Weight training makes the ailing heart grow stronger - National - theage.com.au
"As the muscles become stronger and as the blood flow to them becomes better, the heart actually has to do less work for every degree of exercise," said Associate Professor David Hare, a senior cardiologist at the Austin.
Over two to three months, patients start to feel stronger.
Rather than helping a damaged heart recover its normal beating function, Professor Hare said, weight training could teach the muscles how to use the heart's output more efficiently.
Of the 39 participants in the study, those who underwent weight training showed a significant increase in the number of blood vessels that connected to their muscle cells.
Those cells also showed greater efficiency in producing energy from food and oxygen.
"If you've got better extraction of oxygen by the muscle, then the muscle is going to carry out a lot more exercise without putting as much stress on the heart," Professor Hare said.
Before 1990, the accepted wisdom among cardiologists was that total rest was the only way to treat a damaged heart.
Professor Simon Stewart from the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne said the concept had been "turned upside down" by evidence that the heart function was closely connected to the performance of peripheral body systems.
"The research is consistent with the idea that heart failure, though traditionally thought to be just about the heart, also affects the muscles," he said.
"We should be looking at the body as a whole system, rather than just the heart."
"As the muscles become stronger and as the blood flow to them becomes better, the heart actually has to do less work for every degree of exercise," said Associate Professor David Hare, a senior cardiologist at the Austin.
Over two to three months, patients start to feel stronger.
Rather than helping a damaged heart recover its normal beating function, Professor Hare said, weight training could teach the muscles how to use the heart's output more efficiently.
Of the 39 participants in the study, those who underwent weight training showed a significant increase in the number of blood vessels that connected to their muscle cells.
Those cells also showed greater efficiency in producing energy from food and oxygen.
"If you've got better extraction of oxygen by the muscle, then the muscle is going to carry out a lot more exercise without putting as much stress on the heart," Professor Hare said.
Before 1990, the accepted wisdom among cardiologists was that total rest was the only way to treat a damaged heart.
Professor Simon Stewart from the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne said the concept had been "turned upside down" by evidence that the heart function was closely connected to the performance of peripheral body systems.
"The research is consistent with the idea that heart failure, though traditionally thought to be just about the heart, also affects the muscles," he said.
"We should be looking at the body as a whole system, rather than just the heart."
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