Does a low heart rate always mean an enlarged heart size?
Former Member
I was having this discussion with someone who says that a person with a low resting heart rate automatically has an enlarged heart.
I once had my heart checked. While my resting heart rate was around 35 bpm, my heart size was rather average. I recently read something that said that an athlete does NOT automatically have an enlarged heart.
I can't find that article anymore.
Does anyone know in what way a low heart rate has to do with the size of your heart and if all swimmers have larger hearts than average people?
Let me throw in my two cents:
I would consider myself an expert in this area. I didn’t look anything up in a book or on the internet to write this post. I am just going off years of schooling and experience.
Having an "enlarged heart" isn't necessarily a bad thing. For non-athletes, it is typically bad. There can be many reasons the heart gets larger. It can be due to bad stuff like high blood pressure (and many other things) or it can be due to good stuff like exercise.
As far as the original question of the heart rate going down being due to an enlarged heart (that is one possible reason):
If your heart pumps more blood with every beat (it is larger and/or stronger), it doesn't need to beat as many times per minute. So yes, an enlarged heart, which would not be bad in the case of an athlete, can cause you to have a lower heart rate.
Also, as you train athletically, your muscles get better and pulling oxygen out of the blood. This could lead to a lower heart rate as well.
As far as what heart rate is too low, I would say that it depends. Your heart just needs to pump blood around to your body. If that happens at 20 beats per minute, that is fine. Heart rate isn't important, blood getting to your organs is.
Let me throw in my two cents:
I would consider myself an expert in this area. I didn’t look anything up in a book or on the internet to write this post. I am just going off years of schooling and experience.
Having an "enlarged heart" isn't necessarily a bad thing. For non-athletes, it is typically bad. There can be many reasons the heart gets larger. It can be due to bad stuff like high blood pressure (and many other things) or it can be due to good stuff like exercise.
As far as the original question of the heart rate going down being due to an enlarged heart (that is one possible reason):
If your heart pumps more blood with every beat (it is larger and/or stronger), it doesn't need to beat as many times per minute. So yes, an enlarged heart, which would not be bad in the case of an athlete, can cause you to have a lower heart rate.
Also, as you train athletically, your muscles get better and pulling oxygen out of the blood. This could lead to a lower heart rate as well.
As far as what heart rate is too low, I would say that it depends. Your heart just needs to pump blood around to your body. If that happens at 20 beats per minute, that is fine. Heart rate isn't important, blood getting to your organs is.
