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Can your heart become sore like your arms and legs after a workout?
The heart muscle is constantly working – day in and day out.
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Have you ever been so sore that even walking hurts?
"I’m sore right now," says Shaker Al-Wattar.
When you work out intensely or try new exercises, your muscles can become stiff and tender.
Why does that happen? And what about our heart? It is also a muscle that works nonstop. Could it become sore as well?
Science Norway asked three researchers.
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Tiny damage?
"Soreness happens when you push yourself hard or use your body in unfamiliar ways," says Jan Helgerud. He is a professor of medicine at NTNU.
For instance, when you run downhill and brake your movement on a steep slope, or when you try brand-new exercises during a workout. Al-Wattar works out every day and feels it in his body.
"Then I get sore afterwards," he says.
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Researchers still do not fully understand exactly why people become sore.
"It may come from tiny injuries in the muscles that trigger inflammation, but we do not know for sure," says Mathis Korseberg Stokke. He is a professor and heart disease specialist at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital.
Gøran Paulsen is a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. He has another theory:
"We think small substances inside the muscles make the nerves more sensitive. The nerves then send signals to the brain, which interprets it as tenderness or pain. That does not necessarily mean that the muscles are damaged," he says.
Soreness may be a warning sign to the body to take it easy – not an injury.
Afterwards, the body starts recovering. It also becomes a little stronger than before.
"That makes it worth it," says Al-Wattar.
Does the heart escape soreness?
"Our heart keeps pumping all the time and avoids those kinds of braking movements," says Helgerud.
It also has completely unique muscles.
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"They only exist in the heart," he says.
"The heart gets lots of energy-rich blood, is very good at using it, and has more muscle cells available than it normally needs unless we are pushing ourselves to the limit," says Stokke.
If the heart were to become sore, we might not actually feel it in the chest itself.
"Fortunately, we don't often experience pain directly from the heart, so we are not very good at recognising it. If the heart did become sore, we would probably feel it omewhere else in the body instead," explains Stokke.
That is also true for people experiencing a heart attack. The pain may suddenly appear in the arm, back, stomach, or jaw.
Still, researchers cannot completely rule out heart soreness.
"We don't know for certain," says Paulsen.
Part of the problem is that it's difficult to measure.
Most likely avoids it
"But it's likely that the heart does not become sore in the same way as the muscles in our arms and legs," he says.
Our arms and legs can rest, while the heart has to keep working all the time.
"The heart is pretty incredible. I can lie on the couch and rest my legs while my heart keeps pumping," says Al-Watter.
When you lift your arm, the brain sends a signal to the muscle. The heart, however, works independently and beats around 2.5 billion times over the course of a lifetime, according to Harvard Health.
"The same is true for some other muscles, like the bladder and intestines," says Stokke.
"That continuous activity is simply part of the heart’s normal pumping function," says Paulsen.
So while the heart probably avoids soreness, other muscles certainly do not. And if soreness appears, there is usually no reason to worry:
"Soreness is not dangerous," says Helgerud.
It's simply a sign that the body is adapting. There are also ways to reduce it:
"Warm up properly and don't go all-in after long breaks," he says.
The heart avoids soreness. Or does it?
Your heart actually started beating when you were only two millimetres long – long before you were born, according to Cleveland Clinic.
"It works steadily throughout your entire life and is designed to handle major strain," says Helgerud.
"Exercise is one thing, but what about fear or heartbreak?"
"Yes, sometimes people can actually suffer real damage from heartbreak, for example after losing someone they deeply care about," says Stokke.
This condition is called 'broken heart syndrome.'
"Fortunately, it's rare and does not affect children or young people. It's also usually temporary and not especially dangerous," he says.
The researcher thinks it's a fascinating example of how the heart and brain are connected.
"We need to research this more in order to fully understand it," says Stokke.
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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
Read the Norwegian version of this article on ung.forskning.no
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