enlarged heart

[Kevan]

Dr. told me I have an enlarged left ventricular, said it is from lifting heavy. I am getting up there, 50 later this year. So I am wondering if you guys feel you can still build some quality muscle and continue growing with medium weights instead of going heavy?

[almostgone]

..To a degree, probably so..Maintaining tone and definition would definitely be possible..
..If your doc was overly concerned, he should have referred you to a cardiologist...I'm guessing this was discovered during a EKG or did a cardiologist order an echocardiogram?....
..I have cadiomyopathy/congestive heart failure due to a virus damaging my heart ( I'm 41 years old) and both my doc and cardiologist encourage moderate weight lifting in addition to cardio ...The lifting for bone density/muscle tone and the cardio to maintain/improve cardiac function....So far, I'm still making gains with moderate weight...I'd say not as much as going heavy like I use to, but still some gains...

..plus it's good for our mental health..
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/144/2/73

AG

[Flexor]

I think that bigger lung chambers is fine, the only problem occurs when the heart muscle is too thick and the electrical impulses cannot spread via the purkinje fibres and the bundle of His across the SA and AV nodes to trigger cardio contraction. Large heart volume is good as it allows you to pump lots of blood, large heart muscle is bad.

[ollie1]

Flexor you need to do a litle more research on cardiomegaly. One of the biggest problems with it is that the thickening of the cardiac wall causes a decrease in contractility and output. As the wall thickening get worse the output becomes worse. It is not a matter of the inner ventricle having more room for blood. Cardiomegaly is an early indicator of possibly developing into more serious condition which is Congestive Heart Failure (which again will show itself in many different ways depending on severity). But you are right about the potential for arrhythmias. There is definitely a much greater prevalence of arrhythmias . The thickening of the cardiac wall tends to precipitate them. But Im not going to get into that!

[Harn]

Did they find this on a simple chest x-ray, or did they do an echo?

[Slic4788]

I'm pretty sure it's the x-ray. I don't have it, but on my x-ray report it said 'size of heart is normal' or something like that so it's usually the x-ray.

[wmqualter]

Hypertrophy, as in Lance Armstrong, is an adaptive result from intense training. Myopathy is a pathological state. Two different concepts. Myopathy is caused when the myocardium fibers are overstretched, and this results in a weakened contraction and decreased cardiac output. =CHF. Hypertrophy of the myocardium is no different than hypertrophy in other highly trained muscle. Hypertrophy creates an increased force of contraction and increased cardiac output. The resulting increase in ejection fraction is a great thing for endurance athletes.
Athletes with hypertrophy are Scottie Pippen, Lance Armstrong, pick any Kenyon marathon runner.
Testing would be biopsy or direct measurement of ejection fraction. Neither is reasonable. The symptoms presented by a patient, ECHO, and a stress test are very valid indicators of what/which form of enlargement there is.
>It does seem that these concepts are only expressed properly by Cardiologist associated with sports medicine. After all, most people who see cardiologist are doing so because they are in a pathological state. IE. A Cardiologist in sports medicine states that Eddie Curry is healthy and NBA ready, but cardiologists who practice on the general population say Eddie Curry is not fit to play in the NBA. Who is correct? For the general population an enlarged heart will usually be the result of pathological myopathy. Flacid/over stretched muscle fibers = myopathy. Thickened fibers = hypertrophy.

[Ufa]

Dr. told me I have an enlarged left ventricular, said it is from lifting heavy. I am getting up there, 50 later this year. So I am wondering if you guys feel you can still build some quality muscle and continue growing with medium weights instead of going heavy?

Your Doctor better be a Cardio. You better take his advice. I am older than you and am perfectly honest with mine. Have you been doning GH? This is a time to consult the best of the best. You life depends on it.