Post training heart recovery?

TurboCog · Post by **TurboCog** » June 5th, 2009, 2:48 am

Do the heart muscles recover quicker than other muscles? I ask this question because I train mainly on the bike and use the erg on rest days sometimes. I also do sessions using bike and erg - so the heart is always doing the work even when muscles are utilised in a different way or rested. Maybe the heart muscles get a better blood flow than leg muscles?

iain · Post by **iain** » June 5th, 2009, 9:22 am

Not sure what you mean by "rested". Overtraining is usually ascribed to HR fatigue, so my gut feel is no. That said, on the rower low rate training is at a relatively low HR load to the muscular load, so this may provide a benefit.

Physiologically, the 2 muscles are very different. the heart receives blood between beats and does not has to contend less with a flow of oxygen or nutrient low blood as the cardiac arteries serve a smaller area than those of the larger muscle groups.

- iain

TurboCog · Post by **TurboCog** » June 5th, 2009, 3:25 pm

Thanks Iain - by 'rested' i was thinking that the arms and shoulders are not doing much when on the bike compared with the erg. I realise that the legs do most of the work in both disciplines, probably more in cycling. What I;m trying to figure is, can the heart (and the whole CV systen) recover enough to keep up when using the diferent muscle groups without overtraining it?

slwiser · Post by **slwiser** » June 7th, 2009, 10:42 am

TurboCog wrote:Thanks Iain - by 'rested' i was thinking that the arms and shoulders are not doing much when on the bike compared with the erg. I realise that the legs do most of the work in both disciplines, probably more in cycling. What I;m trying to figure is, can the heart (and the whole CV systen) recover enough to keep up when using the diferent muscle groups without overtraining it?

Over-training is a real concern for me as well having a quadruple bypass in Feb 08.

I use Firstbeat Athlete (FBA) software and a Suunto T6c heart monitor watch to help my understand just how much I am working. The coach function within FBA does a great job in helping me. The only issue is to properly setup the parameters. But using the Airdyne cycle I think I have a good base to determine my activity level (AC) and fitness level (METs max). I have a journal on another web forum that I have maintained information about this since the end of March 09 if you are interested in more information. Here is the link to this blog:

It is family safe BTW:

http://www.cardiacathletes.org.uk/forum ... php?t=1213