22-10-2018, 08:39 AM
I like the sound of those times!
Yes I can continue to swim (again <110bpm as the point is to detrain the heart) so will certainly be doing some of that as part of my weekly 2h excercise.
Yes it is 'athletes heart' and common for endurance athletes. The reason I'm being more cautious is the fact that I got an atrial fibrillation at age 34. Again these arrythmia are common in athletes (particularly tall athletes due to the enlarged atrium which causes stretching and repositioning of the signal conducting nodes) but usually once they start happening they tend to occur with increasing frequency (maybe once every few years initially, then annually and so on... many lifetime endurance athletes in their 60/70's end up in persistent atrial fibrillation).
Atrial fibrillation itself also isn't dangerous when the rest of the system is good, but with age, they greatly increase stroke risk (blood not emptied fully from atrium can form clots).
Once you have frequent occurrences you need to either take pills to steady the heart rate (which limit athletic performance) or have surgery to fix the nodes (ablation) which is best avoided for obvious reasons!
Given I've had my first afib so young (most lifetime athletes get their first in 50s) its better to get ahead of it I think!
Yes I can continue to swim (again <110bpm as the point is to detrain the heart) so will certainly be doing some of that as part of my weekly 2h excercise.
Yes it is 'athletes heart' and common for endurance athletes. The reason I'm being more cautious is the fact that I got an atrial fibrillation at age 34. Again these arrythmia are common in athletes (particularly tall athletes due to the enlarged atrium which causes stretching and repositioning of the signal conducting nodes) but usually once they start happening they tend to occur with increasing frequency (maybe once every few years initially, then annually and so on... many lifetime endurance athletes in their 60/70's end up in persistent atrial fibrillation).
Atrial fibrillation itself also isn't dangerous when the rest of the system is good, but with age, they greatly increase stroke risk (blood not emptied fully from atrium can form clots).
Once you have frequent occurrences you need to either take pills to steady the heart rate (which limit athletic performance) or have surgery to fix the nodes (ablation) which is best avoided for obvious reasons!
Given I've had my first afib so young (most lifetime athletes get their first in 50s) its better to get ahead of it I think!