The Athletic Heart: How It Functions
It may seem a little formal to say this, but I would like to start by stating my goals for today’s post:
- Introduce the concept of the athletic heart;
- Touch upon the notion of sudden death of the athlete;
- Explain what an ECG really is, and how it may help diagnose heart disease;
- Review a recent study about the common ECG variant seen in athletes…Early repolarization.
Intro: The adaptations of the human heart never cease to amaze me. Physical training transforms our hearts into high performance engines. Repeated sessions of interval training, combined with longer aerobic efforts, and sprinkled with adequate rest maximize our ability to keep pressure on the pedals, or run the sixth mile of the 10k at the same pace as the first, or for you swimmers, to keep getting back to the wall on the 1:15 mark.
Fitness also brings measurable changes in things we can observe. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
