THE ATHLETIC HEART
“If you don’t have your heart, you don’t have anything.”
In cardiac surgery there is a saying, "the heart supplies blood to every organ in the body, including itself, and therefore it's the most important organ we have." Even the brain is nowhere without the heart supplying it with blood. Because of this, it only makes sense that all fitness and health should begin with a focus on the heart. At Park City Performance Medicine, that is exactly our philosophy, ...if you don't have your heart, you don't have anything.
“Race car drivers can blow their engine and just replace it with a new one. Unfortunately, we only get one heart so we have to take really good care of it so it lasts a lifetime, and more importantly, so that it lets us do the things we want to do.”
What we are talking about here is "heart health" and how it really is the foundation to overall wellbeing. Once you decide that fitness and health are a priority in your life and you want your body to start performing like a race car instead of an underpowered minivan, you need to start with the engine - your heart. This used to mean picking an activity like running or biking and then just going for it as hard as you could every time. Pushing it to the limits with longer and longer runs, harder and harder rides and never giving your heart the break that it needed to recover was considered a sign of strength. We now know that this is not the best approach and continuous strength and endurance training for decades actually has some real associated cardiac risks, like developing a "stiff heart" or an arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation.
Race car drivers can blow their engine and just replace it with a new one. Unfortunately, we only get one heart so we have to take really good care of it so it lasts a lifetime, and more importantly, so that it lets us do the things we want to do.
“Being extremely fit and being healthy are not the same thing. ”
At the Park City Performance Medicine we utilize guideline-driven, cardiac care and human performance measures to keep everyday athletes and active executives both healthy and fit. It's our mission to help our clients achieve this critical balance using regular exercise and performance training to improve both their personal and professional lives.
CALL Park City Performance Medicine
(435) 200-3452
