Athlete's Heart

How does athlete’s heart affect my body?

Your body needs more oxygen when you exercise. To meet this higher demand, your heart’s left ventricle handles more blood and a higher pressure than normal. Your left ventricle pumps oxygen-rich blood to your aorta, which sends it out to your body.

After meeting your body’s need for more blood and oxygen for a while, your left ventricle starts to get bigger and develop thicker heart muscle.

When you’re not working out, your heart doesn’t have to pump as much blood. It can pump what you need at a lower heart rate. This is why people with athlete’s heart syndrome have a heart rate that’s lower than a non-athlete’s heart rate at rest.

What are the symptoms?

There aren’t any athletic heart syndrome symptoms. You most likely have a different heart issue if you have chest pain or palpitations.

What causes athletic heart syndrome?

Intense endurance training or strength training can be athletic heart syndrome causes in some athletes.

Endurance sports tend to increase the size and wall thickness of an athlete’s left ventricle.

Sports that can lead to athlete’s heart include:

Rowing.

Swimming.

Cross-country skiing.

Cycling.

How do you know if you have athlete’s heart?

A healthcare provider can diagnose you based on athlete’s heart syndrome signs and symptoms, such as:

A heart murmur that your provider can hear through their stethoscope.

Extra heartbeat sounds that aren’t normally there.

Slow heart rate (bradycardia).

Lower blood pressure.

What tests will be done to diagnose athlete’s heart?

Tests to diagnose athlete’s heart include:

Electrocardiogram (EKG). Unusual results happen while at rest but not during exercise in people with athlete’s heart.

Echocardiogram.

Chest X-ray.

Cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Heart MRI (rarely used for this).

Stress test (rarely used for this).

How do you treat athlete’s heart?

You don’t need treatment for athlete’s heart syndrome. However, your healthcare provider may ask you to stop training for three months and reimage your heart to ensure you don’t have cardiomyopathy.

Does athlete’s heart go away?

Yes. In most people, your heart returns to a normal size after you stop training so hard. However, a study found that 20% of former athletes still had a large left ventricle five years later.

How can I reduce my risk?

Because athlete’s heart is the heart’s normal response to intense, aerobic exercise, you don’t need to reduce your risk because it’s not a dangerous condition.