Training For A Fitter Heart

Training For A Fitter Heart

You too could have the heart of an Olympic athlete! But you'll have to train very hard! 
Top athletes have bigger hearts than other people. They are up to 25 per cent larger! They weren't born with bigger hearts, but by training day after day, the muscles become bigger and stronger. The bigger the heart, the more blood can be pumped to the arms and legs when racing or playing sport. Sports that use all four limbs, such as swimming, climbing, rowing and cycling, are best for the heart. 

To make your heart fitter you will need to make it work harder and more efficiently. When you are sitting down your heart will beat around seventy times per minute. But when you are running about or playing sport it can go up to 200 or more. 
If you want to get fit you will need to increase your maximum heart rate. You can work out what this should be by subtracting your age from 220. If you are eleven years old you should try to

 Swimmer Matt Biondi swimming is one of the best sports for training your heart.

increase your pulse to about 209 beats per minute. You won't be able to keep that up for long! After a few minutes, reduce your exercise level to about three-quarters of your maximum. If you are eleven years old, that will be about 157. Try to keep it there for at least twenty minutes. 

Getting fit takes time and you should build up your fitness slowly. As you become fitter you will find that you have to train harder to make your pulse rate go up. Athletes have resting heart rates as low as forty or fifty, going down to twenty-five or thirty when they are asleep! 

Your heart rate will also return to normal more quickly when you stop exercising. It should take as little as two minutes for your heart rate to come down from 157 to 100 and a little longer for it to return to normal. These are good signs! They mean that you are well on your way to your first Olympic gold medal! 

MUSCLES
The muscle in your heart is different from that in your arms and legs. It is called cardiac muscle and you use it all the time even when you are asleep. The muscle in your limbs is called skeletal muscle you don't use it all the time. 
There is a third type of muscle in your body, called smooth muscle. This is found in parts of your body that go on working without you even having to think about them. These include your intestines and your blood vessels. 
Smooth muscle is simpler than skeletal muscle and it moves more slowly. But it can contract for longer periods of time. Cardiac muscle contracts quite quickly but, like smooth muscle it does not get tired easily. What makes cardiac muscle quite different from smooth and skeletal muscle is that it beats without any nerve impulses.