Sunday, February 10, 2008

HOW TO STOP A HEART ATTACK FROM HAPPENNING ON THE FIREGROUND!


The risk of heart attack is highest when firefighters are working at a fire scene — with increased odds ranging from 10 to 100 times the normal risk of heart attack.

So the question is…what do we do about it?

The key to developing a heart capable of sustaining exertion and recovering from that exertion lies in the understanding of the rhythms found in nature.

These rhythms are also found in the human heartbeat. It goes up and comes down, in a simple wave of exertion and recovery

The best way then to train the heart is via a cyclical exercise protocol where the rhythm and patterns of the human heart is mimicked. Where you train recovery as well as exertion.

Cyclical exercise, where the body undergoes exertion and rest, exertion and rest, (as on the fire ground) trains the bodies recovery physiology as well as your exertion physiology.

That form of training mimics the heart’s physiology of contracting and relaxing, which in turn produces a greater heart rate variability. Over half a dozen prospective studies have shown that reduced HRV predicts sudden death in patients with MI.

Reduced HRV also appears to be a marker of fatal ventricular arrhythmia. Moreover, a small number of studies have begun to suggest that reduced HRV may predict risk of survival even among individuals free of CHD

The bottom line is that cyclical exercise teaches the heart to tolerate chaos and how to recover from it…same as the fire ground.

Be Safe