Resistance training causing left ventricle hypertrophy?

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi,

I am currently reading a undergraduate-level textbook on human physiology and came across a paragraph explaining how frequent exposure to resistance training can cause left ventricular hypertrophy and diminished chamber volume. According to the book, high-intensity contractions compress blood vessels, increasing total peripheral resistance considerably, causing a large increase in mean arteral pressure. This makes the heart work harder, causing ventricular hypertrophy and diminished chamber volume. The book does not reference any studies on this.

So far, i have not found any articles supporting this, only ones that support the opposite hypothesis.

Is there any truth to this claim? After reading “when logic fails” it seems like the book authors might be basing these conclusions only on “physiolgical deduction”, not empirical evidence.

2

There are a number of adaptations that occur in the cardiovascular system in response to resistance training. Pathologic LVH is not one of them.

You are correct that this probably represents a physiologic extrapolation from the instantaneous physiologic changes that occur while lifting weights - in which TPR/MAP do transiently increase, often quite substantially, increasing workload on the heart. While in the setting of chronic hypertension we do regularly see the development of pathologic LVH and, potentially, the development of diastolic dysfunction and heart failure, these are distinct entities compared to the cardiac adaptations in response to resistance exercise.

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