Your heart is the driving force that provides your working muscles with oxygen and energy needed to complete a workout. Cardiovascular activities such as running and swimming require your heart to work at an increased intensity in order to meet the higher physiological demands. With consistent training, your heart will adapt and the rate at which it beats will be affected.
Heart Function
The heart is a muscle the size of a fist, weighing 7 to 15 oz., which is located at chest level, slightly to the left of your sternum. Through a system of valves and four chambers, the heart works as a pump to deliver oxygenated blood to tissues and organs. It also delivers to the lungs deoxygenated blood as it returns back to the heart.
Purpose
During the start of your workout, your heart is immediately stimulated by the autonomic nervous system, which lets the heart know that it must increase its workload in order to deliver the oxygen and nutrients that your skeletal muscles need to maintain movement.
Intensity
Your heart rate will increase quickly as you start to exercise and then will continue to increase in direct proportion to the intensity of your exercise activity. More strenuous activities such as running will cause the heart to beat faster than lower intensity activities such as bowling. Your heart rate will continue to increase until it reaches a point where it meets oxygen demands or hits your maximum rate.
Behavior
As you increase your fitness level, your heart adapts and increases its strength. As a result, it becomes much more efficient at handling the stress that exercise places on it. According to Dr. Len Kravitz at the University of New Mexico, a fit heart can pump more blood with each beat and does not need to beat as often. Advanced endurance athletes such as long-distance runners, bikers and swimmers typically have significantly lower exercising and resting heart rates because of the training that their hearts have undergone from consistent workouts.
Environment
The environment you work out in plays a part in the behavior of your heart. When exercising in hotter environments, your heart rate increases even higher and more quickly. A cooler environment allows your heart to beat at a slower pace. If you're exercising at higher altitudes, your heart will beat faster immediately and throughout the entire workout in order to make up for the decreased oxygen available in the atmosphere.
Member Comments