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Workouts sculpt heart as well as muscles
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 07 - 05 - 2008


Exercise can cause structural
changes in the heart, and these changes vary depending on the
type of training an athlete is engaged in, new research shows, according to Reuters.
In a study, researchers found that endurance athletes
showed an increase in the size of both their left and right
ventricles after 90 days of team training, while athletes who
only did strength training had excessive growth in their left
ventricles, but no change in their right ventricle size.
And while the ability of the left ventricle to fully relax
between beats, or diastolic function, was enhanced in the
endurance athletes, it worsened in the strength trainers, Dr.
Aaron L. Baggish of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
and colleagues found.
Small studies have found that the left ventricle, the
heart's main pumping chamber, is larger in trained athletes,
although there has been no research on how exercise affects the
structure of the right ventricle. It is also unclear whether
exercise itself changes the structure of the heart or whether
individuals with unusually large left ventricles are more
likely to become athletes.
To investigate, Baggish and colleagues studied 40 endurance
athletes and 24 strength athletes, examining their hearts with
echocardiography before and after 90 days of team training. The
endurance group included male and female long-distance rowers,
while the strength group consisted of male football players.
While left ventricle mass increased in both groups, the
endurance athletes also showed better diastolic function in
their left ventricle, and enlargement and more efficient
contraction and relaxation in both of the lower chambers of the
heart, or atria.
But the strength-trained athletes actually had hypertrophy,
or excessive growth, in the muscle of the left ventricle, and
reduced diastolic function, but no other structural changes.
The findings "strongly refute" the idea that people are
able to become competitive athletes due to their heart
structure, and instead demonstrate that it is athletic training
itself that is largely responsible for "athlete's heart," the
investigators write.
The results could also point the way to making tailored
recommendations for rehabilitation and recreational exercise
for people with heart problems, they add.


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