With a larger left ventricle, the heart rate can decrease and still maintain a level of cardiac output necessary for the body. Therefore, athletes with AHS commonly have lower resting heart rates than nonathletes.The heart becomes enlarged, or hypertrophic, due to intense cardiovascular workouts, creating an increase in stroke volume, an enlarged left ventricle (and right ventricle), and a decrease in resting heart rate along with irregular rhythms. The wall of the left ventricle increases in size by about 15–20% of its normal capacity. No decrease of the diastolic function of the left ventricle occurs. The athlete may also experience an irregular heartbeat and a resting pulse rate between 40 and 60 beats per minute (bradycardia).The level of physical activity in a person determines what physiological changes the heart makes. The two types of exercise are static (strength-training) and dynamic (endurance-training). Static exercise consists of weight lifting and is mostly anaerobic, meaning the body does not rely on oxygen for performance. It also moderately increases heart rate and stroke volume (oxygen debt). Dynamic exercises include running, swimming, skiing, rowing, and cycling, which rely on oxygen from the body. This type of exercise also increases both heart rate and stroke volume of the heart. Both static and dynamic exercises involve the thickening of the left ventricular wall due to increased cardiac output, which leads to physiologic hypertrophy of the heart. Once athletes stop training, the heart returns to its normal size.
Athletic heart syndrome (AHS) is a non-pathological condition commonly seen in sports medicine in which the human heart is enlarged, and the resting heart rate is lower than normal. The athletes heart is associated with physiological cardiac remodeling as a consequence of repetitive cardiac loading. Athletes heart is common in athletes who routinely exercise more than an hour a day, and occurs primarily in endurance athletes, though it can occasionally arise in heavy weight trainers. The condition is generally considered benign, but may occasionally hide a serious medical condition, or may even be mistaken for one. Signs and symptoms
Athletes heart most often does not have any physical symptoms, although an indicator would be a consistently low resting heart rate. Athletes with AHS often do not realize they have the condition unless they undergo specific medical tests, because athletes heart is a normal, physiological adaptation of the body to the stresses of physical conditioning and aerobic exercise. People diagnosed with athletes heart commonly display three signs that would usually indicate a heart condition when seen in a regular person: bradycardia, cardiomegaly, and cardiac hypertrophy. Bradycardia is a slower than normal heartbeat, at around 40–60 beats per minute. Cardiomegaly is the state of an enlarged heart, and cardiac hypertrophy the thickening of the muscular wall of the heart, specifically the left ventricle, which pumps oxygenated blood to the aorta. Especially during an intensive workout, more blood and oxygen are required to the peripheral tissues of the arms and legs in highly trained athletes bodies.