Question

Why is having a lower heart rate better for athletes specifically, even if you produce the same cardiac output as them? In other words, why could a fast heart rate be bad for atheletic performance?

Answer 1

Cardiovascular efficiency depends on a number of factors like stroke volume and heart rate. As stroke volume is the volume of blood pumped per heartbeat and an athletic person has a larger stroke volume. More volume of oxygen is delivered to their body per heartbeat. The exercise training has increased the volume of oxygen that can be delivered to muscles per heartbeat, the athlete’s heart needs to beat less to do the same job than a normal individual. Hence the heart rate is lowered. Better cardiovascular fitness causes real physical changes in the structure of the heart like thickening of the muscles in the heart wall so that the heart pumps more blood with each beat.

Athlete's heart:

The aerobic training, such as running or swimming, helps to develop larger heart chambers and anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting, increase the thickness and strength of the heart muscles. The conditioning can result in physical and electrical changes in the heart, creating a beneficial condition called Athlete's heart. The resting heartbeat of an athlete or trained person can fall below 40 beats per minute.

The hearts of highly trained athletes pump as much as twice the volume of blood as the hearts of untrained people during intense exercise.