Have you noticed a fluttering heartbeat or heart palpitations during your weight workouts or shortly after?
Should you be unnerved about this experience?
“Weightlifting due to the muscular exertion delivers an increased return of blood to the heart due to the pumping effect of skeletal muscle,” says Dr. Ronald Scheib, MD, cardiologist, past Medical Director at Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Miami.
“By abruptly increasing the volume of blood returning to the heart chambers, it will increase the pressure and produce dilatation [dilation] of the chambers that are involved in controlling heart rhythm,” continues Dr. Scheib.
“As a consequence, abrupt lifting weight can produce transient arrhythmias.”
Don’t let the medical lingo frighten you; this occurrence is benign.
If you’re having heart palpitations seemingly related to lifting weights, there’s yet another possible cause.
And that’s anxiety, which can be about anything in a person’s life — including your weightlifting regimen itself.
For example, you may be worried that your imminent set will trigger an old injury or make an existing injury worse.
You may have anxiety going on about failing to perform as well as you did the preceding week.
In between weightlifting sets you may find yourself worrying about something in your personal life, such as a relationship or job situation, and as a result, you have palpitations.
The weightlifting didn’t cause the palpitations in these examples, but the lifting of weights just happens to be the activity you were doing shortly before you felt the irregular heartbeats.
The mix of increased blood volume and mental stress can bring on heart palpitations for sure.
However — these benign scenarios don’t mean that you can’t have an actual pathology that needs treatment.
You need to pay attention to when your heart has palpitations and see if there’s an associated pattern, particularly one involving feelings of anxiety or stressing out about something.
You should see a cardiologist and ask about tests to make sure all is fine with your heart.
