I don't know about this one in particular, but I hike. Endurance, but not at the level they are talking about. I had a cardiac stress echo last year and I've had an EKG since--both show changes that don't seem to concern the docs. Dr. Google comes back with this might be a risk...or this might be normal for an athlete.
My grandfather started his career in the Polish mafia and eventually went straight to work as a laborer and then a bricklayer, he was told he had an "enlarged heart".
I got a bunch of workups because I fainted when exercising on a hot day when I'd eaten a bit too much and was a little infatuated with the instructor (I was the only student.) I got the plain echo and a stress echo and was told I had athlete's heart which they are not so sure if it is good or bad. I also wore a Holter monitor for 30 days and literally at the last 5 minutes of the period I had two bad heart beats so now I have A-Fib on my chart and my doc says the athlete's heart can make it worse so since then I'm only supposed to do an hour a day of cardio.
When all this was going on I had manifested an "evil twin" whose harebraned scheme had just blown up right at the time I had those two bad heartbeats and I can't believe the emotional distress I'd caused myself hadn't had anything to do it. I have one of those Kardia cards and haven't seen it happen again.
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