Fitter people have far fewer heartbeats each day – a finding that Australian researchers said this week potentially adds years to their lives.
The difference between athletes and non-athletes is around 10 percent.
“That’s an incredible saving of about 11,500 beats a day,” Professor André La Gerche, of the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, explained in a statement.
“Even though athletes’ hearts work harder during exercise, their lower resting rates more than make up for it.”
The researchers said the findings dispel the myth that exercise uses up your heartbeats, which they claimed was “popularized” by President Donald Trump.
In a book about the president published in 2016, reporters from The Washington Post said Trump believed that the human body was like a battery with a finite amount of energy “which exercise only depleted.”
But, La Gerche said that’s incorrect.
“The fitter you are, the more metabolically efficient your body becomes,” he said. “Even if you’re training hard for an hour a day, your heart beats more slowly for the other 23 hours. The net effect is fewer beats used overall.”
In a study of more than 100 athletes wearing heart monitors, the researchers determined the fittest individuals had resting heart rates as low as 40 beats per minute, compared to an average of between 70 to 80 beats per minute.
For most adults, a resting heart rate between 60 and 100 beats per minute is considered normal, according to the American Heart Association.
Experts have long known that athletes have lower heart rates because exercise strengthens their heart muscle, allowing the heart to pump more blood with each beat and delivering more oxygen to their muscles.
Because of that, the heart needs to beat fewer times than it would in a less fit person while at rest, according to Harvard Medical School.
Having a high resting heart rate has been linked to the build up of fat and cholesterol in arteries and an increased risk of dying from heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S., resulting in more than 941,000 deaths in 2022.
Having a resting heart rate below 60 can also be a sign of a problem in people who aren’t athletes, signaling an electrical problem or a thyroid condition.
Exercise is crucial to reduce the risk of life-threatening conditions, La Gerche said, adding that the benefits of regular, moderate exercise far outweigh any risks.
“Just a few hours of purposeful exercise each week can transform your heart’s efficiency and help make every beat count,” he said.
