Potential Cardiac Hazard With Weight Lifting And Strength Training

NEW HAVEN — Cardiothoracic surgeons at Yale-New Haven Hospital have identified a possible link between serious cardiac problems and weight lifting and strength training. The study appeared in the December 3, 2003, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Dr John Elefteriades, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Yale-New Haven Hospital, spearheaded the study. The YNHH team identified five healthy young individuals who suffered a devastating cardiac event called “aortic dissection” during weight lifting or strength training. They discovered that during weight lifting and strength training, blood pressure, which is normally about 120/80, rose to as high as 300 during heavy weight lifting. In particular, these dangerous blood pressure increases occurred when lifting amounts equivalent to one’s own body weight in the bench press.

The team concluded that the dramatic rise in blood pressure from intense strength training and weight lifting ruptures the internal layer of the aorta, inducing devastating aortic dissection. Aortic dissection involves the splitting of the walls of the aorta, the largest blood vessel in the body, allowing blood under pressure to enter between the layers. The condition causes a severe, knifelike pain, the most severe pain the body can feel, and is lethal unless immediate surgery is performed.

“Our research and findings indicate that there is a very real health danger for people who lift very heavy weight and the increased stress that it places on the aorta,” said Dr Elefteriades. “Although there is a clear association between aortic dissection and weight lifting in our findings, this is not a reason to avoid weight lifting and strength training, which can be healthy and beneficial. It should also be pointed out that the number of people who lift weights is very large, while the number of identified cases of weight lifting causing aortic dissection is small.”

The study also recommends greater care be taken by those who lift weights and have a history of aneurysms in their family, as well as individuals over the age of 40, whose blood vessels are less elastic and are unable to accommodate the strain as readily.