Comparison of the effects of resistance, aerobic and mixed exercise on athlete's heart.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional comparative study of male athletes across different sport modalities.
PubMed 37902808 · doi:10.23736/S0022-4707.23.15446-6
What was done
The study evaluated 122 male athletes divided into three groups based on sport discipline: aerobic, mixed, and resistance exercise. Eligible athletes had participated in their sport for at least one year and trained for at least 600 minutes per week over the prior three months. Transthoracic echocardiography was used to compare cardiac physiological parameters and structural measurements across the exercise modalities.
What was found
Heart rate and ejection fraction were significantly lower in the aerobic group compared to the resistance and mixed groups (F(2,105) = 23.487, P = 0.001). Ventricular wall measurements were lower in the aerobic group compared to the resistance group (P = 0.0001), including end-diastolic interventricular septum thickness (8.7 ± 0.8 mm vs. 10.0 ± 0.7 mm), systolic interventricular septum thickness (11.3 ± 0.9 mm vs. 13.0 ± 0.9 mm), and left ventricular posterior wall thicknesses (8.6 ± 0.7 mm vs. 9.9 ± 0.8 mm; and 11.1 ± 0.9 mm vs. 13.3 ± 0.9 mm). Ventricular wall thickening in mixed exercise was similar to that observed in resistance exercise.
Why it matters
These findings reinforce that cardiac remodeling differs by training discipline, with resistance training driving concentric wall thickening, which is relevant for distinguishing physiological athlete's heart adaptations from cardiac pathologies.
Limits
The study used a cross-sectional design without pre-training baseline values or non-athletic sedentary controls. The cohort was restricted entirely to male athletes, limiting generalizability to female athletes, and the abstract contains duplicated structural variable labels.
Cited by
- supports Resistance training and exercise induce thickening of the left ventricular heart wall as a common physiological adaptation.