This is just anecodotal, but I have a friend, an acquaintance, really, who has set some world records in the bench press (he is very short, with short arms, but he has benched over 700 lbs). At age 47, he had a heart attack. Not having insurance, he wasn’t given what you might call optimal care when he got to the hospital. Nevertheless, he told me there was no damage to his heart muscle after that, and he believes it was because of all the added vascularity in his heart muscle gained from years of weight training. Your thoughts on this?
It is not possible to sustain a myocardial infarction without some amount of damage to the heart muscle, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was protected from a more substantial injury from his training history.
I have recently reconnected with this guy … he said it was a “widowmaker”, and he has had two stents inserted (one inside the other). He continues to work out, though not at these massive numbers.