Exercise is supposed to be good for the heart – how does forcing a finite organ to work harder not just wear it out faster?
In: Biology
Exercising takes uncontrolled strain off the heart and replaces it with controlled strain. That means if you do your exercises properly you’re slowly building up how much controlled strain your body can handle so you never overload it. This should reduce the uncontrolled strain you need to exert in daily life from everything including daily stress, to loosening a lug nut on a flat tire. These things can cause heart attacks, so preparing your body for that strain is the best thing you can do for your heart.
Once you understand your body on the most basic level you can truly understand how important exercise is. Simple breakdown: The lungs collect oxygen, the blood absorbs that oxygen, and the heart pumps that oxygenated blood to your brain and muscles. This is how muscles survive.
If you’re going to loosen a lug nut on your car with no muscles, you will need a lot more breathing from your lungs and a lot more pumping from your heart to achieve your goal. With consistent exercise, loosening a lug nut will rely much more on your muscles, and your lungs and heart can do their jobs much more easily by simply replenishing whatever blood and oxygen your muscles use, which won’t be much.
So working out your heart in the short term causes a little bit of strain, but that’s to protect your heart from an abundance of strain later on. Your heart may not get *a lot* stronger, but it will be protected by your muscles and lungs which will give it longevity to help prevent a stress-related heart attack.
Latest Answers