All,

Following is a letter I sent to Drew Baye, a high intensity weight training guru.  Your thoughts would also be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Drew,

Using google, I discovered something you wrote in April of 1998 about high intensity training's effects on the heart muscle, specifically the left ventricle.  I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts.

Allow me to tell you a little about myself.  Early on a disciple of Arthur Jones, I am 38 years old and have been doing high intensity resistance training regularly since I was 15 years old.  I am currently working out no more than twice a week for about 30 minutes per session, one set of 10-12 exercises.  I've been toying with the SuperSlow protocol on and off the last two or three years.  I am in excellent health.

I was in my primary care physician's office in September of last year and my doctor discovered an irregular heartbeat that I had no previous knowledge of.  It was not a huge shock to me, however, since I did recall having some difficulty in getting a good pulse when running cross country back in high school.  Saying that it was probably no big deal -- that arrythmias are fairly common -- to be sure the doc sent me to a cardiologist for a treadmill stress test/echocardiogram.  I did well, performance-wise, for a guy who "only" lifts weights (sound familiar?) There was no ischemia, or artery blockage and the irregular heartbeat was caused by what are fairly common "premature ventricular contractions" (or PVCs).  So the only curious result of the test was the following: I have "mild left ventricular enlargement."

The cardiologist was happy about the clean pipes, unconcerned with the PVCs and even stated that they're fairly common for "trained athletes" like myself.  (Notice I went from a guy who "only" lifts weights to a trained athlete).  But he wanted to give me some drugs (Toprol and an ACE inhibitor) because he was concerned that the left ventricular dilation "may represent an early cardiomyopathy."  He wanted to "see if he couldn't get the size of my heart down."  I refused the drugs for obvious reasons and began to search for the possibility that it is my weight training that's caused the enlargement of the part of my heart directly responsible for pumping oxygen-rich blood to exercise-induced oxygen-starved muscles.

It's now a year later.  Upon the insistence of my primary care physician, I am going to see another cardiologist tomorrow, the doc's "personal cardiologist."  But before I went,  I just wanted to get your off the record opinion.  Could my resistance training have caused the enlarged left ventricle?

Thanks so much.
-- 
_______________________________________________
Get your free Verizonmail at www.verizonmail.com