what always runs but never walks often murmurs

These changes will be most pronounced for athletes who engage in the aerobic sports (running, swimming, cycling, rowing, etc.). Because of mechanical advantage (after all, the heart is only a pump), the heart adapts by increasing the volume of its chambers, decreasing its heart rate, and increasing the thickness of the heart’s muscular walls–particularly the ventricles (the pumping chambers).Ĭhanges in the structure of the heart will not be the same for every athlete. Over time, the well-trained athlete’s heart adapts in order to provide a high cardiac output (volume of blood pumped per unit of time) in the most efficient manner. Those adaptations come in 2 main forms: structural changes and electrical changes. Today, we use the terms, “athlete’s heart” or “athlete’s heart syndrome” to refer to the entire collection of the heart’s physiological adaptations to exercise. And we’ve learned a lot more during the past 100 years about the heart’s adaptation to exercise. Henshen at the University of Uppsala Sweden published a report entitled, “A Study in Sports Medicine Skiing and Competitive Skiing,” recognizing that skiers developed enlarged hearts that were a response to exercise. We’ve known for more than a century that there are a variety of cardiac changes that are associated with exercise. But that’s okay, because “athlete’s heart” is generally a good thing. If you’re a well-trained endurance athlete, you probably do.

What always runs but never walks often murmurs