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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

Does heart size affect endurance?

Posted November 24th, 2006 at 7:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise

What laboratory test is the best predictor of finishing times for a running race of 100 kilometers (62 miles), or more than twice the distance of a marathon)? A study from Yokohama, Japan suggests that it is an echocardiogram to measure the size of your left ventricular heart chamber (British Journal of Sports Medicine, Volume 40, 2006), which determines how much blood your heart can pump with each beat.

This would be expected to predict how fast you can run for short distances in which you have to move so fast that the limiting factor is lack of oxygen. This study is surprising because most athletes believe that the major limiting factor for running very long distances is the amount of fuel you can store in your muscles. Read the rest of this entry »

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