When we exercise too much

Nearly 20% of the population meet or exceed physical activity guidelines and the World Health Organisation suggests that we should be aiming to do more exercise for additional health benefit. While exercise is good for us, and great for the heart, sometimes too much exercise may lead to heart problems. As a result, we must understand what the impact of endurance exercise is on the heart.

Systematic review and meta-analysis results

Holsworth Research Initiative researcher, Dr Dan Wundersitz and his team of international and La Trobe Rural Health School researchers firstly investigated the effect of endurance cycling on the heart.

Dan and his team diligently sifted through the research and found that endurance cyclists have larger hearts relative to body size than non-athletes, and even when compared to participants in other active sports such as kayakers, canoeists, runners, swimmers, body builders and wrestlers this difference remained.

In addition, they found that endurance cyclists have an increased incidence of cardiac problems compared to non-athletes, but no more than other sport athletes.

MADRIDE results

When the team worked with participants in the MADRIDE, they found that recreational cyclists had a ten-fold increase in the rate of heart arrhythmias after this 21-day endurance cycling event.

Next they wanted to understand how endurance cycling influenced the heart and if this had any lasting effect (over multiple days).

Endurance exercise and abnormal arrhythmias

Recently, they completed a study assessing how heart arrhythmias change in response to a bout of high-volume exercise and to identify factors associated with abnormal arrhythmias.

This was the first study to monitor participants for nine days straight. Over this time they found 68% of participants displayed abnormal arrhythmias.

In addition, they found the proportion of participants with abnormal ventricular arrhythmias was higher on the exercise day (study under review). Now they want to understand how endurance exercise influences heart health by screening ~350 recreationally active adults. Once complete, they will look for ways to improve the hearts ability to handle the stress of endurance exercise so that people can perform physical activity safer.

You can read a promotional snippet about this work here Endurance exercise and heart health, News, La Trobe University

A call for volunteers

Dan and his team are recruiting volunteers for their next study. Are you a recreationally active adult who would like to have a FREE heart health assessment and VO2peak test as part of our next study? You will be asked to visit us once at the La Trobe University Flora Hill campus physiology clinic located in Bendigo Victoria. 

If you are interested in participating, please read this flyer to confirm your eligibility and to find out to get in touch with us.

Want to read more?

Endurance exercise and abnormal arrhythmias – Bendigo Advertiser and ABC News

Could too much cycling cause heart problems? A world-first study in Bendigo aims to find out – ABC News

Wundersitz, Gordon, Lavie, et al., Impact of endurance exercise on the heart of cyclists: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases (2020)

Wundersitz, Williamson, Nadurata, et al., The impact of a 21-day ultra-endurance ride on the heart in young, adult and older adult recreational cyclists, International Journal of Cardiology (2019)

Wundersitz, Nadurata, Lavie, et al., Response: Arrhythmias 72 hour post strenuous exercise at a time when cardiac troponin was not elevated, International Journal of Cardiology (2019)

Collins, Kingsley, Gordon, et al., Coagulation activity and thrombotic risk following high-volume endurance exercise in recreationally active cyclists. Journal of Applied Physiology (2024)

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