professor Andre La Gerche was having lunch with a colleague when teh conversation turned to Donald Trump‘s theories about exercise.
Profiles of the US president in The New Yorker and The Atlantic have attributed Trump’s avoidance of physical activity other than golf to his belief that the body is like a battery, born with a finite amount of energy, and strenuous exercise only drains those reserves prematurely.
“We had a bit of a laugh,” said La gerche. “And then we thought ‘hang on, we’ve got some actual data to prove it’s silly.’ “
La Gerche’s team at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute analysed the average heart rate of 109 elite athletes and a control group of 38 non-athletes participating in a long-running study on heart health.
Elite Athletes May Experience Higher Daily Heartbeat Counts Due to Exercise-Induced Efficiency
New research suggests that elite athletes, despite having lower resting heart rates, may actually experience a higher number of heartbeats over the course of a day compared to less active individuals. This counterintuitive finding stems from the increased cardiac efficiency developed through intense training.
The study, led by Professor Andre La Gerche of the HEART Laboratory at st Vincent’s institute of Medical Research and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, explores the physiological adaptations that occur in highly trained athletes.https://www.svhm.org.au/news/elite-athletes-may-have-more-heartbeats-per-day-than-average-person
“When you exercise, your heart rate goes up, but the rest of the time, your heart rate is lower, so there’s likely to be a net benefit in terms of heart rate,” Professor la Gerche explained. “The body is inherently lazy – it will always try to find the easiest way to work – and so in athletes, their bodies become extremely efficient at using the oxygen that’s pumping around.”
To quantify this effect, researchers analyzed the average heart rates of male and female professional cyclists during the 2023 Tour de France. The analysis revealed that the demands of professional cycling, while lowering resting heart rates, contribute to a significant increase in overall daily heartbeats due to the intensity and duration of training and competition.
This increased efficiency means athletes’ hearts don’t need to work as hard per beat to deliver the same amount of oxygen to the body. However, the sheer volume of work performed necessitates a greater total number of contractions throughout the day.