Heart easy training in sports. How to strengthen the muscles of the heart and blood vessels
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The heart is the most important muscle in our body. How much it is trained depends not only on how you look outwardly, but also how you will spend your time after 60 years, some on the beach, and some in the ground. Mostly people have a complete mess in their heads about training the heart, and so today I decided to explain to you why it happens and what to do heart training exercises.
The heart is a very strong and resilient organ. It constantly produces work and has no time to rest, and the number of reductions in this body is about 40 million per year. Agree, the load is already great, so people also additionally incorrectly load the heart, which leads to depletion of the resource of this organ. But if we properly set up training for the heart, we can extend its life. We will also receive good dividends in the form of additional endurance. You often see some big, strong guy in the gym, but after 30 seconds of work his tongue is on his shoulder, he is out of breath and drenched in sweat. Why does this happen?
The heart is our pump, driving blood through our “pipes”. And its task is to supply all organs of our body with oxygen and other essential nutrients that are so important for our life. And based on this, some dependencies can be traced:
1. The larger we are in volume and weight, the more blood is required for the body.
2. If more blood is required, then there are 2 ways, either the heart needs to contract more often, or the heart needs to increase in size.
3. If the heart is large, then it is capable of dispersing more blood in one contraction, and therefore it contracts less frequently than a heart that is smaller. Consequently, if it contracts less frequently, then the resource of this organ is preserved longer.
This is especially important for bodybuilding, because the muscle mass of bodybuilders is much larger than ordinary people. Every 5 kg of muscle gained requires 1.5 liters of additional oxygen per minute.
In an untrained person, a liter of blood carries approximately 150 ml of oxygen. If we multiply this figure by the amount of blood distilled in 1 minute, we can calculate the amount of oxygen distilled in 1 minute. At a very intense workload, about 190 beats per minute, the average person's heart moves on average 4 liters of oxygen per minute. Now, as an example, let’s try to compare 2 twins spinning a bicycle. One guy weighs 70 kg and the other 80 kg. For a guy who is lighter, 4 liters of oxygen will be enough for a comfortable workout, but for someone who is heavier, about 7 liters of oxygen are required, because his muscles require more fuel. If someone who weighs 80 kg has a heart the same as that of a lighter brother, then it will not be able to move the volume of blood necessary for his muscles, and the athlete will be forced to slow down, because. will begin to choke.
To get out of this unpleasant situation there are 2 ways out:
1.Reduce the volume of muscle mass, which is generally not acceptable for bodybuilding.
2.Or increase the volume of the heart through special training.
Good (L) and bad (D) cardiac hypertrophy.
Just don’t confuse increasing volume with increasing size, please. Because the first option will be useful, and the second destructive. If the heart increases in volume due to stretching of the walls, then this is wonderful, which will ultimately produce more blood volume per contraction. Well, when the heart enlarges due to the fact that its walls become thicker, then this is already a problem. Very often, a heart attack occurs due to D-hypertrophy of the heart.
You probably have a question: how can you achieve useful hypertrophy and not run into bad hypertrophy?
There is nothing complicated here, you just don’t need to work at maximum heart rate, which is about 190 beats per minute, you need to do monotonous, long-term work with a heart rate of 120-140. If you train for about an hour in this average pulse range, then the elasticity of its walls will begin to improve, because over such a long period, the heart will pump a decent amount of blood, and it will begin to gradually stretch. If you conduct such training regularly, at least 3 times a week, and preferably last about an hour, then over time your heart will increase in volume, and this is very good. For every beat, your heart will be able to pump more blood, more oxygen, and your endurance will increase.
Enlarging your heart by 50% is not even difficult, but if you try hard, you can double it. The volume of this organ in a simple untrained person is approximately 600 ml, in a trained person 1200 ml, and in professionals, for example, Olympic running champions, it can reach up to 1800 ml.
How long does it take to see results in terms of good hypertrophy?
If you do proper cardio for an hour 3 times a week, then after six months you can increase your heart volume by 40%. If you train like this every day, you can reach the 50% mark.
Now let's talk about D-hypertrophy and why it is dangerous.
What happens to the heart if you plow at the maximum pulse? When training in the average heart rate range, before it contracts and stretches, it relaxes, this relaxation is called diastole. And when training with a high heart rate, the heart contracts very quickly and cannot relax, and as a result, diastole disappears. Overstrain of the heart appears, blood flows poorly and hypoxia and acidification with lactic acid begins. If this acidification is long and frequent, it leads to the death of heart cells (necrosis) and these micro-infarctions are not noticeable to the athlete. Dead cells turn into connective tissue, which interferes with normal function. As a result, the heart is large because of these “scars,” but the living, active part of the heart is small, this is called myocardial dystrophy. It is the cause of death for many athletes.
Working as a trainer in a gym, I tried to talk to a female group exercise instructor and explain to her that she was hurting her visitors, to which I heard a lot of unflattering words addressed to me. Many trainers work according to the “take more - throw further” type, the more you work, the faster you get used to the load, but this approach is simply super-idiotic, because you need to know how prepared and trained a person is and his state of the cardiovascular system .
Just imagine, two girls are jumping in group classes. One of them was involved in another sport before these classes or has been going to these classes for a long time, and the other is completely new and has never trained anywhere, she came, so to speak, to “improve her health” and lose excess weight. The experienced one has a heart volume of 1000 ml, while the new one has 600 ml. And what do you think will happen during the lesson? For an experienced person, the pulse will rise to 140 and she will be comfortable. And the new one will be under 190, she will turn red and start shortness of breath. And the crazy coach will yell, come on, don’t relax, just yet! more! Meanwhile, the new girl’s heart gradually dies and gets micro-infarctions. As a result, I came to improve my health, but it turns out that I wasted the rest and this happens all the time.
Myocardial dystrophy is for life and dead cells cannot be returned, so take care of yourself, friends!
Let's summarize briefly.
1.Cardio workout for the heart with a pulse of 120-140 it helps you.
2. Improper high heart rate training will kill you.
I hope you found this information interesting and now you know how to choose exercises to strengthen your heart and the importance of heart training.
Heart training (cardio training) strengthens the heart and improves the heart's adaptation to stress. Train your heart in the office, on a walk, in the pool. Cardio training cheat sheet: monitoring cardio training loads by heart rate, how to train when you are sick or missed a workout
Trained Heart- the key to good health and longevity. In order for the heart muscle to be fully adapted to the load, it is important to correctly plan the sequence of exercises. Before you begin cardio training, it is important to determine how well your heart is trained. You can independently determine the functional state and fitness of the heart based on your pulse using the heart fitness test based on your pulse.
Train your heart daily!
Only regular training will give a noticeable effect.
Reduce your training load when you are sick. If you have a sore throat, runny nose, or acute respiratory diseases, stop cardio training until you recover. Exercising during illness harms the heart.
If you missed a workout
If you missed 1 workout, you need to return to the loads of the workout before last. 7 missed cardio workouts ─ the load on the heart is the same as 14 workouts ago, etc.
Control your heart rate!
The load should gradually increase from training to training and always correspond to the capabilities of the heart, which can be easily determined by measuring the pulse during training.
The change in heart rate during training is the main indicator of the effectiveness of cardio training - the change in heart rate. The most convenient way to monitor your heart rate during training is with a heart rate monitor. It is important to do this before the test load and after 30 seconds. (for 30 seconds). The test load is performed for about 3 minutes.
Maximum allowable heart rate = 220 - age (years).
Optimal heart rate for heart training = maximum allowable heart rate x 70%
The load, in the first 15 minutes of cardio training, should gradually increase to the optimal level. For the next 20 minutes, you should exercise at an optimal heart rate. After this, you need to gradually reduce the load until the heart rate is the same as at rest + 10%. Only then can you relax and unwind.
The less your heart rate changes during training, the easier your heart adapts to physical activity.
If the heart rate does not reach the optimal level, it means that the training is ineffective and the load needs to be increased. If the heart rate borders on the maximum allowable heart rate, you need to reduce the load.
1. Train your heart in the office! First step
Do 2-3 five-minute gymnastic exercises during the working day. Let's do some simple exercises. In an office environment, physical exercise can be performed while sitting or standing. A set of exercises for warming up in the office is suitable for this.
Once you get used to doing exercises indoors, move on to cardio exercises outdoors.
2. Take a walk in the park or forest! Second step
Daily half-hour walks in the fresh air (preferably in a park area) will help adapt your heart to constant training. Start with leisurely walks: 1.5 km (about 2500 steps) in 40 minutes.
Each time your mid-workout heart rate is no longer at the optimal level for heart training, increase your walking route by about 100 m (about 170 steps). Accordingly, you will have to increase your walking speed in order to cover the entire route in 40 minutes. The heart will “take on new frontiers” of loads. When you can walk 4 km in half an hour, maintaining an optimal heart rate, sign up for a swimming pool.
3. Swim! Third step
Swimming in the pool for 15-30 minutes, 3 times a week allows you to train skeletal muscles and the heart without putting excessive stress on the spine and knees.
Swimming has no contraindications. The main advantages of swimming: the work of all muscle groups, the absence of axial load on the spine and knee joints.
4. Fitness or running!
3 months after starting heart training in the pool, start running or sign up for fitness or... dancing! Dancing, aerobics, and running help train the heart muscle, improve your mood and allow you to achieve inner harmony.
The main muscle of the human body is the heart, without its work, there will simply be no meaning in all other muscles. But sometimes we often forget about such an important organ and wear it out. But cardiovascular diseases rank first in the world in mortality, confidently surpassing even cancer. When doing strength training, athletes often lose sight of heart training, but in vain...
The heart and its importance in bodybuilding
The heart is a muscle that is not at rest for a minute, because it has to contract constantly, supplying the entire body with oxygen, pumping blood throughout the body. The biggest mistake many novice athletes make is that they do not consider it necessary to train the heart separately or do it incorrectly. Only a well-trained heart will give you endurance and endurance. It doesn’t matter what kind of muscle mass you have, if the “motor” is weak, then after just a minute of intense running you will begin to choke due to lack of oxygen, you will be covered in a hail of sweat, and your face will turn crimson. And all this is the result of a weak heart and it’s good if everything ends this way and does not become the result, for example, of a stroke and its sad consequences.
In addition, the greater a person’s body weight, the harder the heart has to work, pumping more blood to supply all organs with sufficient oxygen. Accordingly, a bodybuilder, while building muscle mass, constantly increases his weight and the heart has to contract more often, and the more it does this, the faster it wears out, resulting in a kind of cycle.
Every 10 kg of weight requires an additional three liters of oxygen every minute.
But all this is good, you say, what should you do, after all, you shouldn’t give up the muscle mass that has been building up over the years in order to facilitate the work of the heart? No, losing weight is absolutely not necessary for this, although this option is possible, but not for a bodybuilder. There is only one way out for athletes - to increase the volume of the heart to be able to transport more blood with a lower frequency of contractions, that is, wear and tear. And this can only be achieved through training.
Please note that the volume of the heart should be increased, not its size; these are fundamentally different things. In both the first and second cases, hypertrophy occurs, that is, an increase, but what exactly is the volume of blood vessels or the thickness of the walls of the heart, this is very important.
Hypertrophy can be positive and is designated by the Latin letter L, in which case there is an expansion and increase in the volume of the vessels of the main muscle. This allows the heart to easily pump the required amount of blood, and at the same time, without working too hard.
The second version of hypertrophy is called D-type and does not have such bright prospects as in the first case. Enlargement of the heart occurs as a result of hardening of its walls; this occurs when it cannot cope with the required amount of blood and does not relax. At this moment, the walls of blood vessels begin to thicken, leading to various diseases, for example, micro-strokes.
Secrets of proper heart training
To achieve L-type cardiac hypertrophy, and not vice versa, you should exercise with a pulse in the range of 110–140 beats per minute. You should not push it to the maximum maximum of 180 hits; this is a common mistake that leads to dire consequences. The average rhythm is better, but work longer. For comparison, the frequency of beats in a calm state of a person is about 70 per minute.
You should “accelerate” your heart to 130 beats gradually, and having reached this point, continue to maintain exactly this rhythm, and the duration of such training should be about an hour, no less. During this time, the elasticity of the muscle increases, the amount of blood passed through the heart during this period increases several times, which contributes to a gradual increase in its volume.
In order to achieve the desired result, such training should be done at least three times a week and should be no less than an hour each. By doing this, you will achieve more pumped blood per contraction, and as a result, less wear and tear on the heart and, of course, thus you will be able to develop endurance. And at rest, the heart will need to beat less, which will also significantly reduce the load on it.
The training can contain absolutely any exercises, as long as the pulse stays at the same level all the time, does not fall below or go off scale. Running is usually recommended, but this is most likely a stereotype from the past. If you don’t like to run, you don’t need to, there is swimming, jumping rope, boxing, an exercise bike or just intense walking, the main thing is that in this process you constantly monitor your heart rate, that’s all.
“Stretching” the heart, is there a limit?
The average person has a heart volume of 600 ml, a trained athlete doubles it to 1200 ml. But a very trained person, for example, a renowned track and field athlete or hockey player, achieves a volume of 1500–1800 ml, well, this is already a very serious level. From this example, it is clear that the volume can be completely doubled, that is, by 50%. This result can be achieved in six months, provided that an hour of training takes place daily. If you are not ready for such daily stress, three times a week will be enough to start with and this will allow you to stretch the heart muscle by 30-40%.
Heart rate monitoring
There are two methods to control the contraction of the heart. The first is to measure the pulse using the middle finger, which should be applied to the carotid artery in the neck or on the wrist of the left hand, where this indicator is usually measured in the hospital.
Having felt the pulse, you should count six seconds and multiply the resulting number of beats by ten. The longer period of time you take, the more accurate the result will be. For example, you can count the number of beats in 15 seconds and multiply them by four to get your heart rate per minute. You need to measure the pulse in this way with your middle finger, since the thumb or index finger have their own strong pulsation, which can confuse you.
The second method, more modernized, is a heart rate monitor (in the photo above). Such a device is capable of measuring pulse with the accuracy of an ECG, only in modern times. This miracle of technology is a sensor similar to a wristwatch dial, which is attached under the chest using a special elastic belt. Of course, such a device will become a good friend for those who have decided to seriously engage in heart training, and will also be useful for those who want to burn excess fat deposits. Since it is precisely from such cardio training that it is best to get rid of excess weight. Probably the only significant drawback for many will be the price of the heart rate monitor. You will have to pay from 50 to 200 dollars for it, depending on the manufacturer, design and promotion of the brand.
Harm of heavy loads on the heart
Too much is not good, this is also a fact, since there is also such a disease as myocardial dystrophy. The problem with this pathology is the excessive stress on the heart. When there is an average load on the heart muscle, at a number of beats of 130 per minute, the heart contracts and relaxes. When the training is too intense and the contraction frequency is at the limit of the heart’s capabilities, it does not have time to relax.
Due to the fact that it has to constantly work, overstrain occurs in the heart and leads to hypoxia and, as a consequence of this, hypertrophy occurs, that is, the growth of the walls. Over a long period of time, this process can lead to necrosis (death) of heart cells, and this, in turn, causes microinfarctions. As a result, the heart is increased in volume, but not due to stretching of the walls of blood vessels, but as a result of dead tissue that has formed unnecessary, additional ballast on the heart.
Myocardial dystrophy develops when the load on the heart is within the range of 180–200 beats per minute, which is unacceptable for its normal functioning and can ultimately lead to cardiac arrest. This is why athletes often die, usually in their sleep.
In addition to all this, too intense training, which leads to cell death, is an irreversible process. If you have already allowed such pathological changes, you will only be able to expand the volume of the heart in its “living” part. But dead cells will hinder the further, proper functioning of the heart throughout life.
As a rule, a bodybuilder’s heart is not very trained, unless, of course, he does additional cardio exercise.
There are two reasons for this condition. The first is that the heart muscle has to pump more blood due to the weight of the muscles. Second, a long period of rest between approaches, which entails restoring the heart rate to below the required minimum level. But with less rest, the bodybuilder would lose weight, which is also unacceptable for him, but the heart was trained more intensely. For weightlifters and powerlifters, the situation looks even worse, since they have even less rest between approaches.
When starting training, remember the golden mean; too much can sometimes be as harmful as too little. Include cardio in your regimen, but keep it moderate. In addition to training, do not forget to strengthen your heart with a vitamin complex and remember the dangers of excess cholesterol and fatty foods, they also negatively affect the functioning of our most important muscle. A properly functioning heart will be the key to long life.
Video on how to train your heart:
The most important muscle in our body is not the biceps, or even the pectorals. The most important muscle for a person is the heart. Not just your appearance depends on its training and size. This directly determines where you will lie after 60 years - on the beach or underground. Most people are in a complete mess about proper heart training.
HUMAN HEART
By regularly driving blood through the entire body, it creates such monstrous pressure that it can push a stream of blood to a length of 9 meters. The human heart is incredibly resilient. It is constantly, without rest, decreasing, reaching a monstrous figure - more than 40,000,000. cuts per year. Such a fantastically large load does not go in vain and is the reason for the very gloomy statistics of cardiovascular diseases in the modern world. “Motors” very often either use them incorrectly or destroy their “motor resource” by operating in the wrong mode. Meanwhile, it is very easy to adjust the functioning of the heart and train it. And just below you will learn about the correct and effective methods of training the cardiovascular system.
By the way, those who think that they don’t particularly need this: they say I don’t see the practical value of heart training, then you are very mistaken, because a trained heart increases functionality and endurance. Sometimes a person is very physically strong, and after working for 30-60 seconds he is all sweaty and begins to choke, although there seems to be strength in his muscles. This happens especially often among those who engage in martial arts. You look, the person seems to be healthy, and a minute later he’s all red and with his mouth open - take it and do with him what you want. Why is this happening?
CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM AND ENDURANCE
The heart is, in a broad sense, an electrical “pump” that constantly drives blood through the pipes (vessels) of our body. This system is called the cardiovascular system! Its task is to supply all the cells and organs of our body with the necessary amount of oxygen and other nutrients necessary for life. Once you understand this, you can see several relationships that are important for understanding the efficient functioning of the heart.
- The larger the body, the more blood it needs;
- The more blood is needed, the larger the heart is needed, or the more often it must beat;
- The larger the heart, the more blood it pumps at a time (more oxygen at a time);
- The smaller the heart, the more often one must contract to pump the required volume of blood;
- The larger the heart, the less often it must contract to pump the required volume of blood;
- The less often the heart contracts, the less it wears out over a lifetime.
For athletes, bodybuilders or other fans of strength sports, this is especially important, because in our case the situation is complicated by a large amount of muscle mass. Every extra 10 kg of muscle requires about 3 liters of additional oxygen per minute. In an average person, 1 liter of blood carries an average of 160 ml of oxygen. If we multiply this amount of oxygen by the amount of blood pumped per minute (which depends on heart rate), we will get the amount of oxygen delivered by blood per minute. If the load is very intense (180-190 heart rate per minute), then most average people will get about 4 liters of oxygen per minute.
Now imagine two twin brothers on a treadmill. One weighs 70 kg, and the second weighs 80 kg. So they ran. For the first, 4 liters of oxygen is enough for comfortable running, but for the second, for comfort, you need to pump not 4, but 6-7 liters of blood (to nourish the muscles). And the heart, if it is the same size as its brother’s and contracts at the same speed, will not have time to satisfy all organs with a sufficient amount of oxygen. The second one will very quickly begin to choke and will be forced to slow down.
How to fix it? Either reduce oxygen consumption (lose weight, which may not be acceptable), or increase the volume of the heart and blood distilled at a time. This, in fact, is the meaning of real heart training - to increase its internal volume, but the size itself.
- The larger the heart volume, the more nutrients the heart receives at a time;
- The larger the heart volume, the less often it can contract;
- The less often the heart contracts (works), the less it wears out.
L AND D – HEART HYPERTROPHY
Please note that we are talking about increasing the volume of the heart, not increasing the size of the heart - these are very important things. Because the first is very useful, and the second, on the contrary, is very harmful! The fact is that cardiac hypertrophy can be good and bad. When the increase in volume occurs due to stretching of the walls of the heart muscle (L-hypertrophy) - this is very good! This allows us to pump more blood at a time - which is what we need. But when the heart grows due to thickening of the walls of the heart muscle (D - hypertrophy) - this is very bad. This is the so-called myocardial hypertrophy due to a diastole defect. In general, such a common unpleasant thing as a heart attack is the consequences of precisely such changes in the heart.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR HEART CORRECTLY?
How to achieve good hypertrophy and avoid bad? Everything is very simple. There is no need to work at a pulse close to maximum (180-190 beats)! You need to work for a long time, monotonously and often at an average pulse (110-140) beats per minute. For most, a pulse of 120-130 beats per minute is most often ideal. An average healthy person at rest has a pulse of 70 beats per minute. When such a person begins to do some kind of cyclical long-term work (training with weights, running or walking quickly), his pulse begins to increase in order to supply all the organs of the body with an increased amount of oxygen due to the load. His pulse reached 130 beats per minute. A person in this situation can stabilize the load and continue working without increasing intensity. If he continues this training for an hour, the “flexibility” of his heart will begin to improve. The muscles will drive a huge amount of blood through the heart and it will gradually begin to stretch. If you train this way often (2-3 times a week for 30-60 minutes), then over time the heart will stretch and its volume will increase significantly. Accordingly, the volume of blood pumped per pulse beat will increase, endurance will increase, and the number of pulse beats at rest will decrease.
How much can you “stretch” your heart? Twice is probable, but 50% guaranteed. In an ordinary person, most often the heart volume is about 600 ml. For a trained athlete, 1,200 ml is a fairly average common result. Unique professional athletes (MSM skiers, runners) have 1,500-1,800 ml. But this is already the level of an Olympic champion.
How quickly can you “stretch” your heart? For a pronounced result, it is enough to take about half a year (6 months) and then maintain this condition. With three workouts a week for 60 minutes, in half a year the heart stretches by 30-40%. If you can do this type of training every day, you can expect an increase in heart rate of 50% or more. In general, there is a very simple rule: the more time during the week the heart works at the desired pulse rate (120-130), the more and faster it stretches. With such an “easy” training regimen, no harmful changes occur in the heart, which will be discussed later. In this mode, the heart, due to the constant pumping of a large amount of blood, is forced to “stretch” in volume. Over time, you will have to increase the intensity of your activities in order to stay in the desired zone (120-130) heart rate, because... your heart will learn to pump more oxygen at a time. And the load, which at the beginning was sufficient to increase the heart rate to 130 beats per minute, will eventually drop to 120, then 110...100...etc.
HOW TO TRAIN IN PRACTICE?
Your goal: to achieve an increase in heart rate to 120-130 beats per minute and maintain the desired heart rate for 60 minutes.
You don't have to run to achieve this. Most often, doctors and trainers recommend running to train the heart. Why? Probably stereotype and simplicity. There is no need to explain why - it’s very convenient.
In fact, the heart absolutely doesn’t care; what matters to the heart is the volume of blood that it must pump to ensure physical activity. And what physical activity there will be is completely unimportant. The main thing is to maintain the desired pulse without “holes” and strong “peaks”. This can be achieved very easily by training with iron. You will only need to reduce the weights and do sets often enough so that your heart rate does not drop below 110-120 beats per minute. For example: you do 10-15 reps of the bench press, rest for 30 seconds (or immediately), do a set of bent-over rows, rest for 30 seconds and repeat the procedure again. Five cycles (approaches) will take about 10 minutes. Do six of these “double sets” per workout and you’ll get the required 60 minutes in the desired heart rate range.
THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
An alternative can be anything: boxing, swimming, running, jumping rope. Any reasonably intense work. You can simply get into the habit of walking very briskly three times a week in your neighborhood. The main thing here is to control your heart rate.
There are two main ways to control heart rate: simple and fashionable.
The essence of the first is that you place the middle finger of your right hand in the area of your left wrist on the inside (at the base of the thumb, this is where the nurse measures your pulse) or in the area of the carotid artery (on the left side of the neck) and, feeling the pulsation, count the beats in 6 -th seconds (let’s say you got 10 beats), then multiply the result by 10 to find out the number of beats per minute (10X10=100). You need to place your middle finger (the thumb and index finger have their own strong pulsation and can get confusing). The longer period of time you count, the more accurate the result. You can count your pulse in 15 seconds and multiply by 4.
A more fashionable way is to buy a heart rate monitor. Which shows you your heart rate in real time with ECG precision. This is a very accurate method that will help you a lot if you decide to train your heart or burn fat. After all, low-intensity exercise is not only beneficial for training your heart. They also lead to the best fat burning.
MYOCARDIAL DYSTROPHY – “SPORTS HEART” DISEASE
Now let's consider the situation if we increase the intensity above 130 beats per minute. What happens to our heart during maximum contractions? With an average load, the heart contracts and stretches completely in order to pump blood, relaxing. This “relaxation” between contractions is called diastole. When the intensity of exercise is critical (heart rate 180-200 per minute), the heart is forced to contract very often and does not have time to stretch (relax) completely - diastole disappears. Before you have time to relax, you need to contract again! There is internal tension in the heart and blood does not pass through it well, which leads to hypoxia and the formation of lactic acid. The process is absolutely identical to that of muscle pumping. Acidification occurs, which leads to growth of the walls of the heart (hypertrophy). And if acidification continues for too long or too often, this leads to the death (necrosis) of heart cells. These are microinfarctions that the athlete usually does not notice. Everything would be fine, but the “dead” heart cells turn into connective tissue, which is “dead” ballast (it does not contract and does not conduct electrical impulses well - it only interferes). In other words, the heart can be large because of such “dead” tissue, but the useful part of the heart (living heart cells) can be small. This is myocardial dystrophy or “sports heart”.
Myocardial dystrophy develops due to a diastole defect (heart rate 180-200 per minute) and is the cause of death of many athletes due to cardiac arrest. Most deaths occur during sleep. But the cause is still microinfarctions obtained during very intense training.
You can often notice how different trainers immediately begin to drive teenagers or adult beginners according to the principle “The tougher, the faster they will get used to it.” This is pure stupidity and lack of knowledge. It is imperative to take into account the person’s preparedness and the state of his cardiovascular system. Examples:
Example 1:
Section. Two people: an experienced one and a beginner. The coach gives them intense work (crossfit, running, sparring, iron - it doesn’t matter what). But in an experienced person, the heart is trained and has a stretched volume of 1,000 - 1,200 ml. And the newcomer has a heart with a volume of 600 ml. Problem: what will happen? Answer: An experienced person’s heart rate will rise to 130 and he will complete the workout without any problems with benefits for the heart. But for a beginner, the heart rate will jump to 180-200... He will be red and out of breath. “Come on!” shouts the coach. "More!". And the beginner’s heart gradually dies at this time, causing micro-infarctions due to the diastole effect. A beginner does not train his heart, but ruins it, earning myocardial dystrophy.
Example 2:
Two guys came to training. One weighs 60 kg, and the second 90 kg. Their level of physical fitness is the same. The trainer therefore gives them the same level of intensity. Question: What will happen? Answer: The size of the guys’ hearts is the same (600 ml), but the size of the “consumers” is different. For the first, his heart size is enough to be in the heart rate range of 130, but the second needs to “feed” one and a half times more cells! The second one, with the same load, has a heart rate of 180-200! Microinfarctions and myocardial dystrophy!
Example 3:
The most common option is that people do not play sports all the time, but periodically go once a week, or even less often, to play football or basketball. At the same time, they don’t warm up and immediately give themselves a ragged pace of exercise! What happens in this case, is there any benefit from this? Hope you already know the answer! But we can add that the “ragged” rhythm is very useful when the heart is already stretched, and not vice versa. The big problem, especially for men, is that when they play sports seriously or not very seriously in their youth, they sooner or later give up on it, but very often, at the age of 30 - 45, they abruptly try to repeat their “childhood talents,” but their hearts are already not that it has not been trained for a long time, but the EGO is big - you need not to let us down and show everyone your class - this is where the biggest danger lurks!
HEART AND GYM
Know that cell death (myocardial dystrophy) is for life. You will be able to stretch the “living” part of the heart with proper training in the future, but your “dead” part of the heart will remain with you forever and it will always limit the work of the healthy part.
They often say that exercises with a barbell are harmful to the heart, it is better to run. This is not true because it doesn't matter what kind of physical activity you do. Only its level matters. You need to stay within the required (useful) range of loads for training. By the way, the gym is quite a useful thing in this regard - the pulse usually does not rise above 130-140 beats. But the heart of most bodybuilders is usually very weak for two other reasons: the large size of the “consumers” of oxygen with an average heart size and the long rest between sets when the heart rate drops below 100 beats.
If bodybuilders trained with shorter rest periods between sets, they would be smaller in size but with a much better trained cardiovascular system. On the other hand, a bodybuilder's heart will often be better trained than that of a weightlifter or powerlifter due to the length of rest between sets and sudden explosive loads.
Try to improve while maintaining reasonableness and a balance between a healthy heart, external beauty and muscle volume!
By regularly pumping blood through the entire body, the heart creates such monstrous pressure that it can push a stream of blood to a length of 9 meters. It is incredibly resilient: constantly and without rest it contracts, contracts, and contracts - up to 40 billion times a year.
Such a fantastically large load does not go in vain and is the reason for the very gloomy statistics of cardiovascular diseases in the modern world. “Motors” very often either use them incorrectly or destroy their “motor resource” by operating in the wrong mode. Meanwhile, it is very easy to adjust the functioning of the heart and train it.
A trained heart increases functionality and endurance. Sometimes a person is very physically strong, and after working for 30-60 seconds he is all sweaty and begins to choke, although there seems to be strength in his muscles. This happens especially often among those guys who engage in martial arts. You look, the person seems to be healthy, and a minute later he’s all red and with his mouth open - take him and do whatever you want with him. Why is that?
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Cardiovascular system and endurance
The heart is, in a broad sense, an electrical “pump” that constantly drives blood through the pipes (vessels) of the body. This system, in general, is why it is called cardiovascular. Its task is to supply all cells and organs of the body with the necessary amount of oxygen and other nutrients necessary for life. Once you understand this, you will be able to see and understand several dependencies that are important for understanding the effective functioning of the heart:
- The larger the body, the more blood it needs.
- The more blood is needed, the larger the heart is needed, or the more often it must beat.
- The larger the heart, the more blood it pumps at a time (more oxygen at a time).
- The smaller the heart, the more often one must contract to pump the required volume of blood.
- The larger the heart, the less often it must contract to pump the required volume of blood.
- The less often the heart contracts, the less it wears out over a lifetime.
For bodybuilders or other fans of strength sports, this is especially important: in their case, the situation is complicated by a large amount of muscle mass. Every extra 10 kg. muscles require about 3 liters of additional oxygen per minute.
In an ordinary person, 1 liter of blood carries an average of 160 ml. oxygen. If you multiply this amount of oxygen by the amount of blood pumped per minute (which, by the way, depends on heart rate), you will get the amount of oxygen delivered by blood per minute. If the load is very intense (180-190 heart rate per minute), then most average people will get about 4 liters of oxygen per minute.
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Now imagine two twin brothers on a treadmill. One weighs 70 kg, and the second is a jock and weighs 80 kg. So they ran. For the first, 4 liters of oxygen is enough for a comfortable run, but for the second (“jock”), for comfort, you need to pump not 4, but 6-7 liters of blood (to nourish the muscles). And the heart (if it is the same size as its brother’s and contracts at the same speed) will not have time to satisfy all organs with a sufficient amount of oxygen. Kachek will very quickly begin to choke and will be forced to slow down.
How to fix it? Either reduce oxygen consumption (lose weight), or increase the volume of the heart and blood distilled at a time. This, in fact, is the meaning of training the heart - to increase its internal volume.
- The larger the heart volume, the more nutrients the heart receives at a time.
- The larger the heart volume, the less often it can contract.
- The less often the heart contracts (works), the less it wears out.
L and D - cardiac hypertrophy
Please note that it is said to increase the volume, not the size of the heart. These are very important things. Because the first is very useful, and the second, on the contrary, is very harmful. The fact is that cardiac hypertrophy can be good and bad. When the increase in volume occurs due to stretching of the walls of the heart muscle (L-hypertrophy), this is very good: it allows you to pump more blood at a time - which is what we need. But when the heart grows due to thickening of the walls of the heart muscle (D - hypertrophy) - this is extremely bad: the so-called myocardial hypertrophy due to a diastole defect. Let's not fool our heads with terminology, let's just dwell on the fact that this causes a heart attack.
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How to train your heart? How to achieve good hypertrophy and avoid bad?
Everything is extremely simple. There is no need to work at a pulse close to maximum (180-190 beats). You need to work long and often at an average pulse (110-140) beats per minute. For most, a pulse of 120-130 beats per minute is most often ideal. An ordinary healthy person at rest has a pulse of 70 beats per minute. When such a person begins to do some kind of cyclical long-term work (training with weights, running or walking quickly), his pulse begins to increase in order to supply all the organs of the body with an increased amount of oxygen due to the load. His pulse reached 130 beats per minute. A person in this situation can stabilize the load and continue working without increasing intensity. If he continues this training for an hour, the “flexibility” of his heart will begin to improve. The muscles will drive a huge amount of blood through the heart and it will gradually begin to stretch. If you train this way often (from 3 times a week for 60 minutes), then over time the heart will stretch and its volume will increase significantly. Accordingly, the volume of blood pumped per pulse will increase. Along with it, endurance will also decrease, and the number of heart beats at rest will decrease.
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Stretch your heart
How much can you “stretch” your heart? Twice is very likely. 50% guaranteed. In an ordinary person, most often the heart volume is about 600 ml. A trained athlete has 1200 ml. - a fairly common result. Strong athletes (MSM skiers, runners) have 1500-1800 ml. - Olympic champion level.
How quickly can you “stretch” your heart? For a pronounced result, half a year (6 months) is enough. With three workouts a week for 60 minutes, in half a year the heart stretches by 30-40%. If you can do this kind of training every day, then expect an increase in your heart rate of 50% or more. In general, there is a very simple rule: the more time during the week the heart works at the desired pulse rate (120-130), the more and faster it stretches. With such an “easy” training regimen, no harmful changes occur in the heart. In this mode, due to the constant pumping of a large amount of blood, it is forced to “stretch” in volume. Be prepared: over time, due to habituation, you will have to increase the intensity of exercise in order to stay in the desired zone (120-130 heart rate).