Is too much muscle bad for your heart?

Answer 1

The heart is a muscle, if you are asking whether having a heart diagnosed as being "enlarged" (or cardiomegaly) is it bad for you, the answer is it could be. That can be a finding from radiology or other imaging that may indicate the heart is building up the size of the muscle by having to beat harder and/or faster to compensate for some other problem that is not allowing proper circulation of blood. You may need further testing to be sure if there is an underlying problem and if so it can be addressed so you can prevent further heart enlargement and the strain of its extra work.

If you are asking if having extra weight and size from large muscles is hard on your heart, then again, it could be. Usually weight issues that cause problems with your heart are due to obesity (excess fat), rather than excess muscle. The excess fat does more to damage your circulatory system than just make your heart work harder and it leads to other associated diseases and disorders that are also bad for your heart (such as Diabetes and hypertension).

Muscle actually is a more dense tissue than fat and, therefore can weigh more. Carrying too much extra weight, regardless of the source of the weight, can make your heart work harder just to keep everything oxygenated. However, usually those who have extra skeletal muscle are also doing other good things to offset this minor effect of the weight of muscle (cardiovascular exercise, good nutrition, etc.). Their bodies do not have excess fat that causes many problems since they are working out. The end result is often that the exercise and proper foods that are good for your lungs and muscles will offset any issues from the extra weight of the muscle.

But, too much of a good thing can also end up being bad. Extremely and abnormally large muscles can be hard on all your body systems.