Perhaps it’s worth thinking about improving the safety of bodybuilding by stopping this crazy “arms race”? Or will it continue as long as crowds of spectators go to see the “monsters of the masses”?
Okay, I have no right to condemn those who want to achieve victory in the sports field at any cost, just as I have no right to try to take away a person’s dream, even if it is not entirely reasonable. But I can give you some advice. Whether to listen to them or not is a personal matter for everyone.
Firstly, I much prefer the approach that Kevin Levroni practiced when he was a competitive bodybuilder: he did not “get fat” in the off-season, but on the contrary, he lost weight. 3-4 months of intensive preparation - and Kevin went on stage with even more muscle volume than what he had before. 2-3 weeks in the image of a “mass monster” - and he began to lose weight.
But this is if you plan to perform. What if all this mass is just to satisfy one’s own ego? Well, or if you found the path “from less to more” unacceptable? In this case, we can advise you to adhere to the following rules:
All this, of course, is not a panacea; all this does not mean that if you adhere to the above rules, your heart will work in an absolutely comfortable mode. But the load on him will definitely decrease. Even if not by much...
- try to avoid stress (including training stress - that is, high-intensity training that provokes a fair amount of stress should be the exception, not the rule);
- take blood thinners (primarily aspirin); 100 grams of wine several times a week may also be a good solution;
- control blood pressure; if necessary, take medications that reduce it;
- Be sure to take antioxidants;
- try to include aerobic activity in your daily training protocol, only fairly light - for example, a half-hour walk before bed at a brisk pace;
- strong alcoholic drinks and beer should be excluded;
- If you still smoke, quit immediately!
Extracted from the Internet
