Cardio exercises are great for you, but I’m confused. Since the heart is a muscle, does exercising it make it grow bigger, which could lead to heart disease?
My father has a enlarged heart and this question crossed my mind.
In: Biology
You have three types of muscle in your body.
Skeletal muscle
Cardiac muscle
Smooth muscle
Skeletal muscle is the muscle everybody is familiar with. Think biceps, chest, legs. The muscles of your body that help you move around. These are voluntary muscles, meaning you can consciously control them. And they respond to stimulus in such a way that they are prone to hypertrophy.
Cardiac muscle can also respond with hypertrophy (this can be seen when someone has high blood pressure and the ventricles grow larger to compensate for increased resistance). But it is a different type of muscle cell. You don’t consciously control your heart muscle.
Same with smooth muscle. This is what makes up your GI tract.
Exercise makes your heart more efficient at pumping blood. This is good for your body since it feeds oxygen to your muscles at a better rate. You want an efficient heart.
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