Prevention & lipidsCohort study
Cardiovascular adaptation to training load in endurance athletes: a longitudinal study
- Longitudinal cohort study
Authors' conclusion
Objective exercise quantification reveals new insights into cardiac remodelling, highlighting total exercise duration as a primary determinant of left/right ventricular volumes, independent of intensity.
Study context
- Population
- Male endurance athletes with ≥80% of training sessions recorded via chest-worn HR monitors over 3 months
- Participants
- 69 vs 82
- Exposure
- Young vs Middle-aged
- Youngn = 69
- Middle-agedn = 82
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Training load and its correlation with cardiac dimensions (CMR) · 3 months
| Group | Training duration | Edwards training impulse |
|---|---|---|
| Young | 169 (127-209) hours | 23 129 (17 880-28 305) arbitrary units |
| Middle-aged | 78 (49-114) hours | 12 620 (7168-17 607) arbitrary units |
- Young vs Middle-aged: P < 0.05 — training duration and Edwards training impulse, both
- Training duration correlated with cardiac dimensions
- r > .33, P < .05 for all
- Edwards training impulse correlated with cardiac dimensions
- r > .29, P < .05 for all
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Light-to-moderate-intensity training vs MET thresholds
- In all athletes, light-to-moderate-intensity training exceeded thresholds of >6 or >9 MET to describe intense activity
Original publication
Cardiovascular adaptation to training load in endurance athletes: a longitudinal study. Eur Heart J. Published 7 January 2026. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf1018
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it