Heart - how big is yours?

Ritesh Bawri

Feb 18, 2024 — 2 min read

"He is a big-hearted guy."

Have you heard this term used for a kind, generous soul, one who is willing to share time and resources?

But have you thought about the fact that having a big heart is genuinely, really good for you, forget the possible beneficiaries?

And I mean physically big, not big as in kind and generous. Allow me to explain.

Your heart has four chambers through which your blood flows. Unlike prior beliefs, it seems that the heart is not pumping blood. Instead, it is an organ regulating the flow of blood.

To regulate blood, the size of your heart matters.

The logic is simple. Your body needs a specific quantity of blood to flow. In what is called stroke volume, the heart pumps blood out.

More is better because that means it brings more oxygen per second to every cell.

Naturally, a larger heart can pump more blood out per second.

In this context, bigger obviously means relative to body size. A grown-up adult would have a bigger heart than a child.

So what can you do to become the coveted kind, generous soul with a big heart?

It is simple. Walk, cycle, and swim a lot. Low-intensity exercises that allow you to, over long periods of time, build up a larger heart.

In what could easily classify as my greatest mistake, I used to look at walking as a silly thing that sissies did.

Real athletes should be running. Fast, really fast, I would go in my head. My teachers at that time amplified my thoughts. Run, they said.

Of course, I could not. I was untrained and incapable. As is almost all of humanity today.

But if you keep walking, or equivalent, slowly over time, your capacity builds as your heart grows larger.

I know I keep repeating myself. But I also hear people say the same thing to me all the time about intensity.

Somehow, the narrative that exercise means killing yourself has taken over humankind.

It is not true. Walk, dont run. At least until you can run.

Reach out to me on twitter @rbawri Instagram @riteshbawriofficial and YouTube at www.youtube.com/breatheagain

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