HIT & Cardiac Disease

[Guest guest]

One very important issue needs to be raised concerning the use of HIT methods

which require participants to do a few or even one set to the point of total

fatigue, namely the effect on the cardiocirculatory system of anyone with

known or silent cardiac disease or stroke.

This type of muscle endurance exercise tends to increase the blood pressure

markedly for reasonably prolonged periods largely because of the increase in

peripheral resistance produced by 'pumping' type activities like that, even

if you deliberately try to maintain fairly normal breathing patterns without

breath-holding.

Therefore, it would be very prudent for anyone with high cardiac and stroke

risk factors to avoid doing that sort of resistance exercise and opt for

something which relies shorter episodes of exercises which do not progress to

the point of local muscular fatigue or which result in sustained

breath-holding during the last few reps. Since more than 25 percent of all

Americans (and several other First World populations) suffer from

cardiocirculatory disease, this precaution is by no means trivial. By all

means indulge in HIT training if you are certain about your state of

cardiocirculatory health; otherwise, it would be wise to err on the side of

caution - or at least to include some traditional cardiovascular training in

your exercise program and to follow a sensible nutritional regime.

Certainly, there appear to be few, if any, recorded instances of anyone dying

of a heart attack during any form of weight training, so it is tempting to

proclaim that the risk is just about zero. Nevertheless, the fact that

certain types of training can adversely stress the heart and blood vessels of

those with underlying cardiocirculatory disease always needs to be borne in

mind.

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA